President of Expert Market, Titus Sharpe, speaks to Ugly Drinks Co-founder Hugh Thomas about the motivation behind his startup and where it's headed in the future. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Video Transcript: "Hugh, thank you very much for coming in. It's great to have you here and we're very excited to hear about your amazing new drinks company. So maybe you could just start off by telling us a bit about the story behind where Ugly Drinks came from?" "Ugly is a 100% natural fruit-infused sparkling water. It comes in a can, a 330ml can, and we have no sugar, no sweetener, no calories, no artificial ingredients in the drink. It's currently in 2 flavours: Lemon and Lime and Grapefruit and Pineapple. And what we're really trying to do is create a carbonated drink in a can, that's an alternative to traditional soft drinks where they're sugary or sweetened. Joe my co-founder and I had the idea for the business back in 2013, when we recognised an opportunity to create a product that gave consumers choice for something that didn't have those ingredients in. We loosely define our mission as trying to make healthy beverages accessible and available to as many people as possible. What that means is that we wanted to make a healthy drink, without some of the bad stuff in That was affordable Our recommended retail price currently is 99p and hopefully we can make it more accessible in future But then also accessible in a way the brand is as well We wanted to make a healthy drink that didn't feel like you were picking something super healthy up- and super boring And so hopefully when you see the packaging and the branding it looks fun and energetic And it's got a sense of humour that maybe other healthy food and drink products don't Rather than giving someone a bland healthy option that they regret picking up afterwards" "And what do you think the biggest opportunity is for you guys? In, sort of, the very foreseeable future What do you think the big opportunity is?" "Yeah, so right now we have two flavours I think there's definitely an opportunity for us to add a couple more flavours to the range, that maybe appeal to the people that aren't currently buying Ugly So we're looking to introduce a couple more this year, which will improve our range And then ultimately we're looking to get in more and more places where people buy carbonated soft drinks So more and more offices, more and more stores Especially in central London where we have good distribution right now There's an immediate opportunity in that But also, kind of, hopefully in the medium term getting some larger retailers and groceries and some supermarkets, and spread our footprint that way" "Well I think you've got a great product. The actual look is very different. I think the actual taste is very different And I think the proposition of no sugar is absolutely brilliant and very disruptive And there should be more people out there fighting the notion of your cause Because it'S a worrying state of the world at the moment And I think we need really really positive missions and companies like yours It's fantastic So good luck with the next stage in growth" "Thanks" "And we look forward to seeing it on shelves all over the UK" "Perfect. Thank you." "Thank you very much" Want to know more about Ugly Drinks and their journey? Read more on our business news hub FOCUS: http://www.expertmarket.co.uk/focus http://www.expertmarket.com/focus Website http://www.expertmarket.co.uk http://www.expertmarket.com Facebook https://www.facebook.com/expertmarketuk https://www.facebook.com/expertmarketus Twitter https://twitter.com/expertmarket https://twitter.com/ExpertMarketUS

• published: 07 Jun 2017
• views: 593