Imagine enjoying a refreshing, plant-based drink while basking in the glow of an outdoor adventure. That’s exactly what Alistair Frost, founder of Pentire, had in mind when he created his unique brand, inspired by his love for active outdoor living. Join us as we dive into Alistair's fascinating transition from the bar scene to entrepreneurship, and how his changing relationship with alcohol led to the creation of a healthier, plant-based drink alternative. We'll explore how Pentire captures the essence of the outdoor experience in each bottle, from the carefully selected ingredients to the branding.
As we unravel the story of Pentire, Alistair shares valuable insights on building a brand that emotionally resonates with its audience. From their values of Active Outdoor Living to their marketing campaigns, we'll uncover how Pentire is not merely a brand, but a community people want to belong to. We'll also delve into how the company employs resourcefulness and open-mindedness to overcome challenges, with Alistair providing invaluable entrepreneurial advice distilled from his abundant experience.
With a launch into Waitrose, Pentire is setting the bar high, demonstrating the importance of strategic partnerships in brand growth. We'll discuss the journey towards company accreditation, the launch of a new beverage line in 200 Waitrose stores, and the exciting future that lies ahead for Pentire. As we close, Alistair emphasises the need for a clear purpose and belief in something bigger than oneself for long-term success.
So join us on this inspiring journey, and don't forget to subscribe to our podcast to stay tuned for more insights and stories from the world of entrepreneurship.
Imagine enjoying a refreshing, plant-based drink while basking in the glow of an outdoor adventure. That’s exactly what Alistair Frost, founder of Pentire, had in mind when he created his unique brand, inspired by his love for active outdoor living. Join us as we dive into Alistair's fascinating transition from the bar scene to entrepreneurship, and how his changing relationship with alcohol led to the creation of a healthier, plant-based drink alternative. We'll explore how Pentire captures the essence of the outdoor experience in each bottle, from the carefully selected ingredients to the branding.
As we unravel the story of Pentire, Alistair shares valuable insights on building a brand that emotionally resonates with its audience. From their values of Active Outdoor Living to their marketing campaigns, we'll uncover how Pentire is not merely a brand, but a community people want to belong to. We'll also delve into how the company employs resourcefulness and open-mindedness to overcome challenges, with Alistair providing invaluable entrepreneurial advice distilled from his abundant experience.
With a launch into Waitrose, Pentire is setting the bar high, demonstrating the importance of strategic partnerships in brand growth. We'll discuss the journey towards company accreditation, the launch of a new beverage line in 200 Waitrose stores, and the exciting future that lies ahead for Pentire. As we close, Alistair emphasises the need for a clear purpose and belief in something bigger than oneself for long-term success.
So join us on this inspiring journey, and don't forget to subscribe to our podcast to stay tuned for more insights and stories from the world of entrepreneurship.
3, 2, 1, 0, and lift off, lift off, lift off.
Speaker 2:Today on the recipe for greatness podcast, we have Alistair Frost, the founder of Pentire, a plant-based drinks company inspired by Active Outdoors. From signature non-alcoholic spirits to aperitives and premixed cocktails, each drink in their portfolio offers refreshing coastal flavours featuring a unique blend of botanicals native to the coast in Cornwall. Join us as we dive into Alistair's journey creating a unique brand with a mission to provide healthy, plant-based drinks aimed at active, outdoor, loving people.
Speaker 1:Alistair welcome to the podcast. Thanks so much for having me on, jay. It's really really kind.
Speaker 2:So I wanted to jump in and start off around surfing and outdoor activities. When did you start to get into that and when did those enter your life?
Speaker 1:Sure, I guess I've always been a pretty active person, a bit of a fidget, yeah, I've always been into keeping moving. Surfing I found the love for when I went on a self-tripped Cornwall with a few friends from school probably 17 or 18, and just got the bug, as everyone says, and completely fell in love with it and positively fed into so many areas of life, I guess. But amazing sport, amazing lifestyle around it, and it always ended up in nice places as well, so that's definitely a perk.
Speaker 2:And also, when did sort of entering the bar scene happen to you? I know you went to work in a bar and past on screen. How did that come around and how did you stumble into that career?
Speaker 1:I guess I've always done jobs in pubs when you're sort of growing up in your holidays and you need a bit of care.
Speaker 1:So I've done this sort of like KP glass washing, all that kind of stuff. And I was maybe I think I'd been finished university as back in Cornwall and as well working at the surf schools, and a bunch of my friends had kind of gone to London for a bit. One of my friends was opening a restaurant above a champagne bar and I moved up to town. I thought I'd move up three months, see how it was, and I thought, oh, you know, I could just go and see how it is and just start washing glasses in my friend's bar. And it's always like it was a good start and you can figure it out from there. And then was there for a few years, worked my way up to GM quite quickly first six months, a year or so and just totally fell in love with hospitality, being sort of front of house as well and dealing with all the good and the challenges of service as well, which is great.
Speaker 2:And what are you thinking about potentially starting something yourself at this point? Or was it maybe after a few years, you decided that, all right, now it's time for me to go? And how did the evolution of setting up your own company come about to you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's always something I've wanted to do.
Speaker 1:I've always looked up to people who are going after big goals, trying to achieve lofty things and I think, looking back on it now, it was always really drawn to reading about the founders of Innocent in the newspaper or all these consumer brands, these kind of normal guys and very human people, but achieving really awesome stuff.
Speaker 1:So the interesting thing about being in bars was you had all these drinks brands sort of come in and trying to sell their product over the bar to you, or it might be like rock up with a wholesaler as well, or someone else might mention them to you and you see these brands go from this small little thing in your first interaction with them, where they're like give it a try, this is our cocktail, we make some drinks together, cool to meet you, and they're kind of building this relationship, and then you're buying their product and it's going well and I guess we're in London then. So you're reading about them in the evening standard or like doing an Instagram or reading about their growth journeys, and so I thought that was a really, really wicked thing to do and also, at the same time, in the world of, I guess, surfing and outdoors. There's so many no-transcript companies in the active outdoor world that I thought were really really great as well, so that was kind of a few things bubbling away at the back of the brain there.
Speaker 2:What was the point when you saw the real opportunity for Pentire? Was it just seeing the market trends? What was happening? What was that? Like Bobman, where you thought, actually, you know what, I don't need to be the person reading about these people. I can actually be the person who goes out and does it myself.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So I guess, if you kind of like the journey in brief was being in bars and having those guys sell over the bar to us and that was your like I know your fever trees and Sipsmith and stuff like that, so you've got Camden and Beavertown. It was very exciting. And then I thought, okay, this is really great, really loved, like wanting to get closer into brands, and I set up a small sales and marketing kind of agency with a friend of mine and we would represent brands in London in the on trade so do some trade shows and consumer shows and also try and sell them into bars and restaurants.
Speaker 1:So then I went from being on the other side of the bar trying to sell stuff into bars and during this, during the time, even when I was like working in bars and selling in brands, my alcohol consumption was going down, down, down and this is even like, say, six, seven years ago. I'd go like for like I think one time I'd put like two, three months without drinking any alcohol, just without really even trying. It just kind of wasn't into it. And then I was representing all these brands that were all alcohol brands and I was also then pretty much like not drinking or any drinking on special occasions. It didn't make me feel great.
Speaker 1:I could see the way the world was going and just was, you know, more into feeling good every day. But you could notice, like you know, trends within all the, all the brands that I was representing. Right, you know Jin was really booming. Then people loved, you know, ingredients, botanicals, story, some provenance and how's it going to be served. So there was all those like I decided to notice those components that are important within a brand. But also, as much as I love what I was doing, I just thought this, this just looks so fun. I really would love to, would love to launch one of my own companies and like have a go at that at that challenge. So it was from being in bars to them being in brands, but always wanting to start, start one of my own and primarily being inspired more by health and wanting to kind of do something in the framework of the industry and be part of that occasion. But have like a healthy angle on it was what really excited and excited me and drove me.
Speaker 2:And you decided the Cornwall would be the sort of home place for this and I love reading about it where you were sort of out just talking to a few people about the potential of the brand and, as a botanist, and you sort of like asking him about potential ingredients around the area, and he was like, oh, you don't know, like this place is like, so, like diverse, it's got the best agriculture, was that? Just you know the part and parcel of just you know stepping into an industry we don't really know much about and you just talking and just like listening to people and learning.
Speaker 1:Yeah, chattings to people with something I love, maybe a bit too much sometimes. So, yeah, always up for chatting to people and like fun changing up what you can, I guess. But I had a few ideas drawn up that I was going, okay, really want to start something and had a few ideas drawn up and then you know, when you, when you want to create something and it's really important to start writing it down, even if it's something that you you don't, you're not really sure if it feels right, but you're just doing anything you can to move stuff like one step, one step forward and not worrying, you know, go for the whole. You know like progression over perfect sort of thing. So I had a few ideas drawn up, but really like the one that won't like that I most loved. And also when I was talking to about other people, that'd be really cool, as I would about like a spirit that's like plant based.
Speaker 1:You know everyone in alcohol and in gins is using. You know these are like blending dry botanicals and stuff. I'm a nutrient-grin spirit. I was like, well, what about? You know something that's like plant based eating and drinking's coming really big, like what I drink with. It's like plants and like botanical, like green images and sort of about instead of people. You know like cheers in and you know like an alcohol environment. What if they're like outdoors and it's escapism, like a Patagonia or a North Face or something like that, and then it's still going to be served in cocktails. So you've got your site martinis and drinks with these big green garnishes and what if you drank it and it made you feel great, that it made you feel drunk. So that's just kind of like this vision of the site plant based spirit world emerging the great people feeling good.
Speaker 1:And Pentaz, the name of the headland on our local coastline at home in Cornwall, and I'd sort of thought, okay, a lot of the whiskey distilleries or the experience distilleries are US, uk, asia, australia. They're these kind of local, global brands and they're these names that have some provenance and you can have some kind of core tribe, but also they can travel and scale and resonate with people on the other side of the world. And the cool thing about you know, pentaz was really like fresh and scalable, but also like local and meant something as well. So, had the name, had the vision, had the like, you know you get your mood bored and start unearthing stuff. I think the good idea is just feel so easy. Everything with Pentaz that we've unfolded just felt so natural and unforced. I think that's always a sign that you're on a good trail, right when you're just buzzing about it. So, yeah, then it's like okay, now I just need to like find all pieces like what's like, what's the ingredients, what's the provenance and stuff like with that.
Speaker 1:And one of my buddies linked me up with a botanist that I met on the headlands and he was like just chatting and I was like well, that's a drinks company, just like. I had your great botanist really interested to meet you. And he was like you know, do you know, it's just like you've got some of the biggest botanical range of like sea herbs and plants in the whole of the UK. And I was like wow, that's amazing. And there was loads of your like you know, expected stuff, your rock sand fires and stuff there, but then other really interesting things like Isolatus Sea, purslane Sea, beat, and that was what really.
Speaker 1:Then they started to go okay, like get some of these, distill them, did all your classic like YouTube and stuff of eBay, amazon, and just getting like, getting going on trying to craft like you know, again, even if you can't create it like a perfect finished product, you can get an idea of the flavor profile that you're getting after. And then when I sort of worked with some you know botanist or distillers, or we keep going to see people and ask if they could like make, you know, make trials with them and stuff like that and started to taste those liquids and thought that tastes amazing, it's really fresh, it completely encapsulates, and then you get a bit of Penta as the brand could encapsulate what we were going after, because everyone's into like running, surfing, cycling, sea swimming. So it was that perfect blend of like ingredients and outdoors that I was always like looking to achieve. So that was a great moment.
Speaker 2:That's incredible. So I love that as well, where you just sort of weaving around sort of not really knowing the path, but people just guide you along and eventually sort of get there. I want to talk about brand now, because you guys have invested it in so many different angles and done such a brilliant job about it. I'm curious you mentioned there was the brand always from the very start when you started imagining sort of the future of the products? Or did the brand sort of evolve with the products as you sort of developed along the way? Because I guess I'm thinking that founders, they know the importance of brand but how to think about developing it. What path did you go down to sort of build that brand that you've created?
Speaker 1:One thing we've always been really lucky with with Penta is the brand world is something that's very natural to us because we live it day to day and it's sort of like part of community.
Speaker 1:It's part of something we're always in.
Speaker 1:So if we need to I don't know do a marketing campaign or think about what to write in that newsletter or think about what we're doing for that key trading time of year or what's our visuals for that retailer that we're going to launch in, it's always.
Speaker 1:We always just remind ourselves that we'll win by being the best version of ourselves and all we need to do is tell the story about what's going on in our community of Penta customers and Penta people and what we're doing each day to live our brand values of active outdoor living. And as long as we have our product and our moment and stuff in there and educate the customer on it and kind of not get too carried away at the same time, then we're generally good and I think that's the benefit of being a kind of like a naturally ingrained brand. And again, if you look at the outdoors brands, they've got nice threads of community and ingredients or all those kind of same things. So it's something that's luckily been very natural, but then just tell it in the best way you can, I guess.
Speaker 2:I love that. I think because when you see the brand, it feels authentic and, like you say, it's because you design the brand based on your core beliefs, not something you thought people wanted to have. You imagine something, oh, create something that people might want. It's something you actually wanted and I think that's always the best way to do it. And I wanted to talk about how brands make people feel something, and the best brands do, and they make want people to belong to something, and I think you guys do that so well and when it comes across well, as in your media films and I recommend anyone who has not seen that go onto their websites, watch them, because they are absolutely fantastic. I'm here. How did those ideas come around for those videos and what did it take to actually produce them? Because they are actually incredible sort of what was all involved in bringing those to life.
Speaker 1:That's very, very kind.
Speaker 1:Well, firstly, the obviously, although I'm lucky enough to be on the pod here with UJ, we have such an amazing team of creatives that have bought those to life.
Speaker 1:So the the films are yeah, there's lots of people working hard on them and also lots of lovely people involved as the subjects that are happy to kind of share their journey.
Speaker 1:So for us those films are, although they're pent-up films, they're really about shedding light on people doing awesome stuff. So it might be people working on like sea conservation for Blue Marine, or it might be really cool like free divers, or it might be a really like a local restaurant that's doing amazing stuff, working with really good ingredients and like just being really forward thinking in in the menus and their offering. So the films are really like a community thing and, again, on their like ideas front, for us it's we actually have so many of them. We were like, oh, we'd love to do like a hundred of those tomorrow, so we have to slow ourselves down a little bit. But yeah, it's nice to like shed light on good people doing good stuff, and they do do lots of like a motive stuff in the meantime and manage to capture some lovely pent-up moments and hopefully inspire inspire people along the way.
Speaker 2:Is it hard to get those people on board for these videos? Or is it because they're so bought into the pent-up mission that it's, you know, the advocates of the product and they actually just want to be involved themselves? I think that's always.
Speaker 1:It's always nice to give and shed light right, and if you're happy to those kind of collaborations are always a two way street. You know you're happy to shed light on people doing good stuff and you're aligned and see the world in the same way, then it's generally always always pretty good. And I think that's the same with our like creative community. You know people in our films are amazing designers and film photographers and people that work on those projects, but also I think the whole pent-up customer base and community is also into exactly the same same stuff. So very lucky to be around good humans and I think that always if you're around good humans and work hard and think, good things will happen.
Speaker 2:Incredible, and I think what really just feels is I think I heard you say that sort of founding PENSI gave you real purpose and it feels like you're doing something rewarding every day. So I guess how does it feel now feeling like that, versus maybe when you're working in a bar or you know selling you know other products to other people? What's? How do you feel differently about sort of what you're doing on a day-to-day basis?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's just every day at PENTA is an absolute dream and I know it's quite like quite cliche, but it generally is like the real high points are just like, just you know, an amazing team of like 12, 13 people and just getting to that hustle alongside great people every day is wicked. So if it's like we're in the office or if we're out seeing people, just the conversations around a product are great. I guess, like the thing that we're doing is putting a healthy, like a healthy angle on the spirits industry. So we're in these like traditional drinks channels and also modern drinks channels. But working with, like you know, really forward-thinking bars and restaurants about making a really like healthy part of their cocktail menu is wicked. And the you know like we also live our brand values every day, so guys always like, if the waves are good, go surfing.
Speaker 1:Everyone in PENTA can exercise whenever they want.
Speaker 1:Everyone has lots of autonomy and is a team of high performers and very driven people, so everyone has like a lot of autonomy to do whatever makes themselves feel good, right, and largely manage their own agenda.
Speaker 1:So you know, people are going for a run in the morning, going off the gym, go for a surf wherever they are. And then you know you get to go and see some of the best bars and restaurants and retailers, whether you're in London, cornwall, usa or whatever. So then you know the bartender that's Pentah the most might be, I don't know in Venice in California right now like last week went to a house in downtown LA and bartender that's like latch on to Pentah the most is snowboarder, skier, surfer, and you're having conversations about outdoors and health with that bartender. That's also like just making incredible cocktails and they're telling you how how much they love Pentah and how great it's going. And you're feeling great because you know they're feeling great and they're like serving cocktails. Customers are like feeling great and buzzing off it, so that is just the most rewarding thing in the world.
Speaker 2:That's incredible, and I guess we've been talking a lot about products and brand, but you know, a company can't exist without sales. So I wanted to dive in and how you thought about, did you sort of map out your whole strategy about how you wanted to bring the product to consumers. Did you decide I want to focus on, you know, small distribution at the start you know local restaurants or things like that or did you decide maybe I want to go to more, like wholesalers? How did you think about it from the beginning? What was your strategy?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I guess it was a mixture of strategy and always being really open minded and kind of being in a bit of a flow state along the journey on the way you mentioned earlier, kind of like weaving weaving on your path forward, and we've definitely like had a bit of that as well, as well as being really clear cut about where we want to be. So obviously had the like from being in the drinks industry before. I was like okay, well, these are the wholesalers like this is where we've got to be, these are the listings we've got to win. And we've always been top, top like top down with Penta. So top tier customers have always been our target and we've always wanted to work with the best and we're like, if we can create the best product in the sector, the best brand, work with the best people, have the best team and have good fun doing it, then everything's going to be going to be good right. So we kind of did the like.
Speaker 1:Firstly, when launched the products. Really lucky thing at home is there's just these amazing like nationally respected as like some of the best chefs in the country within like a 10, 20 mile radius. You got like. You like Rick Steins, paul Paul Ainsworth, nathan Outlaws and stuff like that right there on your doorstep and I was like, well, if I can just get it listed with those guys, then surely everyone else in the country is going to think it's good. And you know, the thing I'm really most grateful of is how early those guys championed the product listed.
Speaker 1:It sort of making amazing drinks and they're amazing to work with today and own them. So much for that and that's been such a key part of our journey. So from that then we went, okay, well, let's go the next step. And there's loads of like indie retail, great, healthy delis and we've kind of or amazing hotels and you make amazing hotel groups and you kind of build the whole thing out and out. Now we're four years down. We've grown at an average of like 100% year on year or more and the last couple of years have been more about your well, about adding on your Planet Organic Sirocados like some cool you know retailers like Selfridges and stuff like that, and we're now about to launch into Waitrose next week. So it's been this kind of dream dream journey and just lots of pure hustle along the way and working with really wonderful people.
Speaker 2:I love that. So I guess we touched on Waitrose there. How did that one come about? Because obviously you've got amazing partnership previously with some great brands. You met amazing hotels you mentioned there, like Sirocados, also some great chefs like Pauline's worth, people like that. How did the sort of conversations around like a national listing in Waitrose come around and how's that sort of evolved?
Speaker 1:There's lots of components I guess that to a national listing that have got to be there. And the really exciting thing for Penthouse is we're excited to go into Waitrose. In there with four years of successful trading and we've built this wonderful customer base A lot of them who we know from our data, like Shopping Waitrose and we've been really like thinking we're thinking like super. We're only at the start of our journey, only just getting going A on our revenue, our KPIs, but also what we want to prove in the sector and the impact that we want to have on, the positive impact we want to have on the sector long term. So we've wanted to build in all these things at the right stage of the journey, especially for like a drink, scale up and to be.
Speaker 1:You know, it's been really important for us to go and nail certain factors. So now we're launching into Waitrose, we're going okay. That's happened because of our rate of sale, success in channels before each year and year. So, as well as our top line revenue, we're also measuring, like you know, especially like four or five key KPIs in the company and most of them are really centered about velocity, rate of sale, how you're performing versus competition. Our amazing like sales team have achieved incredible results in a car dough and self-reduce and other key channels. So it's very much like that consumer brand build where you got to prove stuff at each stage but, yeah, still feel like we're very early on in the journey and got lots to give.
Speaker 2:One big thing for you guys has been direct consumer, and one big factor of that is eyeballs. You need to get people seeing the product and that comes from different avenues. So I know that you guys have spent a lot of time on content and building different, different types of content to test, maybe on marketplace ads like Facebook or something like that. How extensively did you sort of research and test an experiment on ads and I guess, what was the results of that? Was it, you know, really significant how different, say, one ad would play versus another one?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I guess when you're, the interesting thing with with ads is there's the whole like, there's different ads at different stages of like the funnel or the your marketing kind of spend or which I guess they're actually like just touch points for your, your consumer. But yeah, we're, you know, penntile is an omnichannel business and I guess the interesting about that is you're running a lot of channels at the same time. Right, you've got export off trade, which is your like retail, and on on trade, which is like bars and bars and restaurants, as well as DTC and other stuff. So I guess the advantage of being an omnichannel business is you can kind of you can weave a little bit. You know, you we've had pandemics and all this kind of stuff that have happened over our years of trading and some of the channels have kind of have have moved. Ultimately you've got to have a channel strapped, seeing that channel's got to grow. But definitely at certain times it's good to like have certain ones to lean on.
Speaker 1:But yeah, dtc is really interesting. It's like you obviously have a lot of other benefits on top of the revenue. But you get a lot of learnings. You know you get a lot of data. You get to know like where your customers are, like, who's buying it, how many times are they buying it, are people bundling up Like are they like long time customers and have they switched across products? And then also you get like a get a big feedback loop. So so for us it's like it's a multi-use channel, and also when you're entering new territories, it's pretty fun as well. So, yeah, everyone's got like a lot of different strategies with their DTC stuff, but it's definitely something that we invest in and definitely going to continue to as well. And, yeah, lots of good stuff happens from it fun interactions.
Speaker 2:And how does that differ from like Amazon? What's that Amazon like to deal with and sell on? Is it more difficult challenge to sort of get your brand across that you invest so much time in, or do you think people are sort of going to Amazon because they've had different touch points with your brand along their journey?
Speaker 1:Yeah, good question. I guess you I think it was that pretty just depends where you are on your brand journey as well. Right, we definitely feel like now we feel like people are understanding Pentar a little bit more. We've got a good customer base. Four years in we can be a bit broader and a bit braver.
Speaker 1:I think at the beginning you're very much like you're trying to tell everyone everything at once and you're thinking, oh, if we're going to do that or I don't know, we're going to put that piece, that thing in that magazine, people might not have just heard of us and so we've got to put a whole brand sales pitch on there. And then you're thinking, oh, it looks a bit busy and you kind of get in the spiral, whereas whereas now we advertise with a bit more breathing space and enjoy it and kind of love what Pentar is. And I think long term about it, because we have these channels, they're a bit bigger and businesses moved on and we have lots of lovely customers everywhere. Or maybe people will say anything oh, that looks cool, and then there's a likelihood that they might see the product somewhere else soon, on a menu or on a shelf. I think how that links back to your question is, like you know, ultimately it's great to be available.
Speaker 1:Yeah, amazon's so important for availability, right, their delivery speed is nuts and the fact that, especially if you're living, like I mean, in London, the delivery speed is really high. But if you're living regionally as well, the fact that you can not leave your home and get somewhere you know something so fast is is is crazy. So it's nice to be on there and be available for, like, repeat purchase as well. And also, you know you can, you can do ad campaigns, you can bid on stuff. But, yeah, nice, it's a great availability channel, for sure. And then how much you want to, kind of how much you want to bid and play on it is is, I guess, another thing and, depending on what you're like, what your numbers are and how much you can afford to spend is ultimately what they're like. Dc fear comes down to, on how much you can afford to spend, and a lot of that, I guess, is based on the like metrics that that you're getting with your product, product and brand and that space.
Speaker 2:Amazing. I'll go back to sort of the start of the journey. I guess one thing I heard you saying it reached out to me was someone asked you about entrepreneurship and you sort of said, if something you need to keep trying and keep trying until something works, I guess what? What do you mean by that?
Speaker 1:I think maybe it can compiles of a of a of a lot of things, doesn't it? And anyone trying to achieve stuff is go a bit of balance of determination and open mind and kind of believing in yourself when you just believe that something's right, and also maybe listening to why some you know you didn't get something and something was maybe, maybe wrong. So it's definitely just about like moving forward in the right way and, yeah, bit of a I'll go back to a bit of a balance of determination and listening and and and flow state as well. Yeah, so listening as much as pushing, I think, is really really key in that. And if you've got a good talking into people and bringing it to life in any way you can, you can quickly kind of learn whether it's yay or nay for people or not.
Speaker 2:I want to finish on one final point around sustainability. I know it's a big thing for Pentai and your registered B Corp and one thing I love going home to the website was you published your report around sort of how what you're doing in terms of like the key points around sort of B Corp, around environment, employees, et cetera, how important is for you, for the organization and how much do you guys keep like pushing around that? How difficult is it to manage, I guess as well as you know, trying to drive those rate of sales like we've been talking about.
Speaker 1:The B Corp thing was really was really interesting, as they're like outdoors inspired drinks company and I saw being like especially in and around the ocean every day, as sustainability has always been a very cool part of what we've been doing, and the B Corp thing is amazing movement, really fun, and we just like love, love being part of it. It was also interesting. You know being accredited was a lot of hard work, but it was very like doing all of the whole process with stuff that we were naturally kind of doing anyway. So it was really nice to like and we achieved a really good, good, high score of which we see as a baseline that we're now looking to like, build on quite aggressively. So it was.
Speaker 1:It was really nice to kind of get a nod also back to ourselves going okay, cool, this is great. We're like we're doing stuff in a really good way and we've got loads more headroom to go, so it's really vital. It's really vital for the environment we're in. You know it's always been a goal and something that we're passionate about being a beacon brand for for the sector for sure. So doing stuff in the right way is really imperative, and also when you're trying to build a long term business. I think you, you know you've got to keep imagining it scale, scale, scale. So I've got to put in foundations early on for that.
Speaker 2:And for people about weight throws. What information can you share for them?
Speaker 1:Yeah, sure. So the Pentacostal splits, which is our naturally bitter aperitif. It's got like blood, orange sea, rosemary and oakwood Really delicious. It's launching in 200 weight throw stores next week. Everyone in our whole whole company's been working on it and has contributed to it. So, yeah, really exciting, goes live next week and we're very, very, very pumped about it.
Speaker 2:Incredible, and I guess one thing that might be nice for the audience to hear about is any books or recommendations for resources that you like to go to or you recommend for potential founders or resources they might find useful. Anything that comes to mind.
Speaker 1:Seeing the well. One amazing thing about now, I guess, is like the modern books of today and the podcast like this one that you can you can listen to and kind of put good, positive, like positive stuff in the brain. You know, I found that really really helpful when I was starting out and we still find it really helpful now in Pentar. We love listening to, listening to podcasts, especially in this sphere, and get to know how other people are thinking and what they're up to, and stuff like that is really really great.
Speaker 1:And then I've always been very drawn to, I guess, like maybe entrepreneurs in their field that put a very human element on things like Ray Dahlio's book Principles I think is really really good.
Speaker 1:It just goes about like ultimately he's a fund manager but he's, you know, like on the news talking about you know like global markets and he's just there and it's like T-shirt and cardigan and he's articulates like a real human in a way that anyone could understand, and so that's really cool. And you know you're, I guess you're sort of like you're Richard Branson's and your people that you know like make modern business really cool. You know they're just good humans and they're also clearly like really hardworking and really good at what they do, but being a good human and being a cool person that's approachable and fun and exciting as something first. That's all where all the really good stuff is, which again is why I think podcast are great, because you get to learn a bit more about people over a polished book as well. So thank you for all the stuff that you're doing. Congrats on it.
Speaker 2:Oh, thanks, yeah, and I love Ray Dahlio's Principles because I love the way he says. It's like oh, it's just another one of those because of all of his experience that he just knows like every situation feels so different and unique, but ultimately there's so much similarities that run through every single problem. And he's like oh, you know, just based on these fundamental principles you can sort of solve them and stuff.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, it's definitely a great read and also on that, like he's. So he's put in his principles that sound really rigid and you think God, that sounds nuts. But actually he's just trying to go look everything's patterns, like this is all normal. And then the main thing that resonates to me in his kind of books is you're like radical. He's had first radical open-mindedness, right, and that is part of a progression journey. You know he's putting about principles in terms of like what to do, but radical, you got to really think about stuff and you got to get out your own heads and you got to think, just because I think this way, is that really right? And is someone else right Because maybe I should listen to them?
Speaker 1:And that sort of that is such a key part in our whole company where it's like look like guys, this is my thing, but like I could well be wrong. What do you think? It's way much better to progress by having like an open-minded chat with four people's opinions and also guys, they're all of us in this room wrong. Like for us, we're really lucky. We've built up an amazing investment network of our hero entrepreneurs invested in our journey and something's cool. Then we go. I've got this situation like what do you, what would you do there? And they might not even be right. So it's that kind of that way of thinking is really good. Ultimately, you've got to make a decision, you've got to move forward and you've got to do there and you've got to fail forwards and take the learnings and it's going to be like successful learning. But just having those like things and seeing ahead in scenarios I think is really great. Because then your other you know, like you know everyone's really shoe dog right by Michael Hazley in the last five years. Maybe it's a classic to name, but the interesting thing about that journey is being superhuman, talking to you about his challenges and his um, his yeah, I was going to say favors, but his like the things that maybe didn't work along the way and actually is. You know how chaotic the whole progression journey was.
Speaker 1:So when you really like they really lift the lid on what's going on in these growth journeys and also the, the like frame of mind that you need to be in to progress forward, it's you've got to swear or a certain to exercise, you've got to get out of your own head, go to try and get rid of some of your own emotions and you've got to stay cool and stay progressive and if stuff happens, maybe thinking about why it's happening to you and then being part of that along the way is some of the stuff that we haven't won.
Speaker 1:Or whether that's a listing, it's an investment or it's being part of something, or the stuff sometimes that you don't win along the way is stuff that you're not meant to win or have happened to you anyway. It just wasn't in your plan. And we get these points where we go, oh wow, like so lucky that we didn't get that X, like a year ago. You know, oh my God, if we got you know we're involved in that we'd be screwed now, but at the time it was, you just thought, if I just achieve that, that will be what success is and we'll be fine, we'll have nailed it. So lifting the lid on those bits, I think is great, gives you insight into that and it gives you insight into how long the journey is, which is why you need to love it and why you need to live it and why you need to be thinking ahead and being around really good humans so that it's really fun every day. And if that can be happening, then I think you're starting on a good step.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I completely agree. I think it goes back to that sort of purpose that we mentioned about you, like sort of, you know, finding something real purpose in what you're doing and, like you say, every day becomes fun, it doesn't become a challenge and that's why you can keep going those long distances, right, and that's kind of that theme through all these people who've built these businesses over such a long period of time, they have that same core belief that you know they're doing something bigger than just themselves. So completely agree.
Speaker 1:Definitely, definitely, and I'm sure you know and you've got a got a community of people that are, you know, founders or early stage, you know early, like teams and businesses, you know, or they're just a large company but they're really entrepreneurial and they're thinking is that there's so many polished things out there, there's so many like this is what we've done, and it's a real danger when someone goes on, tells about your pentai journey and explain this like four year journey and two or three sentences to try and make it easy for everyone to understand, which is great, but it will just sounds really easy and that can then make it very daunting for people trying to start out as a guy can't do that. I can't do that. I got D's and E's in school and so I have a. You know you got to go.
Speaker 1:You know what can you do, like what are your strengths, and everyone's got strengths in other ways and you can. You can buddy up with people and compliment your skill sets or you can just actually like try and find your what's like. You know, try and find your strength and move stuff forwards. So often it's not as complicated as you think as well to take like one step forward and simplify it. So that's just a really interesting, a really interesting thing. Again, why I think your pods are great is because you're having really human chats of people that are really open, really open about about moving forward. And it's great to have a strategy, but with the strategy, you've got to have a really open mind about it needing to change and it being like not the right path forward as well. So, yeah, respect to everyone that's growing something and keep, keep going wherever you are on the journey.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love that and it's just a still to what you just said there. It's just focused on that one step and you know you'd be amazed how far you can get just doing that one step so incredible. I think it's perfect point to finish in soon. Again, I want to reiterate to everyone how what an incredible brand is and if they do get a chance to go on to their website to watch their films, because they are honestly incredible to watch and I guess as well happening next week. You mentioned right the nationwide listing to waitrose for people if they want to go grab some.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's it. And so so grateful to be on and I think you know, yeah, lucky to be on, but I'm only here down to the amazing team we have at Pentar and really lucky enough to to run the companies by side of my really good friend and co founder, ed. Everyone in the team is amazing and we're only where we are because we've had so many customers believe in us. If that's like they bought a bottle on DTC or they bought one drink in a bar, or or they're a celebrity that's Instagram day, or in their chef or bartender, that's believed in it. We're just super grateful to our whole community and everyone that's been been part of the positive journey along the way. So, yeah, big, big thanks to everyone and and thanks to you, it's been really fun. And yeah, onto the next chapter.
Speaker 2:Amazing. I look so much looking forward to seeing what's happening, because I think it's a incredible brand and it's going to be definitely going on to do big things. So, thanks so much, come on and share the journey. Yeah, so, as always, guys, thank you so much for listening, really appreciate the support and if you guys like it and you're enjoying what you're listening to, please like and subscribe. And for your review, we'd really appreciate it. Again, we'll be back doing this weekly and, yeah, if you want to know more about starting a food business, head to wwwjageringwoodcom. And, as always, thank you and be great.