Smashed Grapes

Idea

Introduction

As the drinks industry expands exponentially with choice, the freedom for wine drinkers to explore tasty new varieties is stifled by an industry that's behind the times. Drinkers face a choice between the big branded, mass produced and uninspiring, or, a world of historic snobbery, complex language and superiority.

The result? Neither end appeals to the majority of wine drinkers, who are left to stick to what they know, choosing the familiar over the baffling.

But Smashed Grapes is here to shake things up.

We help wine lovers who are stuck in a rut, yet put off by wine snobbery. Guided by our ‘real life’ wine categories, and a strict ban on bullsh*t descriptions, we make good wine accessible to all. With try before you buy kits and a good wine guarantee, our customers enjoy all the wine, confidently and copiously!

With nearly 700 active customers growing at 5% each month thanks to our customer centric model, we're on a mission to disrupt a growing industry worth over £700 million.

Substantial accomplishments to date

Smashed Grapes has been built in our spare time, around full-time work. Our business has been bootstrapped, so is debt free and running profitably with minimal operating costs.*

Here are some of our achievements since launching:

GREAT SALES FIGURES

3,000+ bottles sold
£50k+ revenue generated*
20,350+ glasses of wine enjoyed
500+ Try Before You Buy Kits sold

CUSTOMER CENTRIC

700+ active customers attracted, growing 5% month on month
77% of customers made a follow-up purchase after trying a sample box
1/4 Customers acquired make a purchase once per month or more
27.5% customer return rate
Sustainable cost per customer acquisition (£11)*
430k+ loyalty points earnt, 170k+ points redeemed, delivering £7,000+ in sales

ETHICAL AND SUSTAINABLE

Working towards carbon negative
Planted a tree for every 8 wine cases sold via partners, Ecologi
Stocked only ethically sourced wines
Stocked 80% organic/vegan wines
Price point ensures a fair price goes to wine producers

*Information from management accounts

Monetisation strategy

We sell wine direct to customers online. Acquisition costs are immediately offset by our try before you buy kits, which give customers the opportunity to sample 6 wines and engage with us during a live, snobbery free tasting. Customers are then given £10 in wine tokens to spend their favourites.

£10.6bn – Total Available Market
£700m – Serviceable Available Market
£14m – Serviceable Obtainable Market

We achieve excellent customer loyalty with Wine Tokens. Redeemable via our online store, customers earn tokens for purchases, social interactions, referrals and reviews.

Our new wholesale channel will aim to revolutionise the relationship between hospitality firms and their wine supplier. As an exclusively online platform, we aim to utilise digital marketing to accurately and efficiently target clients, reduce the time, costs and carbon footprint of wine reps who travel the country prospecting.

We also have a 12 month agreement to supply a large corporate client.

Use of proceeds

Brands like Brewdog and The Craft Gin Club have given endless choice to customers by putting them at the centre of everything they do. We aim to do the same for wine.

Investment will fund marketing and PR with the aim of gaining 10k new retail customers and 100 wholesale accounts in 2022.

COST BREAKDOWN:

67% – Social Advertising
13% – Digital Agency Fee
10% – PPC
7% – PR Retainer
3% – Contingency

We'll then scale our business, and will aim to reach an exit from Year 5 (2026).

Effective online sale of wine presents incredible opportunity for scalability, with dramatic volume discounts at incremental stages of growth.

Our roadmap is as follows:

Wholesale Launch – Oct 2021 ✅
Raise Investment –2021
Scale – 2022-25
Exit – 2025-26

Join us on our mission to cut the bullsh*t and make good wine accessible to all!