Dash Drinks: The challenger brand scaling patiently

0:00Richard Harpin: This is Britain's growth moment. Do you want to be part of it? On 26th of March, 750 of the UK's most ambitious founders, CEOs and investors will gather in London to shape the future of mid-sized business. The companies driving our nation's success. The Business Leader Summit 2026 isn't just another conference. It's a day built around the three forces that define growth, ambition, policy and capital. And as one of our valued podcast listeners, you can be there in person. To secure a discounted ticket, visit the events section of our Business Leader website and use this code.

0:38Alex Wright: BL podcast, all one word, all uppercase. We look forward to seeing you there. In the Western world, 40 % of fruit and veg doesn't end up on consumers' plates. 40%. That's shocking, isn't it? The CO2 emitted from food waste would be the third largest CO2-emitting country in the world behind the US and China. A manufacturing site would cost at a very minimum about 17 million quid. We could barely cobble together two and a half quid at that stage.

1:19Richard Harpin: I'm Richard Harpin and this is a Business Leader podcast where we look at the stories and strategies behind modern businesses. Today my guest is Alex Wright, the co-founder and CEO of Dash Water Drinks. I wanted to find out from him how he developed his successful drinks formula using what he calls wonky fruit and what he thinks of the UK as a place to scale a business. Well, Alex, welcome to the Business Leader podcast and let's start with a cheers. Let's have some of your Dashwater.

1:55Alex Wright: Cheers. Thank you for having me on. Very kind.

1:57Richard Harpin: Love to hear about your background before Dashwater.

2:01Alex Wright: So pre-Dashwater. So I grew up in West Sussex and I'm from a farming background, much like my co-founder Jack who's from Shopsham. Loved growing up there, rolling hills, beautiful countryside and seeing how nature and food is created is something that I'm very passionate about and we both are both Jack and I and further from there I went to university, read economics and then started my journey in business working for a larger soft drinks brand. And it was really from there that I got my grounding in the soft drinks industry and spotted a gap in the market too.

2:50Richard Harpin: And did you always know that you're going to be an entrepreneur, a founder, or did you sort of just that came out of the drinks business that you were working for?

3:00Alex Wright: I always knew that I wanted to do something in business and do something innovative. At school, I was always flogging various different products to my mates and trying to have a bit of fun with it, but also make a bit of margin at the same time. so it's something that inherently I always enjoyed and my mates always would think I'm fairly boring reading management and business books even at an early age and investing in the stock market so I think whilst I didn't necessarily think per se I want to be a business leader and run a international business it was certainly something that all the right ingredients were there.

3:43Richard Harpin: And so what was a key moment then when you thought, yes, we've got this business idea and we're going to go for it?

3:50Alex Wright: When Jack and I, we met whilst working at a soft drinks brand, and we had previously shared ideas and passion for really good quality food, and then also about the issue of food waste and health and I think this health aspect has been something that we're really really passionate about and when we're working at this other soft drink brand we would look at beverage chillers up and down the country and they're just packed full of sugary and artificially filled drinks and we thought this is just absolute madness why there is nothing that perfectly fulfills the need state of a delicious soft drink but doesn't have any of the sugar or sweetener whilst being more exciting than plain water so no colorings no additives it's just

4:42Richard Harpin: natural ingredients that go into the sparkling water and just i'm really interested by that

4:48Alex Wright: insight of the wonky fruit and 40 food waste yeah i think so we saw the gap in the market for a product that didn't have any sugar or sweetener and also tasted delicious you know taste is so so important if a product isn't going to taste delicious then no one's going to repeat push so no matter how fantastically healthy or sustainably led it it is it needs to taste delicious and that's exactly what has come through with dash and our years of perfecting the flavor so that was that was with the product itself with the ingredients and the sourcing it's a fundamental part of Dash. And so what we want to try and do is to ensure we raise awareness about the issue of food waste.

5:36Alex Wright: And so in the Western world, 40 % of fruit and veg doesn't end up on consumers' plates, 40%. That's shocking, isn't it? Which is absolutely mad. And if you think about all of the people that are looking for food that are impoverished, then it just makes no sense at all. But also there's a massive negative externality as well in that the CO2 that is emitted from food waste, if that was a land mass, the CO2 emitted from food waste would be the third largest CO2 emitting country in the world behind the US and China. So there's a massive amount of resource that goes into creating this fruit and veg that doesn't end up in consumer's plates.

6:25Alex Wright: But there's a massive negative externality as well in that CO2 output. So that's something that Jack and I have been really, really passionate about and underpins. It's the foundation of Dash, perfectly healthy drink, sustainably made, and importantly, it tastes delicious.

6:44Richard Harpin: I love the fact that drinks are made from wonky fruit. How do you access it and do you ever run out of wonky fruit?

6:53Alex Wright: We initially worked with a great food waste charity called Feedback, and they are incredible at sourcing wonky fruit that is surplus or has blemishes or is overweight or underweight. But essentially, it doesn't fit the strict criteria of the supermarkets that means that it is rejected. and so they were really good at being that intermediary and introducing us to farmers that meant that we could have a direct relationship with them.

7:25Richard Harpin: And so talk about the very beginning of formulating the recipes and then how you got them out to consumers, presumably did some market research.

7:34Alex Wright: I think that early stage, especially with the creating the product and the liquid, that was some of the hardest times that we had. The reason for that was that we had no idea what we were doing. and so I left my job inside a dash when I was 24 and was pretty fresh-faced had come out of university knowing a load of theoretical stuff about business but knew very very little about the practical nuts and bolts of how to start one and especially start one that other people liked and that could scale and so we initially created products that very simply we had a table probably about as long as this little trestle table and we would pop it up in parks around London and we would have a vat of water and we would infuse various different flavors so we would chop up on a chopping board on the trestle table in the park cucumber and mint lemon and lime some more funky variants tomato and basil that is not a flavor today that we have um and we would try it

8:45Richard Harpin: on consumers that were passing by and carbonating the water as well or how did that work so we had

8:51Alex Wright: a little uh carbonator on the table as well um that yeah so we just infuse it in this vat of water leave it for six to eight hours um and have multiple vats and then we would just carbonate it on the table and then we would give it to passers-by. And it was really, really interesting, the insights that they gave. And I think this was fundamental because the insights that we gathered were, yes, we would be very happy to give up our usual sugary and artificially filled drink for something that tastes this delicious.

9:25Richard Harpin: Were you giving these drinks away free or were you selling them at the same time?

9:29Alex Wright: All free, yeah. It was essentially from the carbonated vat of water. We would put it into a sampling cup so it was unbranded and give it to passers by. And the consumers saying to us, we think this is absolutely delicious. That insight then gave us confidence to then go the whole distance because the operational side of making a product when you've never made one before using great quality manufacturers is not straightforward. The product that Dash is is a beautifully simple liquid. So there are three simple ingredients, right? Spring water, bubbles, and wonky fruit. Very simple. But in order to create a simple and delicious product like that, you have to have really good quality manufacturing.

10:17Alex Wright: And so we found it hard to find experts who are able to create a fantastic product of the standard that we wanted. And we modeled around trying to manufacture it ourselves with mobile canning lines, using craft brewing manufacturing kits. And those were some of the darkest days when you put your life savings into hiring 10 people for the day to make this product and it comes out tasting of off berries. And at that moment, that's why it's so key to have a co-founder that you can go for the end of the day for a beer, dust yourselves off and think that was pretty pants but let's go again tomorrow and the manufacturing today is um in-house or

11:03Richard Harpin: outsourced or how does that work we we outsource them yeah i think at the very beginning we wanted

11:09Alex Wright: to use the spring water from jack's farm and manufacture at jack's farm as well we then quickly realized that a manufacturing site would cost at a very minimum about 17 million quid uh we could barely cobble together two and a half quid at that stage so we weren't going to get anywhere near there. So we outsource the manufacturing. We outsource quite a lot of the logistics. So the reason for that is that in-house as a team, we can just focus on creating the most delicious beverage, so the actual liquid, but we don't actually manufacture it. And then we are just a sales and marketing machine internally and retain that key focus.

11:55Alex Wright: because one of the key things that I've learned whilst leading Dash is that making sure that there is key focus for everybody and we leave other things that we're not perfectly good at to other people so that we can really hone in and ensure that we are as efficient as possible.

12:15Richard Harpin: How did you come up with a name and then how did you develop the brand?

12:19Alex Wright: The name was something that we toiled with for many, many months. and for something so simple as a name it's so hard to land on it i don't know if you found the same for the multitude of businesses that you've been involved with and when you were ideating names as well but we had a list of hundreds of different names and it was just through conversations with people and bouncing around a short list of ideas that we came up with dash

12:48Richard Harpin: I love the name and it does very much say what it does, doesn't it? It's a dash of fruit and it's water and I'm a great believer in brand names that say what they do.

13:00Alex Wright: You've hit the nail on the head. Did you find it also challenging coming up with names with all the businesses that you've been involved with too?

13:08Richard Harpin: Yeah, because it comes down to judgment, doesn't it? It's very difficult to research names, but I'm a big believer in market research.

13:16Alex Wright: Yeah, absolutely essential.

13:18Richard Harpin: And then how have you grown the brand and how much money do you put into marketing?

13:24Alex Wright: So we've grown the brand pretty rapidly. Today, Dash is stocked in about 15 international markets. This year, we'll sell about 65 million cans. And so it's one of the fastest growing beverage brands globally. and we've raised about 21 million pounds to come into the business and that has been to ensure that we're able to hire a best-in-class team ahead of the curve and then also ensure that we're able to market the product mainly in store and then also online because there are larger soft drink brands that have such a firm grasp on the industry that it's very, very tricky to get your product seen in store unless you do put a bit of cash behind it, marketing.

14:20Richard Harpin: And what was the day that you made your first sales? And were they online B2C or were they in other people's stores?

14:28Alex Wright: Yeah, so we launched the brand May 2017 and we manufactured 200 ,000 cans. That's quite a lot, isn't it, to start with? It's a lot of cans and we only had one retailer at that time that was Selfridges that we exclusively launched with. And so I remember looking up at pallets, the sea of cans and thinking, oh my word, how on earth are we going to have flogged this many cans?

14:54Richard Harpin: That's a great retailer to get into as your first retailer. How did you do that? Persistence and a bit of charm.

15:02Alex Wright: I still remember the buyer's name. And it took many, many emails without many replies. And I think the thing that was a clincher was Selfridges are fantastically avant-garde, have an amazing food and beverage selection, and are also very sustainably led. and they were putting on an event about food waste. And so once I saw that there was this food waste event, that was the perfect alignment for Dash and what Selfridges are trying to promote internally. And so that was the clincher for us to get the deal. And then which other retailers came after that? So how we wanted to build the brand is that we wanted to get early adopters seeing the brand in the right stores at the right time and it being marketed in the right way.

15:56Alex Wright: So we wanted to be in stores that would tell our story of great flavour and healthy. And so being stocked in places like Selfridges, Soho House, Whole Foods, Planet Organic, specialty stores, boutique coffee shops, gyms, that was really, really important for us. And so what we did was spend all of our time getting stocked in those types of stores.

16:25Richard Harpin: And that was just through persistence and door knocking until he got that distribution, was it?

16:31Alex Wright: Persistence and charm. Yeah, the combination of the two. And so we would spend all our time door knocking, rucksack on our back, super heavy, doing 20 ,000 steps a day, calling into various different stores and then doing samplings. and samplings at that stage was absolutely fundamental because one we would be able to introduce the liquid delicious liquid and then also the story to consumers on the front line but also we were uh then able to build a rapport with that store too um and so people buy from people as you know you know they don't just buy a product for its face value and its usps people love that human relationship not just the end person that's buying the product but also the

17:18Richard Harpin: retailer too let's talk a little bit about uh getting investment and uh i think you bootstrapped right at the beginning but then uh got some quite big investment after that so virgin startup which

17:31Alex Wright: is a not-for-profit arm of virgin have been amazing on our journey throughout dash and the very early stage as i said had all this had a bit of theoretical knowledge um but didn't have any of the practical nuts and bolts of starting a business and virgin was so good at giving a fantastic mentor a guy called ben keen who had started you know over 100 businesses before and he gave us those practical nuts and bolts of exactly what we should be doing and that really fast-tracked um uh then going from zero to then having a product and it was you got that mentor

18:12Richard Harpin: for free did you and um important for every entrepreneur to have a mentor do you think

18:18Alex Wright: absolutely essential to have a mentor yeah uh i have uh mentors today and a fantastic business coach as well and how do you go about finding those mentors what is absolutely key is to put oneself out there and it's really busy running a business but if you are insular then you don't get new ideas. And by talking to people, having these types of conversations and listening to people and understanding innovative ways that they go around running the business, that is fundamental for making sure that you're able to stay ahead and build your business differently and also then building relationships.

19:02Alex Wright: So I've done it mainly through getting out there and meeting multiple people per month that I've never met before and pushing myself to do that no matter how busy I am. And having a paid business coach as well. Exactly. So at the same time, then having a paid business coach. How do the two work together? The paid business coach that I have, he is actually relatively new. And I've worked with another coach in the past and have recently mixed things up. Prior coach was absolutely amazing. but just thought it would be interesting to experiment with someone new and the paid business coach that I have one is able to be completely uncensored and it's non-judgmental whereas contacts if they're in the industry then there can always be an element of wanting to put up a bit of a barrier because either you don't want to divulge competitive information or that you feel that it may be misconstrued in some way.

20:09Alex Wright: And so the paid business coach is just completely unfiltered. You're able to say it how it is.

20:15Richard Harpin: Coming with an open mind without the prejudice of the industry experience or market knowledge.

20:22Alex Wright: And that as well, yeah. So you definitely get another angle, which is, yes, this person doesn't have the industry experience, which is also super useful.

20:32Richard Harpin: So back to getting the investor then, And how did you, when did you need money? And how do you go about finding the right investors?

20:40Alex Wright: So Virgin Startup, they gave us a loan. So it was a zero interest loan and a mentor. And that then meant we were able to pay for that first canning run, that sea of 200 ,000 cans that I looked up at, oh my God, how are we going to sell these? When we launched May 17, we thought that we would run out of cans in march 18 turns out my forecasting is not very good because uh we ran out of cans a lot quicker in about october 17 but that's good news isn't it which which which is good news uh good problem to have and from then on we needed to fund uh further can manufacturing and we then raised our first round of investment about 250k which is at the time.

21:27Alex Wright: It was the SEIS maximum that one could raise. We had five angel investors, two of which are still on our board today, and have been fantastically supportive through and through. And then we've raised about seven different rounds from then varying in sizes to an institutional round where we had two best-in-class venture capital firms that joined in 2022. And I think the benefit of investors is that if done in the right way, they can add value to what you're doing.

22:05Richard Harpin: Absolutely. So it's more than just the money, it's the advice and help as well, but without telling you what to do.

22:12Alex Wright: Exactly that. So we look for three things when we bring on a new investor. So the first is, are they going to add value? So are they going to be able to add value in a way that we don't necessarily currently have? So is it sales or is it marketing or operations? The second thing is, do they align with our values as a business? So are they going to respect and uphold Dash as a healthy drink and make sure nothing compromises that? And the third thing is, would we want to go for a beer with them at the end of the day? Do we get on well with them? Because you know it's like a marriage you you you're tied together for forever really for the business life cycle and so you've got to get on well with these people and have you and your business

22:57Richard Harpin: partner managed to hold on to the majority shareholding we've managed to do a great job of

23:04Alex Wright: ensuring that we retain control of the business the fortunate thing that we've had whilst building and needing to raise investment was ensuring that we didn't overplay our projections. And Dash is growing fantastically quickly. You know, this year it was about 65 billion cans. But what we've never done is draw unrealistic hockey stick graph and say we're going to get this untenable target because it comes back to bite you further down the line. And so that's meant that we're able to, every year since launching, we've smashed our budget. Great credit to the team. But it's meant that we haven't been saying to investors, I'm so sorry we didn't hit budget.

23:52Alex Wright: And then we've had to raise more cash because our cash flow forecast weren't accurate.

23:58Richard Harpin: Didn't you work out what your objectives are going to be for 2028, not 2026, and then work backwards on what you need to do in order to get there?

24:10Alex Wright: Exactly, Dan. So yes, we have our objectives and key results at Dash. And so what it is, is a management framework. And that means that we're able to assess exactly what our key objectives are to get to our longer term plan three years ahead, and then build the blocks as to how we're going to get there in the nearer term. And I was actually saying to our team yesterday during our first monthly meeting of the year, every time I look up at our budget and our plan, I think the same feeling that I had when we had this big production run for the first number 200 ,000 cats, crikey, you know, that's looking challenging.

24:54Alex Wright: but when I break it down exactly how we do with our objectives and key results from the end goal inside by market by channel by customer pack format week and you look at all the elements in there it's definitely achievable that we can smash it and we've got the right team for it who are

25:14Richard Harpin: absolutely incredible and how many people in the business today and how many of those would see

25:19Alex Wright: those um uh those okrs everyone sees the okr we're very transparent so yesterday we ran through our uh okrs and then also our full pnl so being transparent is one of our key values at dash when everyone walks in the morning you see the values written on the wall you see the mission to lead europe's healthy hydration revolution uh and everyone's got to live and breathe them right and so we're a small team of about 35 people so we like to say that we punch above our weight seeing as we'll sell 65 million cans with only 35 odd people.

25:57Richard Harpin: How do you maintain that discipline in the plan and make sure that you're not trying to do too much?

26:03Alex Wright: I think that comes back to ensuring that there is a clear plan so that comes to the objectives and key results. Having that clear plan gives clarity. Once there is clarity, then one of my key jobs is to ensure there's great focus. And then after that is the culture in how we're going to deliver that plan. And so with our small team of 35 odd people, we have a head of HR, we've also got a head of culture. And so we quite significantly over-invest in people. The most important aspect at the end of the day of our business is people and ensuring that they are highly engaged and motivated behind the mission and our values.

26:53Alex Wright: That's fundamental.

26:58mentor.

26:58Richard Harpin: And when did you feel that you moved from that startup phase to the scale up part of the growth?

27:07Alex Wright: I would say that came about 18 months ago.

27:11Richard Harpin: And what did you need to do differently? You obviously had your operating plan and your numbers, but how else did you manage that transition?

27:24Alex Wright: I and so what I mean by that is in the early stage of building Dash there are so many different things that we could do we could launch in other categories well we have launched in other categories and to varying degrees of success and when there are many different balls in the air it's important to see which ones land and then just really back those business levers for growth and it was really that clarity that we had about 18 months ago that entered us into that scale-up phase which is we've done that startup phase which is uh growing the business to a certain stage uh now we've identified exactly what we are doing what we're about as a business

28:14Richard Harpin: now let's get it up how do you decide between more product development or more countries

28:21Alex Wright: and get the balance right between those an age-old challenging uh question because for a product like dash and the category that we're we're in which is clean soft drinks this is it's not a uk-based phenomenon that consumers are looking for delicious and healthy drinks right that is a global thing and so we have interest from pretty much every market globally and a key part of my job and our team is to say no to the wrong opportunities and it comes back to ensuring that we have a clear plan of where we're going over three years and therefore if there is something that comes in, an inbound suggestion that says, should we do this?

29:07Alex Wright: Or if the team have an idea, if it doesn't necessarily link back to those objectives and key results, that plan that we've got for the next three years, then it should be questioned as to whether we're doing it or not. What have you said no to? We've had to say no to various different markets. We've had to say no to continuing with ranges before. So we had a delicious soda water mixer range that was absolutely fantastic, sold well in store, but it was just slightly ahead of its time. And also as a team, we were only around eight people then and having two separate ranges, it distracted focus. And so we had to say no to continuing that range, having launched it, retailers were excited, consumers were excited,

29:58Richard Harpin: it just wasn't the right time so make sure that you don't extend your products too far what about um setting pricing pricing was again similar to deciding on the name

30:11Alex Wright: so important but it took such a large amount of research when for me having started my own business at 24 i thought it'd be pretty simple let's just put a price up there and see what happens. But the key thing is just making sure that it's a price that sets you up well for the long run. There are so many different businesses that start and don't have their unit economics set up well enough so that it is going to be cash generative as a business further down the line. From day one, it doesn't necessarily need to be cash generative. But at some point in the not so distant future the setup of your business needs to be where you're able to then make good profit because if i come back to what we're doing at dash delicious healthy drink that is sustainably made but the sustainability of dash is not going to continue unless our financials are sustainable as well and so that's been a really fundamental part that we put a lot of thought into the

31:18Richard Harpin: And not just about cost plus, it's about understanding competitors and the market dynamics and what your consumers will pay.

31:28Alex Wright: Exactly, yeah. So there's a combination of making sure that the unit economics stack up for the product and Dash would make money, but also that it's going to be competitively priced. So it's a careful balance between the two. I think the other key thing is that it's not just the headline price that one advertises, it's also the quantity of discounts. And so some of the other larger soft drink brands that we're up against will heavily, heavily promote. And part of that is just to stop healthy and delicious soft drink brands like ourselves from scaling.

32:08Richard Harpin: How important is Omnichannel selling online yourself as well as selling in the major retailers?

32:15Alex Wright: Omnichannel's fundamentals, Dash. Saved the business in 2020. So at the early stages of Dash, we always wanted to have a business that we would own our relationship directly with the consumer, right? And that was for two reasons. one is so that we could have conversations and we could get direct feedback from those people the other reason is that we could ensure that the retailers that have quite strong relationships with larger soft drink multinationals we would be able to not be bound by some of their constraints and we would be able to scale the business quickly and so we've always wanted to have a omni-channel approach it saved the business in 2020 when COVID came along because out of home so pubs bars coffee shops delis that was about 65 % of our business in February 2020 and we just put in this is more by luck rather than design a new subscription service on our website music to

33:28Richard Harpin: my ears i i love subscription models and so i think you can buy a uh about 96 cans can't you and have them delivered weekly or fortnightly or monthly and for only a 99p delivery and um

33:43Alex Wright: at a 20 discount all of the above exactly yes uh and so using a code such as alex 30 you can get a nice introductory discount um and having that uh direct relationship means that we're able to offer consumers products for the first time we're able to give them uh best in market uh subscription pricing because they're loyal to us we will uh repay them with that um and i meant in In 2020, when our out-of-home sales went into hibernation mode overnight, we still grew the business 110 % that year because every day our sales on our subscription service on our website just went through the roof. And we wouldn't be here today unless we had an omni-channel business.

34:35Richard Harpin: How have your skills developed as the chief exec and co-founder of the business as the operation has expanded? And I think you talk about is letting go the best way to grow?

34:48Alex Wright: For me, it's absolutely essential. And again, coming back to the business coach, business coaching is one of the most important things for me to make sure that I grow as a leader. um one of the things that i'm doing uh we're doing this month is that uh my business coach is speaking to our uh senior leadership team and he's getting 360 feedback from all of our senior leadership team members on me and uh a week on tuesday we're then going through this feedback as a session um and completely uh normal anonymous feedback and it enables me to have uncensored feedback that I will then be able to develop myself as a leader.

35:36Alex Wright: And you were talking about the letting go part. So something that we've now got at Dash and gives me tremendous confidence is an amazing, amazing team. Every person at Dash is far better at doing their job than I would ever be able to do it and our senior leadership team letting go to them and ensuring that they're able to be outstanding in every way possible and fulfill their role in a much better way than I would be able to is something that I found hard because you're so used to at the beginning doing everything and you think you know I've done it previously so I'm very happy to just do it again because this other person is busy but you need to let go because one I need to make sure that I spend my time on uh doing the chief exec roles but also they're much better

36:36Richard Harpin: at doing their job so this is all about delegation and then that gives you the time to focus on the bits that you're the best at exactly that where are you where are you focusing your time Alex so

36:47Alex Wright: So the key parts of my role is on business strategy. So it's making sure that we are really clear on exactly what we want to achieve in 2028 and how we're going to work backwards from there. So the strategy of how we're going to do that. The other key thing is ensuring that we have best-in-class individuals in our team and then also managing the board as well. Those are the key parts of my role.

37:21Richard Harpin: And just talk about the board and when that got established and how many people are on that and how that works.

37:28Alex Wright: So we've always wanted to fill our little tent with the best minds, much in the same way as our investors. And so we have the founder of Sipsmith Gin, We've got the founder of Links of London. Our chair is a chap called David Milner, who was previously the CEO of Tyrell's Crisps, Lily's Kitchen, the pet food brand, Crosta Molica, an Italian-based pizza brand. And the amazing thing about our board is that they are really, really good at letting Jack and I run the business. and if we have a question then we go to them and they have seen nearly apart from situations like covid every situation before and they've got a great idea for how we can overcome obstacles

38:18Richard Harpin: how often do you have board meetings and uh what does the pack look like and somebody that's

38:23Alex Wright: thinking of setting up a a proper board we've got five board meetings per year and uh speak to our board members in between then. I speak to our chairman on a near daily basis and setting up the board is about ensuring you've got the right people that fulfill every different situation that one may need to decide in a board meeting. So whether it's sales, marketing, operations, so we've got best in class individuals that fulfill all of those. And coming to the board with discussion points. So it's not just a reporting forum, which you could just send that out on an email, but making sure that you extract value by having conversations and setting that up in the right way.

39:15Richard Harpin: What was the best bit of advice that you think you ever got from one of your board non-execs?

39:20Alex Wright: I think the best bit of advice that we've had from our board is to stick to our brand values. You get so many people that come with various different ideas. You get retailers who say, look, if you were just to make this supposedly minor tweak, then we could put you into hundreds more stores. And just sticking to your brand's values. Having the courage to say no. Exactly that. Yeah. So I'd probably say that's the best bit of guidance that we've had.

39:51Richard Harpin: Talk a little bit about how you've developed your leadership team.

39:55Alex Wright: The way that we've built our leadership team is by ensuring that for every key department that we have in Dash, we've got a best in class individual that is able to challenge Jack and I, that has really good experience and has been able to go through the journey that we are on at the moment of 65 million cans this year. to hundreds of million cans. And that's a team of how many? We've got eight people on our senior leadership team. And the final bit is, again, just making sure that the culture and their values are aligned with ours. So it's absolutely crucial that there is great harmony on our senior leadership team in terms of representing the brand's values.

40:50Alex Wright: You still need to ensure, as I say, there's really good discussion and challenging you can't have a senior leadership team that all comes from the same background or has the same views because you just don't get new ideas so there needs to be um differing views and really good challenging that goes on in those types of meetings how did you go about recruiting that team i'd say it's been a mixture of uh people that i've met along the journey and have thought you are absolutely outstanding and you need to be on our team did you hire them right away or you

41:26Richard Harpin: wrote the name in your black book and thought i'm gonna hire them one day wrote the name in our black

41:32Alex Wright: book and thought can i afford them i cannot afford them would they even want to come uh and luckily twisting their arm uh to come and join dash um and then also you know it comes back to um having an amazing network as well um you know speaking with great individuals like yourself and when you have a role that is uh that needs filling then speaking to the network and putting word out there because amazing people know other amazing people and you're only really one step away from being able to connect with people that you want to have on your team and using head headhunters occasionally or not yep occasionally we've used headhunters um and again it's just making sure that the headhunters that you work with they are also aligned with your values because if you get headhunters that um think that you're chasing a quick buck uh or that you're not uh operating business in the right way then they find people who share similar values as that so that's really

42:39Richard Harpin: important any difficult conversations where somebody has not been the at the right hire and

42:45Alex Wright: you've had to um let them go there have been yeah and how did you how did you handle that and i think the key thing is that there's a difference between being nice and kind and if someone is not right for the business it's a kind thing to have a conversation with someone has to be done in the right way in the right setting and having a constructive conversation where one is able to be direct and say we've had these soft conversations in the past about things not working and we said that we would get to a point if they're still not working that we would have to have a tricky conversation, which is what this conversation is about.

43:37Alex Wright: And it's best for both parties to part ways. Building a business, those are the most hard conversations to have. But if it's right for both parties, then that is the best thing to do.

43:49Richard Harpin: Will there ever be pressure from your investors to say, we want to sell? Have you had any thoughts yourself with your founding partner about one day exiting?

44:02Alex Wright: What we're doing is we are building the business so that we are able to have what we call financial and commercial autonomy. And so what that means is that we were able to choose our path and destiny by building and creating the business with a strong P &L cash flow. and so that one day we are able to float on the stock market. Some of our early investors, maybe they will be able to sell their shares and have a small liquidity event. But it's so far in the future. What we're just focused on is scaling the business as rapidly as possible and growing it 40%, 50 % year on year.

44:52Richard Harpin: Music to the ears of the London stock market. We need many more businesses that list. I think it's a really good thing to be able to do in the medium to long term.

45:01Alex Wright: It definitely is. And if I look at other businesses like Fevertree that have gone down that route, it's been a massive success story. And I think the way that they have built their business is relatively similar to the way that we've built ours at Dash. There are good similarities. and so it's definitely a brand that we admire.

45:25Richard Harpin: Looking back so far, Alex, what would be your three tips in leadership? In leadership, my three key tips would be

45:35Alex Wright: ensuring that you have got the right strategy in place. Again, look to the future, build back from there. Number two is get the right people on the bus. make sure that you have outstanding individuals on your team and you give them the autonomy and resource in order to flourish and then the third thing is to ensure that your role just enhances the people and the strategy on the business doesn't get in the way of it just but just make sure that everything is set up in the right way for people to operate and flourish in their roles.

46:19Richard Harpin: You've been listening to me, Richard Harpin, speaking to Alex Wright of Dash Drinks for the Business Leader podcast. Please do rate and subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts. We do two episodes every week. If you visit our Business Leader website, you can sign up to our weekly newsletter to get more content like this and find out opportunities for your business.

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