The Future of Wine Isn’t Alcohol-Free w/Gabriella Lamb || 6 Percent

0:00Around alcohol free or low alcohol there's such a perception that it's going to taste bad. You know that is generally the perception of low and no but 6 % tastes really good. So how do you ensure that the taste is kind of phenomenal with every single bottle you make? Yeah I mean we didn't know how to remove alcohol from wine like we're not winemakers so we spent a long time researching you know what's the best way to remove alcohol but keep the aromas and the flavours and vacuum distillation is what we landed on it's what we use in our wine. If you are out or socialising or even in and you don't want to have all or nothing, this is where mid-strength comes in.

0:38So I think it is the natural next step from alcohol-free. What has been a really big risk that you've had to take? I think our biggest risk was ordering the first batch of wine. We had to order in the first instance over 10 ,000 bottles and not knowing if we would sell a single one. It was terrifying. Where did you put 10 ,000 bottles? Well, some people assume lower A, V, B must mean lower price. Because, you know, they're getting less alcohol, therefore I should be paying less. Yeah. How do you tackle that? Yeah. Good question. What would you say to someone listening to the podcast like the biggest misconception about being a founder is?

1:21Ooh, that's a good question. Before we get into today's episode, I want to give a shout out to a special sponsor. Sam Lawrence Recruitment. We all know that finding the right people or the right job can feel really overwhelming, and that's exactly where Sam comes in. He really just gets it. It's not just about ticking boxes. It's about connecting the right people with the right opportunities. He takes the time to understand you and exactly what you're looking for, whether you're building a team or taking that next career leap. So definitely get in touch. Trust me, you'll be glad you did. Charlie is a three-time founding member of Startup Brands, taking each from 0 to 1 million within 18 months, across different categories, channels and countries, including launching operations in the US and Australia.

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3:16Welcome back to another episode of Getting to Grow. On this week's episode we have Gabby Lamb the co-founder of 6 % Wine now I was just chatting to Gabby in the lift on the way up here saying that I have actually drank all the samples that I have sent so I don't have any to show you today but I will put a picture of it here so you guys can see um but thank you very much firstly for coming on the podcast um we thought it was going to be a virtual one so Gabby has jumped in the car and been here within 20 minutes so that's amazing luckily um you're we're both south of the river so that's really helpful um but yes thank you so much for coming on lovely to have you pleasure thank you for having me really excited so gabby you grew up around wine your grandfather made his own then moved into finance before shifting to kind of wine tasting events and eventually launching six percent what was the pivotal moment that you thought i need to build the kind of wine that i want to drink so was there a point in your life where you know there was maybe too much alcohol or you wanted to cut back give us a bit of story behind that?

4:18Yeah I mean I've there wasn't necessarily a particular you know pivotal moment it really was loads of moments that built up over time as our lifestyle changed so you know as you mentioned always been around wine loved wine worked in wine and really as you know we became parents and our lifestyle changed and we just started asking the question um why isn't there a great tasting low alcohol wine and it actually came about we were on a date me and my husband uh Russell the other co-founder and we you know he would be drinking beer and I would be drinking wine at the same pace that he's drinking beer and beer is a lot lower ABD wine's a lot higher and it was really during that moment we're on a date when we thought it's it's strange like why isn't there just a lighter alcohol wine and over time the more we started asking that question to ourselves the more we felt there was just a big void of a good tasting low alcohol wine and we tried to find find one um we tried lots of no alcohol wine um but they were just you know we wanted alcohol still and it seemed mad that there was just this massive gap of full strength wine no alcohol you know alcohol free wine and the question then became can you make a lower alcohol wine probably the stupidest question we've asked ourselves or the most meaningful question we've asked ourselves um and really that's that's where it began it was something that grew gradually over you know weeks months years um we started thinking about this back in 2020 2021 so it's a long time in the making and i think around alcohol free or low alcohol there's such a perception that it's going to taste bad because you know that is generally the perception of low and no but six percent tastes really good so how do you ensure that the taste is kind of phenomenal with every single bottle you make yeah I mean it took a good two and a half years to get to the the flavor profile that we have today of our wine it wasn't something that you know was quick and easy to make we traveled all over Europe trying to find well first of all trying to find someone who could help us make this wine when you go around and you meet people in you know in Europe they actually think you're crazy um they did four years ago being like you know can you make something that's you know not low alcohol not full something in the middle um so it was it took a long time to get you know first of all to find someone that could make our wine for us and we landed in Bordeaux because you know it's incredible reputation arguably one of the best wine regions in the world so already you've got that quality stamp which was really important for us we wanted this to be wine at its purest form that you recognize as wine and having this you know having high quality grapes produced in Bordeaux you know fitted the bill for us which was brilliant and I guess in terms of ensuring we have that quality we we very much create the wine with the winemakers we're in Bordeaux we're blending the wine we're ensuring that it's got the flavor profile that we think will be loved and enjoyed by many yeah I think I mean firstly going to Bordeaux is like your place to get the wine is like a big tick isn't it because they know wine very well and you're right I think actually it could have it definitely is up there with one of the best wine regions in the world.

8:15And also it brings to the customer a familiar name that they associate with wine. I think if you went and sourced your wine that still did really good wine, but maybe it wasn't a Bordeaux or a Cape Town, for example, you'd have that customer perception going, oh, well, it's not coming from at least a place I know if they're trying low and no. So I think that has a massive impact, obviously, on what you're doing. And what frustrations with standard wine pushed you and your husband to make wine that six percent so I know you mentioned obviously like you were drinking it a lot quicker than he was drinking beer and kind of the the rate of alcohol was different but you know you said you couldn't find anything that suited what you wanted what who would you say like your general kind of consumer is I think the general you know our consumers are wine lovers they're people who've been drinking wine but for some reason or another are perhaps restricted by wine in certain occasions so it might be mid-week and they think oh you know I shouldn't have one or I can only have one because I've got a meeting in the morning that's really who we're focusing our customer base on like when you was kind of looking all the other competitors out there and having a think about what you were gonna bring to market how were you gonna firstly I know you said that there weren't that many and you couldn't find that gap but were there any on the market that you know weren't doing what you're doing for you to bring what you brought out yeah so we you know we searched high and low for a wine that could hit the spot in terms of taste flavor and in terms of having a little bit of alcohol so at that time in 2020 there were lots of um on the market there were lots of wine spritzes which are lovely don't get me wrong but it's it's a wine spritz it's mixed with yeah other stuff it could be soda elderflower it wasn't wine and it seemed crazy that if you love wine like when I go out I only drink wine that there was nothing lower in alcohol and at the time alcohol-free wines the development wasn't there so there weren't there weren't there wasn't a whole lot of selection and what was out there was quite high in sugar and and just didn't taste like wine for me um so that's really how we set about on this journey because it was just something we craved in our life and what is the process of de-alcoholic how do you say de-alcoholizing is that the right word yeah yeah wine yeah I mean there's lots of ways you can do it and again this was something that we had to start out fresh we didn't know how to remove alcohol from wine like we're not winemakers so we spent a long time researching you know what's the best way to remove alcohol but keep the aromas and the flavors and vacuum distillation is what we landed on it's what we use in our wine so it's a process by which it allows you to remove the alcohol from wine at a lot lower temperature so you don't have to boil off the alcohol and lose all the aromas and flavors of the wine yes um so when we set about on this journey there's not a lot of people that had this vacuum distillation and had the you know the machinery at scale lots of small time wineries making alcohol-free wine with their small vacuum distillation but you know we wanted to go big and turns out there was a handful in Europe that actually had this machinery it was so brand new um so we worked with our winemakers to experiment how you know what's the best way that we can remove alcohol how to remove it and what we came up with is you remove the alcohol from the wine completely down to zero but because we're using a bordeaux wine which is big bold to start with when you strip it down you keep quite a lot of the aromas and then we blend it back up with full strength wine to get to six percent oh interesting okay because actually last weekend I had a hen do and we went to a wine toasting um in like sussex way and we went we walked through the winery and it was really interesting on how the wine the alcohol is made from like the yeast and kind of like how it formulates and all that stuff and i i was it was really interesting on how like the process of it and how you know the sediment and then like the whole kind of i just didn't know the ins and outs of the wine making industry so i didn't realize either that to make the kind of that's how you did it you took out a lot of the alcohol and then you put back in and kind of like blend it together to get your six percent yes and everyone will have different techniques yeah ways they do it but that's you know after two and a half years of experimenting that's what we landed on okay and how did you know you'd hit the sweet spot um a lot of trial and error i would say and for us i mean the more alcohol you add to a wine the more it's going to you know feel like a full strength wine so we could have put in eight percent nine percent abv wine um but the the problem then is you're not adding that much benefit to the customer there's not that much value in dropping you know most wine is 12 12 percent abv what's two or three percent less alcohol like yeah you want something that's like a you know a decent percent less to exactly a significant amount so we you know we knew we had to reduce it significantly to have that added benefit to the customer and we tried everything from three percent alcohol all the way up to eight nine and we really felt like six was the sweet spot where you get that benefit of you know half the alcohol half the calories in regular wine um but also it's got enough alcohol to you know people like alcohol to feel it to you know feel like you're unwinding relaxing from the alcohol um and alcohol gives the wine body so we felt it was a good you know point to feel like you've got enough body of the wine we don't have to add back loads of sugar to compensate for the loss of alcohol so it all just married up and we we felt like six was the magic number and at that point we were actually called something else and when we landed on six it just we kept calling it six percent the six percent wine six percent and that's kind of how we landed on our name as well oh i love that and um if you had to define six percent mission in one sentence what would it be um six percent is giving wine lovers a choice for their modern lifestyle for the lifestyle that we live today and at the moment if my listeners want to go out and try it obviously dc so website right and then in terms of like out and about are there any like listings that they could be like i can get a glass of wine here um so we yeah we're available on our website on amazon on deli so a lot online at the moment we've got we work with some small um independent retailers which are working really well with us um there's one in south london cotswold you know we've got them all over moving on to a bit about kind of changing how people drink so the market it has been dominated for so long by full strength alcohol wine sugary um why do you think that mid strength like six percent resonates with people versus a no alcohol wine today yeah i think so people are moderating you know that 76 percent of consumers are moderating their alcohol intake and at the minute that looks like one of two things either they are drinking less alcoholic drinks when they go out so you may have heard of the term zebra striping or bookending so they'll start with a soft drink yeah move on to alcohol end with a soft drink or they'll alternate between those throughout the night the second way in which they're moderating is by abstaining on certain nights of the week so you know I'm not going to drink Monday to Wednesday say um but in both those scenarios what the consumer is doing is giving something up um is stopping limiting themselves and this is where mid-strength comes into play because actually it doesn't have to be this all or nothing approach it doesn't have to be full strength and alcohol free there's something in the middle which is mid-strength and it means that you can have mid-strength throughout your night and still hit your health and wellness goals you don't have to limit yourself you don't have to say oh no I'm moving on to a soft drink you can just enjoy mid-strength and for me you know when I go out it takes away that whole anxiety element of like oh no I can't I can't have another one or is this going to tip me over the edge or you know just being able to sip on mid-strength wine and you know there's beers cocktails out there it it really changes you know your experience and I think that is why you know the mid-strength movement is here we know people are moderating because of health reasons predominantly 46 % are abstaining because of health reasons so it makes sense that mid-strength will be you know a huge opportunity for those people and I think you're right I think there is definitely something it's funny like I think I've zebra striped my whole life but didn't realize I've been zebra striping like this is a new sort of sentence really that I feel like it's a new term that people have been using but I'm um I'm not a massive drinker I definitely enjoy a glass of wine I don't limit myself I don't you know if I want a drink I'll have a drink but what I tend to see myself doing is drinking quite regularly so throughout the week I'm you know I host a podcast I'm constantly meeting I'm constantly doing events I'm constantly out I'm probably drinking out of seven nights maybe six probably quite bad yeah but I'm not drinking a lot yeah so I may be having like you know one glass two glasses one glass and then I will always in the evening try to be like I'll have you know a soft drink here I'll have a glass of water and pretend it's like a gin and tonic or something you know that trick um and actually it's allowed me to sustain probably the amount I go out and drink because if I was drinking in on every drink it would be quite you know I'd be quite pissed really at the end of the night whereas actually if there was an option that was like right you can drink basically continue to drink but it's lower yeah that's amazing like you've taken out like the cold you're right the anxieties of being like oh do I have another one um and also it's quite nice to have a drink but not like I'm quite lightweight so one glass of wine and I feel it yeah so if there was something that you need like that slight buzz but didn't want to go over it's a nice way to have it as well yeah absolutely and it's you know for me it was very much becoming a mother and realizing like I can't drink any wine and look after my children yeah because it hits you you know and I think that this you know no matter what your situation whether you've got a meeting in the morning whether you are going you know back to bath and bedtime after lunch this wine allows you just to enjoy your social occasion that you want to enjoy absolutely without having to overthink you know should i have one or two you know you don't have to think about that with mid-strength absolutely and how do you i know we've spoken about like the wine quality but do you find that every single batch you make is different because how do you ensure that the quality is exactly the same so obviously every grape i know within reason they're similar but obviously sunshine all the weather affects every harvest as such yeah and I think that is you know that's what makes wine so unique because it's not just a recipe same old recipe that you bang in every year and you make your batch like there's so many different factors to contend with with wine but that I think is what's so magical about wine so we have just created our second vintage which is going to be out early 2026 amazing and it you know it's been a much better harvest yeah so the wine naturally tastes much fuller in body we tweak the recipe a little bit just to further improve it and develop and you know it's always a work in progress and we listen to feedback we take that on board with the recipe creation and it's what makes our product really exciting so it will you know we've got the quality there because of the incredible winemakers their experience that we've got access to over 300 vineyards so we've always got the best quality grapes that go into our wine um and we that's what we love we love being able to just keep the wine intrinsic to what we think six percent community and wine levels would like and some people assume lower avb must mean lower price because you know they're getting low they're getting less alcohol therefore i should be paying less yeah but you know that's not always the case because you know there's lots of things that come into play with still making wine how do you tackle that yeah good question and it's something we you know when we first came out it was oh well half the alcohol half the price then and absolutely not if you think about the process of which we make it it's a lot of added process on top of the winemaking itself um that requires time it requires more machinery more overheads more people involved so naturally you know we think our price is positioned really nicely in a premium affordable space and we are using high quality grapes so I think there is a real education piece that needs to be done around why you have to you know there is a price attached to these really high quality products and if you want quality um you know that's that's the price that comes yeah I agree if you want quality you've got to pay for it for sure and um have you noticed like you know since since you launched have you noticed like the kind of increase year on year of people questioning and coming to you and saying this is really interesting I want to try it how do I like you know because obviously buying maybe a bottle would be like a barrier to entry for somebody they might not want to invest in that so is there anything that you do to help the customer like taste a little bit of it before committing to a bottle yeah absolutely I mean we're out on the road all the time we run so many events every week um and our main you know our main focus this year really has been liquid on lips yeah we've only been going for a year so for us it's so important to get out there um and let the customers try it for themselves and it's so nice to see people's reactions face to face so you don't get that when you just sell something online and you know it's we love our customer facing events um and the reaction which is you know wow yeah didn't know this product existed I really need this product in my life um and yeah some really great feedback we've had you need to infiltrate like every mum group ever yeah you like there needs to be a way to go to like every nursery coffee morning or something and be like you guys need to Exactly, yeah.

23:50Were there any kind of, I know you've already said you've only been going a year, but within the year that you've been trading, have there been any like big setbacks or any big failures that you maybe thought, gosh, maybe this isn't the right path for me? I mean, when we set out a year ago, we didn't even know if this product would take off. We had an inkling, we thought it's what the customer needed, but really we released one SKU, which was our red, um to test the market and to see what the appetite was to see see what the consumer demand actually was um because you can't take you can't test that until you've got out there so we very much used our first skew as a bit of a test and to be honest it it took off like within two months we were on saturday kitchen live which was incredible for our business was it what was that experience like oh it was amazing I mean you we thought about this product and dreamt about this product and finally getting it to market which felt really tough in the market that we were um and there's lots of doubters aren't there lots of people like oh that would never work no or you know but for every doubter there was always so many more cheerleaders and it was so important that we pushed this product out because we knew it was a choice that customers had been looking for so when you see it on television so soon after you've launched and Helen McGinn who is you know I've always looked up to is just amazing is drinking your product and you know singing its praises it was incredible it was a real like pinch me moment did you see a spike in your online orders yes did you yeah it's amazing amazing for that isn't it and uh it was great outreach for us in a very short space of time yeah absolutely did they get in touch with you yeah yeah they i mean we we send out our wine to a lot of people um to taste it and they got back to us and said we'd love it and want it on the show with about three days notice wow quickly quickly get it to get it to them yeah um there as patterns change like less heavy drinking kind of more moderation where do you see the future of like mid-strength and do you see more competitors entering you know do you see more people actually switching out and do we see the the actual sales of alcohol lower yeah so i think you know we can look at what's happened in alcohol free um and we know there's been a huge alcohol free movement that's been building over the last 10 years let's say um and the biggest shift with that has been consumer mindset in in that if you go out and you don't want to drink alcohol you don't have to have water diet coke you know there's some amazing options out there and there's been a huge movement with alcohol free I think um spirits is up by 36 percent wine alcohol free wine is up by 11 but that really is paving the way for mid-strength the fact that consumer mindsets has already shifted to be like you don't have to always drink full strength there's other options out there for me I think naturally when people have gone into the alcohol-free world of wine it maybe doesn't hit the spot for them and maybe they've been tarnished to think oh well alcohol-free wine isn't for me but actually we've moved on a lot there are some great tasting alcohol-free wines now um but we go back to this all or nothing if you are out or socializing or even in and you don't want to have all or nothing this is where mid-strength comes in so i think it is the natural next step from alcohol free um i don't think it will take as long for consumers to get there because their mindsets already shifted thanks to all the work that's happened with the you know the alcohol free collective and movement um so it's really exciting and i think that we know that customers are cutting back they're not abstaining completely so this is where you know mid-strength fits the bill absolutely and what do you think needs to change in the wine industry to make mid-strengths wine a mainstream a mainstream choice than an afterthought perception yeah I think also it's getting on menus yeah as well like it's having the availability option right exactly and a lot of the trade venues what we come up against a lot is well people aren't asking for this people aren't asking for mid-strength wine and my question is you know have you asked your customers what they want and we know that people are moderating they are cutting back but they're not abstaining so if there was a great quality good tasting mid-strength wine on your menu next to your house wines I guarantee you that the majority of people would go for that mid-strength wine because it's lower in alcohol and it's less calories and actually what would happen for the trade is their rate of sale would go up because people would be staying longer because they can drink a little bit more they can say yes to that second glass and suddenly that rate of sale has just doubled so instead of selling you know for every house wine you're going to sell you're going to sell two mid-strength by the way yeah so I think it's it's you know the trade at the moment are slow to pick up on mid-strength wine in particular um but it really it's a huge opportunity especially for those you know lunchtime slots early afternoon when we know we know loads of people going out for lunch now they're not going for after work drinks they're going out at lunch and they are socializing and they are probably going to have a soft drink if you don't have a lower alcohol option on your menu so it's really important that the trade listen and you know the perception is that mid-strength is you know not going to taste good it's not going to be a substitute for the customer and I would argue we've got an excellent tasting wine and a customer definitely would choose mid-strength if it was on their menu I think it's absolutely I think it's the availability is there it's um it's people will definitely pick it up yeah it's awareness as well and you know the the more we're out there the more we grow our brand the more that you know customers will be and they are asking for it I mean we get asked regularly you know what restaurant can I buy this in what supermarket can I buy this in so yeah yeah I think it's a really interesting time and space for the alcohol world because I think it's similar to what happened in like the vegan space like how everybody went vegan and then they've just gone back to yeah you know eating from whatever they fancy really and maybe dipping into a few plant-based things or whatever yeah and it's the same you go completely alcohol free well actually i do want to come back to alcohol but maybe i don't want to come back to like full-time alcohol yeah this is where like six percent would be the perfect spot and and that was my journey as well you know i've i've done months at a time where i would just abstain from alcohol um just you know to be healthy and you know no other reason really but I I missed I missed alcohol I want to have a little bit in my life um and sadly you know the only wine I drink at the minute is is mid-strength is our wine so um I know that there's lots of other people that out there that you know want this choice in their life as well yeah absolutely and um in terms of like the financials for you guys and six percent is it more is it all currently like personal money that's been invested are you looking to raise is that on the pipeline yeah we have gone through a very strong year of trying to raise investment it's uh if you speak to anyone yeah in the industry they're like this is really tough time to to get investment um and it's really been our sole focus uh but we are at 90 there with our raise which is really exciting amazing we've got some brilliant uh investors on board and really it's for us it wasn't you know it wasn't finding investors it was finding the right investors um because it's so important like for us it's it's not about just taking anyone on board we are growing this company from the ground up for a sustainable you know growth and it was really important that we get the right people on board for us i mean yeah i've done this podcast for a long time and one of the big things is one of the biggest mistakes found as a lot of them say when that when they come on is that you know you start you the money's very attractive but the person wasn't right so they've got in with investors who haven't been right and it's been like way more headache and stressful than than they like anticipated so like choosing your partner wisely is absolutely key yeah exactly and with the kind of investment money that you're raising where what's the kind of plan for it where do you see the majority of it going so we've got a really exciting 2026 so we still haven't bought out our whole range so we've got some more wine that's being added to the range um at the minute it's it's the three co-founders so it's myself Russell my husband and Jason um but I'm the only one that works on it full-time so we are bringing in some new resource which is really exciting and hopefully going into you know a big grocer into retail into trade and really just grow this brand we've got a you know really loyal following of six percenters I would call them and we just want to keep going we've got very strong d2c sales and customers keep coming back so that tells us something there is a huge demand for this product so yeah exciting year lots of marketing activations for us yeah for sure I think marketing is you know it's it's massive when you're a small band like there's so much you need to be doing with kind of the on you know even online and socials and we've seen like a big push for that founder-led content that people want to see they want to see like what you did up to like the day-to-day of you kind of building a business what would you say to someone listening to the podcast like the biggest um the biggest you know misconception about being a founder is?

34:33Oh, that's a good question. The biggest misconception? Probably that you don't get involved with the nitty gritty. As a founder, I mean, I was literally balancing on a kitchen stool last week, sifting icing onto a little food board that we were doing to make it look like snow know for some content and it was just that moment of I just didn't think I'd be doing this a year ago you kind of think that oh someone will do that or someone but you know as a founder you are literally picking up everything yeah and you're involved with everything and it's really hard especially at the moment you know most of us are working you know we've got two other girls that work with us on the on the business we're all working remotely and as a founder it's it's difficult to um keep going every day every day there's something you know there's setbacks there's something that goes wrong something you've got to firefight something um every single day so it's not all networking and you know nice doing nice lunches it's really tough yeah and what's your north star for six percent if there was one thing next year that you were like this has to land and I know I've had a successful year, what would it be?

35:57Getting into a supermarket would be where we want to go to next year. And is there a supermarket in mind that you like, you know, your customer that you think that would be a perfect supermarket to be listed with? There's a few. Yeah. There's a few. I think there's some certain ones on our radar that fit our customer base really nicely. Absolutely. I think I can see you as very much like an Ocado shopper would do quite nicely there. Absolutely. um and what is one of the biggest risks obviously like starting a business is a big risk anyway you know it's the biggest risk but outside of the obvious what has been a really big risk that you've had to take um I think our biggest risk was ordering the first batch of wine and we had to order in the first instance over 10 ,000 bottles and not knowing if we would sell a single one.

36:56It was terrifying. Where did you put 10 ,000 bottles? Well, we have a warehouse luckily. Okay. But that, you know, you produce, you create this sample and then that's it. You know, you don't see it or taste it again until 10 over 10 000 bottles are made and that felt like a huge risk um but we had a brilliant investor dean who came on board early before um you know we'd made the product and took a gamble took that leap of faith with us um and it's paid off here we are amazing i think like gosh yeah ordering 10 000 bottles and not knowing if any is going to sell also like initial you know upfront issues of like cash flow as well like it's a lot to drop on one production and you've also got to have quite a good relationship I guess with your manufacturer because they might think they probably want all the money up front you know you maybe don't get the luxury of 30 days 90 days payment to us because you're a small business that's just started yeah so was that something you had to navigate as well yeah absolutely um luckily we did have some good payment terms um but at the end of the day once it's made you've got to pay for it but there was always that oh is it gonna is it going to taste like the sample are the labels going to look good um you know is it going to get to us in one piece there were so many factors and it felt really it felt like a huge risk at the time we put in all our savings as well so my husband had a flat and then we he sold that and we you know moved in together but at the time that money was just sitting there for our future and suddenly we're putting in over 20k yeah and being like oh this is gonna work and we've got three kids like yeah that's a lot it feels like you know you're literally throwing everything every penny we had into this not knowing if it you know we'd come out the other side um but yeah here we are here we are and it's a success and um how do you balance as it grows like scaling the business because I think that's something that people can really struggle with like scaling too quickly or scaling too slowly like all these different areas that you know help you get your name out there how do you balance the scaling of the business um as you grow yeah I think as a founder it's really easy to feel like you're not doing enough quick enough and And it, you know, when you're in the day to day, you're often questioning, why isn't this happening?

39:37Why hasn't that taken off? And it feels like nothing's moving. But only when you take a step back and you look at what you've achieved in a period of time, you realize, wow, we've actually, we've grown a lot. And we've done a lot in a short space of time. um but what we you know as a company we always stay true to you know us as a company as six percent our vision our mission we we try and do everything you know heartfelt true we're not trying to look at other brands and copy trends or anything like that like we know our mission and our purpose is to create this great tasting mid-strength wine to give people that choice for their modern lifestyle and we have a very strong strategy in place um Jason our co-founder is from the you know Diageo Pernod Ricard world he's done a brilliant job but a lot of founders will feel that they're never doing enough yes and the when you're in the day-to-day you will always question are we moving fast enough are we doing enough why isn't this taking off why isn't that happening but actually when you take a step back and realize how far you've grown and how far you've come in such a short space of time it's really quite amazing and I think that yes we want to grow this company but we want to grow it right and sustainably in the sense that if you scale fast things can be missed in you know in what we're doing and I think that for us it's about staying true to who we are as six percent um everything we do is heartfelt we don't try and copy what other brands are doing or you know look for what the trend is like we're building something for the future which we believe is the future and we have an incredibly strong strategy in place um that we stick by yes you have to you know change and align as you know as things go on but we've got Jason Sennett who is um from the Diageo Pernod Ricard world and he's you know done an amazing job of bringing all our strategy together and you know it we make a great little trio and we all have the same vision same mission in place which helps us grow in the right direction at the pace we need to I think also as well there's so much about comparison all the time like you can you can go on LinkedIn or you can go on Instagram and compare yourself to lots of other you know brands out there but I think it's really important to ignore the noise sometimes and know that you're on the right path and what you're doing is a rate that you can also do it at I think some people do scale too quick and then they're left with problems later on you know slow and steady wins the race right absolutely and you know what I love about our brand is we've got a story to tell um me and my husband Russell who are the original co-founders you know people love that story husband and wife team and it's so important that um you know people can relate to us as people as husband and wife as co-founders and they buy into you and they buy into your brand that way absolutely I think the story is really important as to why you even started it I think you need to resonate with an audience and it also brings like a big human feel to it like your husband or wife but your mum and dad yeah you know there's also a big part of your life that isn't your wine business as well like you need to make sure that you know your kids are tended to all those other things um you know like most normal people we all have a day job as you know as well as other stuff going on so yeah it's really important because i think big businesses they don't have that connection with the customer it's really hard as a small business and online community you can really facilitate that community and connection that you know big businesses don't have the advantage of exactly yeah and what does success mean to you as a founder today's sales community impact changing drinking habits something deeper um it's probably all of those things really i think you know for us we're building we're building a business but we are building a community of wine lovers who want this choice in their life and outside of that we're also building a category.

44:02This is a brand new category that hasn't existed before. We are not only building our product, but we're also trying to build awareness of the bigger category. And we have brought together an amazing group of people, of brands who have mid-strength drinks. We've named ourselves the Mid-Strength Collective. But it's so important that we come together because you know 12 15 I think there's now 30 brands um have a lot more of a powerful voice than one individual um so together we are building education we're building awareness um we have a month now mid-march where we are encouraging people to drink mid-strength drinks um and it's it's so nice to come together with those brands who are in exactly the same position as you um some have been going for a lot longer than us um and we can get their experience which is you know brilliant and it's nice to have that community of like-minded brands that are trying to do the same thing as you um and also the end point is creating this choice for the customer and if six percent didn't exist tomorrow what else would you be doing what would I be doing oh that's a good question I would be feeling like there was a massive void in my life yeah and your fourth baby it has become my fourth baby yeah and to be honest sometimes it's my first baby yeah um it's just you know it is very much ingrained in us in our life now and I can't imagine life without it but I think you know if six percent didn't exist we would be in this you know wine soda culture for way too long lots of people are drinking wine with soda and watering down their wine or wine with ice um wine with ice is sacrilege i can't it's just not you can't buy a nice glass of rose and put wine ice in it illegal in my opinion my dad gets so angry every time anyone does it he's like what are you doing i'm like now he's explained it to me i'm like oh my gosh yes but before when i was young i did but now yeah i would never do it because it really does completely change what you're drinking yeah i mean it waters it down doesn't it and yeah but you know ironically the people the people who do that are doing that to make their wine less strong to make it a lighter wine to dilute the wine because they don't want it as yeah as strong so yeah i guess why have a watered down version of something when you can have a six percent six percent absolutely and um quick fire little personal touch questions to finish the interview first wine memory your uh what was your first wine memory um that made you love wine my first wine memory i mean growing up in an italian household and my granddad making his own wine in his back garden my first memory was always sunday at lunch my granddad would have his wine on the table and it tasted I didn't ever taste it because I was so young but it you could smell it you'd open the bottom you could smell it it was so strong and they put peaches in wine very Italian they put peaches in wine um to make it taste sweeter and it was really then I became very curious about wine it was always the center point everyone was drinking it everyone was enjoying it and that was when I guess the curiosity started yeah yeah from such an early age from such an early age but I think I don't really think I appreciated or enjoyed wine until I was in my mid-20s and met my now husband and we started just you know going traveling and going to wine regions and yeah how did you guys meet uh we worked together oh yeah we it was my first proper job about a few and um he came into my team which I hate me saying um and I had to train him up and the rest is history yeah um and what's your go-to occasion for six percent when do you enjoy it um for me I just I like enjoying it the weekend I generally don't drink too much during the week um it is the perfect wine you know those midweek occasions but I just love it my my favorite time day sundowners when it's summer sunset a glass of six percent on a friday night like yeah lovely job yeah absolutely and one myth about lower abv or mid-strength that you hate hearing um people aren't asking for it because they absolutely are there's a huge consumer demand and finish the sentence to what to me wine should be wine should be enjoyed by anyone anytime absolutely I love that thank you so much Gabby for coming on getting to grow it's been fascinating hearing about your journey and like your your super early doors into what I think will be an amazing business kind of like as soon as it's going to explode I think it's it's coming it's people are asking for it so that myth is definitely wrong you know it's it's happening there is definitely a movement towards like healthier you know fitness is huge so health is huge you know we're all really taking care of what we put into our bodies now so definitely a big opportunity thank you so much i've really enjoyed it great