2020 - What a decade that was...

One thing that unites us all about 2020 is that we were all in this together, there was no avoiding the disruption. That said, whether socially, personally or professionally, we've all been impacted in different ways. For me, professionally, as a solo-founder, despite being unprecedented, 2020 hasn't been that different to previous years. As in previous years, the business has been exposed to external events that have been outside of my control, things have gone wrong, I've had to deal with new challenges, fight and remain dynamic. In fact, this year, I feel like I've fought with everybody (mostly Amazon) and it's used up a lot of emotional energy.

It's fair to say that a year ago I had big expectations for 2020. We'd just launched in our 4th and 5th UK grocer and our hydration+ was gathering momentum within the food service channel with launches in the likes of Sodexo, CH&Co, BaxterStorey, Blue Apple, Fooditude, OCS, Serco & Vacherin to name but a few. During January and February, with our growing team, we launched and hosted sampling in over 100 food service sites. We also had a substantial pipeline of launches including our first UK coffee chain and an exciting launch into Formula 1 catering.

Coronavirus struck at completely the wrong time for us (not that there is a right time for a global pandemic). With our growth in 2019, we were in advanced talks with a number of investors to close our Series A funding round. At the same time, with a bumper spring expected, we undertook our largest production run to date, absorbing a significant amount of our working capital. As soon as coronavirus stuck, at the expense of new investments, we saw investors quickly move to sure up their existing portfolios and, at the same time, we saw our sales drop by around 40%. We had an impending cash flow issue.

Act hard, act fast, survive at all costs

I've always had an open relationship with my investors and have never shied away from decisive issues. I sent an email, in March, to all my investors in which I highlighted 'Act hard, act fast, survive at all costs'. I spent a day speaking to my suppliers/creditors to agree longer terms. In getting longer payment terms, I was supported by almost all. As the team were set up to service our food service customers, with the near complete closure of the channel, I had little choice but to furlough the one full time employee and agreed to end the internship of two French interns. With the help of a government grant, a bounce-back loan and, to the credit of my existing investor base and new investors, we quickly completed a funding round to sure up our cash flow position.

During such unprecedented times, there's no playbook for businesses to call upon into how to survive, act or prosper. But, for me, collaboration between peers, customers and suppliers is key to ensuring that as many as possible make it through. I saw much of our industry unite to support each other, and work together to support front line workers and charities.

We worked with several contract caterers and charities to help get drinks to key workers during the first lockdown. Towards the end of the year, we collaborated with food charity, FareShare, again, to assist with their Christmas appeal.

During the first lockdown, I also answered the call for help from Sainsbury's to assist restocking shelves when the issue was simply that stock couldn't get to shelf fast enough.

To contrast this level of collaboration, I was disappointed with many of the UK grocers during this crisis.

I fully understand that we were (and still are) in unprecedented times and supermarket supply chains have been pushed to breaking point on several occasions in 2020. I also understand where we sit in the pecking order to these major retailers.

However, I was astonished at how we were treated this year. In the lead up to coronavirus, in early March, when I highlighted that we were seeing substantial out of stocks in our store listings, one UK grocer simply said that they 'are concentrating on coronavirus products'. They didn't place an order in 2020 before delisting us in August. Another grocer, to their credit, phoned me shortly after the first lockdown was announced to ensure that I was okay and to apologise for not authorising any of our price promotions. A couple of weeks later, during the peak of the first lockdown, I was told if I didn't increase my sales three-fold then I would be delisted in September.

For me, in-store shopping habits have regressed during coronavirus. The face masks, the queues and a potentially deadly virus meant the food shopping experience has been stressful. With that in mind, together with the panic buying/shortages in the first lockdown, consumers have been stocking up with bulk items and brands that they were familiar with. This represents a move away from the previous trends of frequent, convenient shops and browsing for innovation/new products as well as inner-city 'Grab and Go'. With home-working, browsing for new products/innovation had switched to online. The target of trebling our sales, against the aforementioned backdrop, represented a lack of understanding/empathy for the current climate.

Therefore, with that, I took the unprecedented step to ask for us to be delisted from this grocer in September.

five years of sales, over a million units sold, and we barely had any consumer insight to show for it

As we have predominately been a B2B/B2B2C business, we've relied on third parties to put our products in front of consumers, communicate to our audience and ultimately come back to buy more stock from us. This also means that our consumer data has been collected on our behalf but not disseminated to us in the same way. Even our D2C sales have been managed by Amazon so, five years of sales, over a million units sold, and we barely had any consumer insight to show for it. This shortcoming has always meant that we couldn't accurately define the 'who' and 'why' to Rejuvenation Water and meant that we haven't built up a direct communication channel with our customers. 2020 has put this reliance into the spotlight - a reliance that isn't conducive to building a sustainable brand.

Considering the restrictions/closures to our sales channels, the regression in shopping habits, plus the focus on D2C, I wasn't willing to simply wait for 'normality' to return and, in my opinion, the new habits have been ingrained for so long now that they are here to stay.

Leading into summer, I hired a digital marketing manager and built a Shopify site. Rejuvenation Water, for the first time, had it's very own D2C website. However, for me, single serve, ready to drink products aren't a pure D2C product and, with people stuck at home, the kitchen tap is our biggest competitor. Luckily, I have a substantial new product pipeline and I had been working on several new products prior to the first lockdown. One of which came about when focusing on my own consumption of coffee and use of my home/office Nespresso machine. With a machine taking prominent space within both my home kitchen and office, restricting it's use to simply coffee felt like a waste. In late 2019, with the help of a reusable Nespresso pod, I started playing around with different plant based, functional ingredients to establish what ingredients were suitable for hot, high pressured disbursement. Factor in the trends of 2020; D2C, home consumption and health (mainly around immunity boosting Vitamin C and D), it became apparent that such a product would fit the current environment.

In August, based on flavour and functional ingredient trends, as well as keeping in the realms of what it possible in a 5g pod, I was set on the ingredients and I had sample blends created. I tried to launch a Kickstarter campaign to test the market demand for the concept, but it was deemed a medicine, and was banned before we even launched. I quickly switched to Indiegogo where we launched and successfully pre-sold over £5,000 of product. After tweaking the blends, having the packaging finalised (a final development cost of £633) and making a key hire to build our international logistics, on 1st December, the first of its kind Rejuvenation Water Nespresso compatible Health Pods were launched.

Our first product, the Immunity Pod - Turmeric & Beetroot is packed with immune boosting Vitamin C, D & E, Prebiotic Fibre and Amino Acids. These plant based, all natural Health Pods, designed to be consumed as a hot espresso-esque shot, are now available in over 50 countries. With the environment and sustainability at the centre of our innovation, our pods are made from a plant biomass making them fully compostable, helping to alleviate the environmental disaster that the 55 billion+ plastic and aluminium pods, that ended up in landfill last year alone, are causing. With our recycled cardboard packing and envelope packs, we also ensure that we've removed any unnecessary plastic from our supply chain.

With over 500 boxes sold online in the first month, with orders as far as Palm Beach, California and Wellington, New Zealand, we've made a positive start.

As we move in 2021, I have a greater feeling of excitement and anticipation but knowing it's going to be another roller coaster year. We are close to completing our latest funding round enabling us drive our domestic and international expansion as well as assisting with the launch of new Health Pod flavours/functions. I'll be aiming to grow the team again with an initial focus on e-commerce and digital marketing.

As I got stuck in London with the Tier 4 lockdown, I'll also be looking forward to celebrating Christmas with the family sometime in the spring (hopefully).

I wish you all a safe, prosperous and happy 2021.

Kris