Good Buzz chief executive Ryan Christensen, formerly of Lion Breweries. Photo / Supplied
Ryan Christensen, the new chief executive of drinks firm Good Buzz, talks taking over the company from its founders, tapping into his own business ownership experience and where he hopes the fermented tea producer will be in five years time.
What does your business do?
Good Buzz Beverage Co predominantly makes kombucha. We have a range of everyday kombucha as well as a premium range, and a RTD as well. The company started seven years ago in Wainuiomata with Alex and Amber Campbell.
I joined the business in May last year to take over from Alex who was the founder and then moved to the board. The move was about a step-change for Good Buzz, the founders had got it so far over five to six years and then it was time to grow, expand and put some of the experience of the world behind it.
What was the motivation for starting it?
Originally the Campbell's wanted to create an alternative drink to alcoholic drinking. Amber is American and there's a lot of kombucha in America but she didn't feel like there was a kombucha in New Zealand that was brewed in the traditional way; in a small batch-style and had that same taste too. They were kind of aware that it didn't exist here and wanted to give people some good options so decided to start Good Buzz.
How big is your team?
We'll finish the financial year around $3 million in revenue, with the target of $5 million in financial year 2023. We've grown from six people to nine people as we have expanded our portfolio. We've also brought all of our distribution back in house now that we've built our purpose-built brewery in Tauriko in Tauranga, so we have tripled the size of our brewing capacity and created an amazing team. We've heavily invested in the operations side of the business because we want to control the brewing of our product. We believe that as we are still small batch brewing traditionally, not from concentrate, that is the aspect that sets us apart, so we're working to make sure we look after that process and grow from them. We are in recruitment at the moment for another two staff members.
What were you doing prior to leading Good Buzz?
This is my first role as a CEO. I did eight years at Lion Breweries in various roles in New Zealand and then Sydney, then I went to Reckitt Benckiser - a big grocery company in Sydney. I then came back and owned a restaurant, and I still own a creative design company. I did the corporate thing for 10 years, and the year before Good Buzz was about running my own companies. The Good Buzz opportunity came up and I couldn't say no.
I'm really lucky that I had my training ground with such a great company like Lion that I could learn and hone my sales and marketing, operations and customer experience skills, and then owning your own businesses has taught me the real value of money a lot more, and getting the right bang for the buck, so I'm I think I'm really lucky that I've had both experiences. It feels like the last 10 years have been my training ground and now I've got this amazing project of how do we get Good Buzz to be amazing.
Does the business export ?
We're not currently exporting. This year the focus has been getting the domestic market sorted, also with Covid-19 it has been hard to get out in the world and talk to people. Now with the borders open, that is a possibility again. We wanted to enter three overseas markets; Britain, Australia and Singapore, in the next financial year as well. We'd like to enter these markets through the premium grocery channel. We have a product called the A Series, which is Manukau leaf, Gisborne lemon, Kawakawa and Hawke's Bay peach. The A Series is all about Aotearoa and local ingredients so we think we have a really great New Zealand story that we would love to tell on the world stage. In our core range we also have our cans which have enabled us to have a longer shelf life ideal for exporting overseas. This year has been about creating a platform that from April can really enable growth.
What export markets offer the biggest opportunities for Good Buzz?
The United States is a big market with lots of opportunity because they have a high number of kombucha drinkers, but at the moment we want to be focused on a few smaller markets and test and learn with them. Our initial three export markets might not be our biggest three; we see plenty of growth potential from out of the UAE as well and out of the Scandinavian countries, which has a really big focus on wellness products. Those might be the next step, but at this stage it is about taking a small New Zealand company that has awesome kombucha to the world bit by bit.
What's it like operating in the kombucha market, is it a crowded space to be operating in?
It's not a crowded market here. There are three major competitors for us; Daily Organics, Remedy and Lo Bros. Remedy is a big Australian brand, Daily Organics is a boutique New Zealand brand and Lo Bros is bottled in New Zealand. Lo Bros and Remedy sit in the value space, cheaper, then it's us that sits in between them and Daily Organics above us in the premium space. The functional drinks space is really interesting, and whether that be kombucha or urupa, looking at the tropics and drinks that give you something else, there is lots of room for growth in. Kombucha is fantastic for the millions and billions of bacteria it gives to your gut and we think wellness starts in the stomach, so there are lots of different avenues for new players in the functional drinks space.
Where do you see the business in three to five years' time?
We want to continue growing our business in New Zealand, and to do that we believe we need to go into other categories. At the moment we are currently exploring other functional beverage categories. If you look at a cafe and there is a fridge full of drinks and lots of different categories, like that we want to have an offering for each category. Our five-year plan is to have the full beverage offering, juices and coffees and other types, and not just be known for kombucha but a whole range of drinks with the functional strand tied through it - we want drinks that give you something more and support an active lifestyle. We'll launch our next drink, that isn't a kombucha, in summer 2022/23.
What are the biggest challenges you have had to work through since joining Good Buzz?
Trying to work at a rapid pace has been a big one. Starting May last year we brought out cans, the A Series and the RTD - we brought out nine skews before December and innovated really quickly and that was a really big challenge. The other challenge was bringing all of our distribution and sales back in-house to allow us to do things a bit differently, and then from the Covid point of view and with hospitality sales being down that has been a real struggle.
About 25 per cent of our sales volume is done through hospitality - a high-profit channel for us - dropped off a cliff, we have had to rely heavily on grocery sales, which is pretty hard to do. That was a challenge through the lockdowns in Auckland. In grocery, over the November to February period, our key four selling months, we were actually up 45 per cent, which was fantastic. Our online sales are up about 25 per cent so that awesome, but our hospitality sales are still not even close to where it was - that's back about 70 per cent.
How will you build back your hospitality business?
We're looking for a business development manager, that's the 10th person we're currently in the third round of interviews to recruit for, and that person is going to sole look after the hospitality food service channel. We need to dedicate a resource behind it. Grocery, online and our liquor channels are all going well so we just need to put resource behind the hospitality arm. We know that it will recover, so we need a person in there to lead that.
What advice do you give to others thinking about starting their own business?
Surround yourself with awesome people has been key for us, especially in the last year. Surround yourself with people you can trust and that you can lean on so that when times get tough or you're in a high growth phase, you can ask more, as long as you have that great group of people around you then you can get through everything.
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