NICE

Idea

Introduction

As a future wine company, NICE exists to make wine less intimidating and more approachable. We put consumers and occasion at the heart of everything we do, and we have fun doing it.

Angel investors which include Grace Beverley (Founder of TALA & Shreddy), Cassandra Stavrou MBE & Ryan Kohn (co-founders of PROPER), Jasper Cuppaidge (Founder of Camden Town Brewery), Shilen Patel (Co-founder of Distill Ventures), Simon Champion (CEO Boxpark), Steven Higginson (Former CEO Compleat Food Group).

The business was launched in 2019 by Co-founders Lucy Busk and Jeremy May, with a combined 20 years of experience in building food and beverage brands (Cuckoo, PROPER, Vita Coco).

We source unpretentious wines from around the World and share them in a range of packaging formats that best suit the occasion. We have cans for when you’re on the go, in the park or just want one, we have boxed wine for having on tap at home (for up to 6 weeks from opening) and most recently draught wine (on tap) so consumers can order a wine they’ve heard of in their local pub or bar.

We’re a female forward business; female founded, 80% female team, 40% female owned and we are on a mission to encourage more female investors to get involved with NICE.

Substantial accomplishments to date

We have built up a huge breadth of distribution across multiple channels:

Off Trade:

• NICE cans are available nationwide in Sainsbury’s in over 800 stores, where we have grown rate of sale 65% year on year; 49% of consumers are incremental (new to the wine category), and 50% of revenue comes from loyal customers who have purchased 12 or more times.

• Ocado stocks all of the NICE cans and bag in box wine, with our sales rate growing by over 300% year on year.

• We have strong distribution in travel retail in WH Smith, Whistlestop & Urban Express nationwide.

On Trade:

• 40 On Trade wholesalers across the country.

• 185 festivals in 2022, including Isle of Wight, Lost Village & Mighty Hoopla.

• 40 sports stadiums including The Etihad & The Principality.

• Quick serve restaurant chains including Wagamama, ITSU & Clean Kitchen.

Travel:

• In 2021 NICE launched onto Virgin Atlantic as the exclusive wine partner for all routes globally (economy and premium), a long term agreement until at least the end of 2025. We are also present on train lines in the UK.

eCommerce:

• NICE has a prominent direct to consumer business through our own website and Amazon, which delivers NICE to our engaged online consumer base.

Big Budget Energy:

• This is the skill of making small budgets look huge, and we live by it. Whether it’s our high energy, high impact flash mob activations or our above the line media campaigns, we’re always “leading and not following” - another of our core values.

Monetisation strategy

In 2022 NICE achieved a turnover of £3.9m, against a budget of £3.8m. This represented a 144% increase year on year compared to 2021 turnover of £1.6m against a budget of £1m**.

The breakdown of turnover by channel for 2022 was as follows:

Off Trade: 25.9%

On Trade: 40.3%

Travel: 26.8%

eCommerce: 7.0%

We expect to continue on a similar channel split as that mentioned above in 2023.

*calculated on August '22 sales data.
**based on unaudited management accounts.
***based on Neilsen Data YTD Nov '22.

Use of proceeds

We intend to use the investment funds to fuel growth in four main areas, as follows.

Wine on Tap:

• Our wine on tap is already available in 25 venues around the UK and we have ambitions far greater than this. We will be investing ahead of the curve in wine on tap to ensure we capitalise on our early mover advantage.

Product Innovation:

• Watch this space for our pipeline of highly disruptive and market leading liquid innovations (not to mention top secret) new ways to wine. We will also continue to launch new packaging formats in response changing consumer behaviours.

Team Growth:

• In 2023 we are looking to make some high profile additions to the team to help fuel the next phase of growth for NICE.

International Expansion:

• We now have the perfect case study for wine market disruption to start exploring new markets outside the UK. We plan for our approach to International Expansion to be a combination of highly targeted strategic market entry, combined with smaller “low hanging fruit” distribution markets.