Under The Hood: Fabian from Quarter

First question: Why did you decide to create Quarter: A gin that's lower in alcohol, and not non-alcoholic? 

It really kind of stems from both mine and my co-founder Rohan’s backgrounds and needs. And like most businesses it stemmed from a problem we encountered. We both enjoyed a lot of the lower alcohol beverages as we've gotten older. They were helpful in balancing working hard, working out and also being social.  

So we started to drink a lot of the lower strength beer. Small Beer Co came onto the market about 4-5 years ago, which sets it around 2%. We thought that was really interesting and we noticed that no one had really done this with spirits and having previously tasted lots of the Non-Alc spirits, we felt they were lacking on flavor and also on the experience. 

Fundamentally we believe that more people want to drink than not. And if you drink, you drink for a reason. You drink to socialize or because you want to relax. But you want to do it in moderation,  there needs to be balance. We recognized that alcohol didn’t have to be all or nothing - and that's pretty much why we started it all.

How difficult was the formulation process? 

I used to run a restaurant catering business, and Rohan worked in sales and marketing on the agency side - so neither of us had ever actually created a new product. 

So, like any business, we tried to speak to as many people as possible. And then after a while you start to figure it out. We ended up working with a great guy called Anthony Wilson, who was the ex Head Distiller at Diageo. He helped formulate a recipe, and we must've gone through sort of +50 liquids over the last 9 to 12 months to get to where we are today.

So how much time did it take from formulation to launch? 

The idea came to us back in September 2020, and we initially and ambitiously planned to launch it in April 2021. But unfortunately, these things always take longer than expected. Branding, design, marketing collateral, glassware, corks etc - there’s just a lot of moving parts. We also ran through about 3-4 distilleries before we found the right one. And then eventually all the pieces come together and you launch. We do have to give ourselves some credit though - it's been less than 1 year from start to finish. It's not too bad.

Did you raise a seed round or a pre-seed round from friends and family?

Rohan and I funded the initial stages ourselves but we knew we would have to raise money to give it a best shot. So we funded the initial branding work ourselves, and then used that to present something more tangible to prospective investors. We started raising early this year (2021) and we completed the fundraise by May this year which gives us enough money to last us, hopefully to mid next year.

I'm keen to get insight into your sales channels: What's, what's the optimal setup for you guys?

When we first formulated a business plan, it was in the middle of lockdown. So the business was modeled to be heavily weighted to D2C. However then by the time we launched, the end of COVID was sort of on the horizon. So we thought we needed to become much more omni-channel and because we're trying to replace any person's favorite gin brand - we very much needed to be omni-channel. 

On-trade (bars / restaurants) will play a massive part, but we do spend a lot of money on our website and we’ve made sure it’s completely geared up for D2C. We’ve got a subscription model, and later we’ll have text ordering… so we’re heavily invested in the online experience too. 

How do you get into good retail stores at scale? 

We've learned that you don't want to run before you can walk. And the issue of trying to get into big retail is that it's incredibly expensive. And on top of that, you need to be ready for it - because you only get one shot at big retailers. The worst case scenario is that you'll get delisted and then you won't get another opportunity. So obviously we'd entertain conversations if a retailer knocked on our door, but we're not actually targeting any large retailers. We want to grow the brand organically through direct interactions, either via D2C or on-trade with the barman or general managers.

And then in retail, we’re targeting independent retailers so we can pick up the phone and have regular conversations,  go in store, do some sampling and engage with our audience. And then perhaps down the line, we'll look at larger retail. 

So are you physically walking up to various liquor stores? How do you ramp that up?

For the time being, you just start within your local environment and start small. Rohan and I both live in central London, so we cover an area per week for example. You always think it's quite daunting to walk up to stores, and worry that people will be apprehensive, but actually - everyone's very welcoming and more than happy to speak to you. Whether they take it or not is another matter. 

We've only launched for 6 weeks. So we're still finding our feet, but we're slowly building traction and, just like anything, the more accounts you get, the more the queue forms behind you. 

Let's switch over to the e-commerce side of things. What have been some of the big discussion points around how you sell via eCommerce?

So we had a design agency create our branding and packaging design and then we used a web dev agency to create a bespoke Shopify website on the back of the design. We spent a lot of time looking at various websites, especially the very successful D2C businesses to understand what they did. Brands like Haus who are completely D2C. We took a lot of learnings from them. 

And then, it’s a lot of trial and error. So we put up what we think is correct. But we'll just keep taking learnings from our customers. For example, the merchandise sold a lot better than we thought it would. We want to create a lifestyle brand, so having good merchandise offerings of complimentary mixers, apparel, and playlists make the website more of a destination for customers. 

I think the biggest issue with D2C, and I've got a friend who runs Homethings who’s 100% D2C who can confirm, is that you’re always competing with bigger businesses like Amazon to drive traffic to your business. So if we wanted to replicate Haus or Homethings have done, we’d have to rethink our business financials. 

2 more questions from me: What's been the most fun thing about starting this business so far? And then if you could go back in time - what's one thing that you wish you would've done differently? 

I think what is fun with a brand like Quarter is that there are so many moving parts and so many different areas you need to cover. Sales, marketing, finance, product development, branding - each of those strands need to be covered. What I love is that one day in the morning, you'll be walking around bars and Soho in the cold, trying to get people to look at the brand. And then the next day you’ll be driving up to the distillery to taste some new liquid. 

And if I could go back in time… This isn't necessarily pinned to one particular thing we've done, but things can always be done more cheaply than you realize. It's a fine line, because obviously sometimes you pay for something cheaply and then you have to do it twice.

And then secondly, you can start selling a lot earlier than you think. You want to look your best and new, and that you've only got one opportunity with prospective customers - but that's not necessarily the case. Looking back, I would have probably started a lot earlier, 4 months before we even had the product, just telling people about it, and going from there. 

Thanks Fabian - wishing you the very best in the next phase! Stay in touch!