Avallen Spirits

Idea

Introduction

Avallen, meaning ‘apple tree’ in old Cornish, is a spirit designed with sustainability & environmental positivity at its very core! Made from nothing but apples, water and time, & aged in French oak barrels for 2 years, Avallen is completely natural with no added sugar or artificial additives; the liquid is fresh, fruity & proudly apple-forward.

Launched in the spring of 2019 by two drinks industry experts, in a category dominated by old-fashioned producers, Avallen represents the young, fresh, apple-filled future of spirits and is step changing sustainability within the drinks industry.

Appealing to everyone from gin drinkers when served long with tonic, to those who enjoy their spirits brown, or even fruity cocktail fans, Avallen is perfect for mixing, as a refreshing spritz!

Our lead serve 'The Avallen Tonic' - the planet positive pour! - Long & delicious, perfect for the aperitif occasion

- Easily made by consumers at home

-Scalable through partnerships with tonic brands

Substantial accomplishments to date

Avallen was launched in May 2019 in the UK, Netherlands, and the Nordics, quickly followed by distribution in Hong Kong, Ireland, Spain, and soon to be Australia.

100% win rate in competitions! Winner of 'Green Launch of the Year' at The Drinks Business Green Awards, winner of 'Best Innovation in Packaging' at The Spirits Business Design Masters, winner of 'Best Company' at the 2020 Sustainability in Spirits awards, and World Calvados Awards 2020 'Worlds Best Speciality' and 'Worlds Best Design'.

We have received amazing press coverage across multiple consumer and trade publications including the UK's leading sustainable publication 'MyGreenPod' and have been recognised as leading two predicted 2020 drink trends: ‘Calvados’ and ‘Sustainability in drinks’. We are even mentioned in the Ipsos Mori Global Trends 2020: Understanding Complexity report for our work on transparency and authenticity.

Key listings in e-commerce, specialised retail, wholesale and on-trade including: Fortnum & Mason, Ocado, The Savoy, The Whisky Exchange, Master of Malt, Virgin Wines, Panda & Sons, Soho House, Dukes of Tokyo and many more trend setting venues.

Monetisation strategy

Avallen Calvados sells B2B directly to in-market distributors from the distillery in Normandy. Our distributors then sell it on to wholesales and retailers.

Current gross margin is 62.7% and we expect this will improve as our cost of goods fall with a pending redesign and economies of scale.

COGS include production cost, packaging and stock storage at distillery. All onward distribution costs are borne by our distributors.

Working capital & funding is partly provided by our partner distillery with 30% paid at time of bottling and 70% paid 60 days later. Customers are invoiced on order, and pay within 30/60 days, minimising working capital requirements for growth.

Sales have been €75k (1,040 cases) since launch*, although this does not reflect the true picture as the first 6 months are filling the pipeline of distributor to wholesaler to retailer. This has been negatively impacted by Covid-19 but we're beginning to see orders return.

RRP of £35/€37 bottle competing alongside premium gin.

*source: unaudited management accounts

Use of proceeds

To date we have entirely self-funded our planet-positive drinks start-up & now need some help to set up our exciting brand for further success!

To take Avallen to the next stage, we need funding to hire a team to work alongside us (Overheads - 30%) so we can focus on generating listings, increasing awareness (Marketing - 23%) & growing our distribution & ROS (Sales - 30%).

As a small company, agility is our strength & we are already developing a large format shared-serve Avallen Tonic RTD (ready-to-drink) to challenge the 'prosecco moment' (R&D – 6%).

As action & thought leaders for sustainability in the drinks industry we need to complete our carbon assessment, gain several certifications & improve our performance (Planet positivity - 11%).

We're looking for like minded investors, to join us on our planet-positive mission to disrupt the global drinks industry, one drink at a time.

Bee-ing positive has never tasted this delicious!