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Could you be where Innocent Drinks are now?
So Mssrs Reed, Wright and Ballon have just sold a stake in their company, Innocent Drinks, to Coca-Cola for £30million, valuing the company at £300million.
That means that each of these founding individuals now has a shareholding valued at £30-60million. Not bad for 10 years work from complete start up.
10 years ago at Parsons’ Green Jazz Festival the three set up a stall with a sign reading: “Do you think we should give up our jobs to make these smoothies?” alongside two bins for the empties, one labelled “yes” and the other “no”.
Should they have sold to Coca Cola? Will it compromise their brand? Are they right to stay with the company and not sell out altogether?
All valid questions but the real point of interest for me is they were backed in the early stage by a business angel to the tune of £200k. A lot of hard work and clever management has clearly been applied since but would they be here facing those questions today without that initial investment? I doubt it.
For full story see: Smoothie drink pioneers sell Innocent stake for £30 million
That means that each of these founding individuals now has a shareholding valued at £30-60million. Not bad for 10 years work from complete start up.
10 years ago at Parsons’ Green Jazz Festival the three set up a stall with a sign reading: “Do you think we should give up our jobs to make these smoothies?” alongside two bins for the empties, one labelled “yes” and the other “no”.
Should they have sold to Coca Cola? Will it compromise their brand? Are they right to stay with the company and not sell out altogether?
All valid questions but the real point of interest for me is they were backed in the early stage by a business angel to the tune of £200k. A lot of hard work and clever management has clearly been applied since but would they be here facing those questions today without that initial investment? I doubt it.
For full story see: Smoothie drink pioneers sell Innocent stake for £30 million
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Hammad Khan on -
Innocent have always been a good case study for many reasons. The fact that the idea came not from a drinks maker, but from an ad-man is indicative of why they were successful - from day one they took a customers perspective and need and THEN applied that to a product and brand - rather than creating a product and then trying to 'market' it to people. Of course, being an ad-man, they got the branding and marketing bang-on from the start and didn't dilute this message over 10 years; they created a quality brand and spent time and money on increasing it's equity (to £300m apparantly!) Good for them :)
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Permalink Reply by Toby Reid on -
Indeed. How about these guys then. Where will they be in 10 years time?
Gelato Mio
MBA and finance students with a taste for healthier, lighter ice cream.
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Permalink Reply by Martin Wright on -
This is great news for the guys but I suspect bad news for the product. It's a real shame that it has been bought by 'the' global drinks conglomerate.
As Hammad says, they have been a good case study for a long time and this looks like a great final chapter.
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