What's your background and how did it inspire you to start Kocktail?
The inspiration came at the beginning of the first lockdown, when my wife bought me a pre-mixed cocktail pack. While the gesture was greatly appreciated, ultimately the contents fell flat. My co-founder Andrew had a similar experience buying online cocktails, and we spent the better part of an hour complaining about how we could do it better, when it dawned on us… maybe we should. So, we reached out to Neil, our third co-founder, as we knew that the drinks had to be something special. That's how Kocktail was born.
Andrew and Neil both come from a background of bars and events. Andrew is somewhat of a cultural trailblazer - he's the type of person you ask for advice on where to go in a new city, and he'll give you a comprehensive list of the best bars, restaurants and music venues. It will include where to go, what night to go on, what time to go on that night, and what to order - and none of it you will find in a guidebook. Neil has an incredible pedigree from working in some of the best bars in the world. Personally, my background is actually in ecommerce. I have worked for large international companies all the way through to hacky little startups. We feel we've built the perfect team.
Kocktail launched quite recently, how did you achieve such impressive turnover in a short time?
There are a lot of factors. We created the right product, at the right time, but we've also been hugely fortunate with the people that have helped us do it. James, who handles our paid marketing, is incredible at what he does - he helped to launch Peloton and worked on campaigns for the likes of Google, YouTube and eBay. Laura has been incredible at handling our PR. We were featured in the Stylist in our first month and it grew from there. The team at Mother Mercy have also been a huge asset. George, one of the barmen from Mother Mercy, is now our production manager.
Our list of supporters goes on to include the teams at Hi Spirits, ESC Packaging, Sainsbury's, Hepple Gin and many more. This support and goodwill, combined with our boundless energy as a brand has allowed us to find ways of making new opportunities happen.
What is Kocktail's current offering?
The current offering focuses around the discovery box, for which Neil creates 8 new drinks every month (4 light and 4 dark). We give patrons the option of purchasing a light box, dark box, mixed box or 'all 8'. The mixed box is a best-seller, with 60% of customers opting for diversity.
We also just launched our Spritz box, which will be live all summer. This consists of 4 different takes on a Spritz, including flavours such a Earl Grey and Rhubarb & Cucumber. The Spritz box has been enormously popular, and has already sold out twice! It was also featured in the Stylist and Good Housekeeping.