“I very much saw a gap in the market.” Sean Baxter and Cara Devine on creating valuable brands
And with the recent acquisition of Never Never by a bigger company, it’s timely advice.
It’s a success story we’ve seen precious few times in the Australian spirits space: Boy makes friends. Friends make brand. Big liquor company buys brand.
The McLaren Vale-based Never Never Distilling Co. was in the news last week, with The Shout reporting that the small gin-focused distillery, a favourite among bartenders, had been wholly acquired by Asahi Beverages.
It’s a big deal — a small brand making great liquid becoming part of a bigger player. And while the founding trio of Sean Baxter, George Georgiadis, and Tim Boast are obviously excited by the news, they’ll be staying on in their roles for some time to come.
So today’s episode of Drinks At Work comes with fortuitous timing. It’s the recording of an interesting panel discussion that I hosted at Paramount Liquor’s Future Proof event in Adelaide back at the start of April, with writer, YouTuber, bartender and now co-owner of Melbourne bar, Goodwater, Cara Devine — and with Sean from Never Never. It’s a discussion all about how they built their brands, and there are lessons in there whether you’re wanting to develop a booze brand, open a bar, or indeed boost your career and work on — for want of a better term — your personal brand.
The news about Never Never’s acquisition came after this panel chat was recorded, obviously, so we don’t get into that in this discussion, but I guess it just highlights that Sean and the folks at never Never have done a good job of building their brand.
Before we get into the chat, I want to remind you of another set of talks happening in just under six weeks’ time. Tickets to the Better Bars Summit are on sale now, it’s happening in Brisbane on June 17th and 18th as part of the three day festival of all things drinks and bars that is Bartenders’ Weekender.
There are 31 events across three days, and we’ve just announced our accommodation partner for the event Crystalbrook Vincent, who are offering 20 percent off says during the festival — just use the code BARTENDER when booking through their website. You can find that and more and the full timetable at bartendersweekender.com.
And if you’re in Sydney on Monday the 13th of May — that’s next week — come down to Ramblin’ Rascal Tavern, we’re throwing a big party with Rooster Rojo tequila, there will be complimentary drinks over the bar, and two bands playing — Lara King & Band take the Rascal’s stage at 8.30pm, and at 10pm it’s Squirt Circle. Come on down — I’ll see you there.
Below, I’ve got a few takeaways from the panel discussion in Adelaide, but give the full talk a listen — there’s some smart advice in there from two leaders in the drinks business.
[Oyster Shell Gin] was built for stopping the way people read through a menu,” Sean says. “They’re like, what? Oyster shell? It stops you from continuing to draw down the way through a gin list. It stops you.”
Sean likens this to the way bartenders create attention grabbing names for their cocktail lists.
“Bartenders have been doing it forever with cocktail lists, right? If you connect it to a song or you connect it to like a little moment, it suddenly changes the way that people engage with that drink at that particular time.”
“When you’re going at a million miles an hour as a small business, it helps to have a set of structures that you can return to.”
Sean says that Never Never have, since the beginning, had three core business values which guide and assist them in everyday decision making.
“When you start out, you often don’t think about things like values or the way that they could potentially shape a brand or a business,” Sean says. “You can get lost down the stress of the rigmarole and the day to day. And when you’re going at a million miles an hour as a small business, it helps to have a set of structures that you can return to. And for us, that set of values has been used, without a word of a lie, every week we go to it.”
Find a gap in the market
Much of the YouTube cocktail universe is compromised of dudes with beards making drinks and wearing flannel. Cara saw a way to do things differently.
“Back when I started doing it, I guess there was a lot of bro bartenders, and people kind of yelling at you about this is the exact way that you make a whatever.,” she says.
“I very much saw a gap in the market. And I think that’s how most brands start, right? You see something that you want to be part of, but feel like you could bring something different to it.”
“Networking is massive.”
You don’t build a brand overnight, and you don’t get to participate in interesting and inspiring projects without having some name for yourself. And Cara suggests that networking is incredibly important, even if the benefits can be quite serendipitous.
“If your Auntie invites you to a barbecue, actually try and chat to some of her mates,” says Cara. “You never know who you’re actually going to meet there. That’s kind of how the book thing came about, someone from Hardie Grant, the publisher, was at an event where, I just ended up chatting and that just kind of came together, which is obviously pretty amazing or fortuitous.”
Just note: you still have to do the work. You still need to file the book, like Cara, or craft the delicious liquid like Sean and his partners did at Never Never. Networking and brand building are all for naught if what you’re doing isn’t great and needed work.
