#57 - Jacob Wood - ALLORA [Sales & Activation Manager]

0:00Jacob Wood:Hello, hello, hello and welcome back to the Unfounders. Today I'm joined by the brilliant Jacob Wood, who is the Sales and Activation Manager at Allura. Now Allura make an absolutely delicious lemon-based spirit, taking on the spritz world of Aperol with their own concoction. It's from the island of Proceda in Italy. It's stunning. They've got so much depth of flavour in this product. It is not a limoncello. There's so much more to it, which Jacob goes into. I love how they're already building this brand. It's only been a year and a half and they're across all sorts of pubs and restaurants and places you can find it.

0:29Jacob Wood:the brand is stunning the liquid is absolutely delicious and i'll let jacob dig into more about what makes the pan special but i really enjoyed this conversation dom jamie the team i love the founding story how it came about and having employee number one who took this chance and went you know what i'm gonna back them as well it's been great to see them grow the brand and i can't wait to see where they are this time next year so without further ado let's get on with it are you a founder of the next exciting food and drink brand are you looking to scale and grow Well, let me introduce you to Mission Kitchen, London's home for food and drink entrepreneurs and sponsor of The Unfounders.

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1:32Jacob Wood:Hello and welcome back to The Unfounders. Today I'm joined by Jacob Wood. So Jacob, can you please let everyone know where you work and how long you have been there? Sure. Hi Mitch. Thanks for having me. As you said, I'm Jacob. I am the sales and activation manager at Allura. Amazing. And for those who have never heard of Allura, what is it? How did it start like what's the what's the story sure so i'll kind of take you from the top and a bit of more of like a i guess sales pitch type chat through so the idea came around about three four years ago now one of the founders jamie and his now wife holly they went to an island called procida um which some of you may know some of you may not but if you've heard of iskio and capri it's it's the neighboring island to them much smaller but it's really well known for its lemons jamie and holly went there at the time they were drinking a limoncello spritz and and basically thought why is limoncello kind of got this negative perception back in the uk there's no real brand that you would necessarily associate the liquid with and why can't there be a brand basically that can fit fit those gaps um and so quickly got working and i'm sure some of you guys know dom dom and jamie are best friends from back home been friends since they were six years old i think in bedford dom's great at kind of ops and all that fun stuff and jay's good at creative so they kind of fit each other's gaps perfectly um and came up with elora so initially wanted to be a limoncello but quickly kind of down the line realized that limoncello is not necessarily optimized for that aperitivo moment limoncello is a digestive and so allura basically brings a lemon spirit into that aperitivo moment so made in a similar way to limoncello but definitely not a limoncello hopefully when some of you try or have tried it we're much more bitter and that's basically through the process we make it so still infused lemon peel like you would a limoncello but we also infused the lemon leaf and the lemon leaf basically adds natural bitterness which i'm sure when you've drank Aperol, that bitterness leaves you wanting to drink more than one and you kind of sesh on it all day.

3:25And then we also use around three times less sugar. So that's another problem kind of in a limoncello spritz. It's super punchy in terms of sugar, but also alcohol content too.

3:33Jacob Wood:So yeah, that was kind of a long ramble, but that is Allura in, I guess, a quick matter. I remember like first time I kind of saw Dom talking about it because I'd already kind of seen Dom's background and knew him through the world of LinkedIn, saw what he was talking about with Allura. And I was like, this is such a cool concept. And I was like, is it like a limoncello? and first time I tried it I was like no definitely not a limoncello there's so much more depth to it so much more flavor and the thing I love was how kind of Dom explained the perfect serve and when they kind of set out to create this thing it's like well what is our perfect serve so I'd love to touch on that because obviously everyone knows in Aperol Spritz you can't escape the orange at summertime or in Italy yeah but I love what Allura have done there so can you touch on that side yeah I guess so kind of back to when they were developing the liquid it was initially like I said it was a limoncello idea and make it in the typical way you know three two one so three parts Prosecco two parts limoncello or Aperol and then one part soda basically the guys thought why can't we basically create a spritz that doesn't require the Prosecco because for all the amazing stuff you know Aperol do in the marketing world and their branding and stuff they're actually at the end of the day using more Prosecco in their serve than they are and so I guess one of our kind of wins in USPs is the fact that we don't use Prosecco so our perfect serve is just 75 ml or 75 ml soda water and that's it and that kind of has a whole host of benefits um for the bars but then also wholesalers so for the bars it's kind of that ease of serve it's literally two ingredients um almost to the point where you not that i would suggest them doing it but like you can eye it basically you don't necessarily need to measure um but then also from a cost perspective i'm sure people know in the startup world kind of Competing on price with those bigger brands is a real issue.

5:14And so although we're definitely more expensive in terms of product in comparison to, say, an Aperol because 100 % natural product, we use a recycled glass bottle, hopefully a way more premium brand. But at a service level, because we don't use the Prosecco, it means that on cogs, we're roughly about the same because soda is basically free. And then we get roughly 10 serves out of the bottle of Elora. So COGS at a service level for us is roughly the same as APRO, which is great because hopefully people, well, bars and restaurants don't need to kind of compromise on price and people kind of getting an APRO and then Laura Spirits at the same sort of price level.

5:51Jacob Wood:Yeah, no, I thought it was super smart. And as soon as I heard Dom kind of frame it that way and saying you're selling more per second than APRO, I was like, that's really smart. Like really going like, how can we be that main part? And yeah, I think it's delicious. I love how you guys have kind of like activated and turned up in bars and venues already. But I'd love to, before we kind of dig into that side, for you and your journey into joining Allura, like what was it about Allura that stood out and made you go, oh, actually, I could see myself there. Like what made you take that leap? And how did you even find out about the opportunity?

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6:52Jacob Wood:See how they can be your grand growth partners at againstordinary.com. So I kind of touched on before life at Allura, I worked at a company called Soul Fresh, which you may know it's, I guess, the biggest brand that they own is Low Bros Kombucha. I was there for just over two years, working in field sales initially, stomping the streets and then kind of moved into a BDM role. So I met Dom actually at my time there before he left to move to trips. Kind of me and Dom had always been in touch, I guess, from then until now. But I was basically at the time planning to leave Soul Fresh and I think maybe had just left Soul Fresh.

7:30I'm actually planning a move to Australia. and Dom kind of pigeonholed me before I actually jetted off and basically let me know about the opportunity and kind of what him and Jamie were trying to create and said that they'd love me to kind of join as first employee. To be honest, it was too good an opportunity to not say no. It's like being involved in a company. So I joined in the January of 2024 and to be in a company kind of before we'd even sold our first bottle was a super cool opportunity for me that I couldn't say no to. So it wasn't that I'd actually really heard of Elora. It was more having known Dom from my previous job and then obviously kind of followed him on LinkedIn and been in touch with him.

8:08It was more the opportunity to work with Dom and somebody who's kind of, I feel, that can mentor me and develop me in my career. And then obviously Elora has kind of developed into what it is now, which is a bonus.

8:18Jacob Wood:So, yeah, I love that. I think that's the other beauty with this industry is like once you get your foot in the door and you start working, you suddenly realize actually it's a very small world. there'll be certain people you work with in one brand who go off to another brand then you're probably going to reconnect to do something here like from all the episodes i've done you realize how small and interconnected this world is and it's obviously the best place to work yeah that's great there's like the kind of yeah this whole industry it's like everybody knows everybody and for the most part everybody's trying to help each other out so yeah no it's great and from um an allura like growth side so you're obviously employee number one like how big is the team now what's the setup like do you have an office you work remote like what's what's the vibe yeah so I guess it's kind of unique for most companies I would have said so there's the founding four so it's Dom and Jamie and then both their wives Holly and Jen they're kind of been there from the start obviously they're the founders um and then I joined in January like I said um and then we have Becky who does finance and then we also have Jade who's our field sales legend at the moment so in total there's seven of us but having said that there's only myself Dom Jamie and Jade who work full-time so because of that we don't have an office so it's a lot of kind of we call at working from pub so kind of every other wednesday we meet up as a seven if we can in one of the pubs that stock us um a to show the pub some love but b also to kind of get some time together but for the most part to be honest it's either working from here or cafes or bars or restaurants or anywhere i feel would be good for us to be stocked in it's kind of here and there and everywhere so no we don't have a central hub as of yet maybe one time soon but no kind of here and everywhere around london which suits me i'd try and keep that work from pub going for as long as possible that sounds like a genius idea and from a business business expense perspective it's so much better because you're like you're actually buying your own stock so it's like this is even more like rate of sales going up it's genius yeah but i'd love to um take things right the way back now to your education and how you kind of fell into this world of sales when you were younger like what did you want to be when you grew up was it always like right i I want to be doing this, I want to work in food, I want to do that.

10:18Or yeah, what was your goal? Yeah, I guess. Yeah. Like I said to you when I when I just jumped on it, it's like I grew up in Devon on a farm. So kind of the opportunity of living in London was never even really something that I considered, I guess. So I guess back then, the aspiration was really to be a farmer, if I'm honest. Kind of then went to school in Devon and university or to Brooks, studied business management there. And I guess that's when I kind of really started to think that maybe farming is not for me. and there's much more to kind of the world than than just life in Devon so I was trying to think about actually when you sent the questions and I don't necessarily know when drinks maybe became my thing but I remember when I was at school I did some work experience for kind of like a drinks wholesaler um and I loved it there and I guess started to learn about the industry and I don't know I'd never really thought about it but maybe kind of subconsciously drinks has always been sort of there and then obviously worked at soul fresh and drinks loved it loved the industry and so i guess from there it's it's always been something that i wanted to be in um and yeah i'm not a very corporate kind of guy so like a job on the fly and an opportunity to meet people and not take yourself too seriously works great for me so yeah that's that's kind of how i've ended

11:31Jacob Wood:up here i guess i love that and um with soul fresh was that like your first role straight out of uni like what you said you did field sales and um was there like a good training program as part of this because it's it's a fairly big company now a lot of brands kind of sit under the umbrella yeah it's right yeah I guess that was my first yeah proper job like you say out of uni um I graduated during covid so it's kind of a strange time to find jobs and bits like that so I think it wasn't until maybe a year and a half actually after I graduated that I did move to London I know not as not training as such but I think the beauty with kind of field sales is that you learn on the go.

12:05It's like kind of get chucked in and it's a sink or swim sort of situation and you quickly learn your pitch, you quickly learn about your products, you quickly learn how to deal with people. And I kind of say to anybody, like if they're looking to, I guess, get into

12:18Jacob Wood:the industry, like a field sale role is probably one of the best to do. It's challenging and like the days can be long, particularly in the winter when it's raining and you're stomping the streets. But it's for me like invaluable in terms of what you learn about A, the brand, B, how to deal with people and you kind of get a whole view of a company particularly a small one yeah no i'd say a huge percentage of guests who've come on the podcast have all had experience in field sales if they've gone on to do something like this so it's yeah you learn rejection you learn kind of how to tighten your pitch get better the that feeling of the first time you go in a store to try and actually like speak to someone for the first time like i've done it with restaurants i try and speak to a chef or a manager and it's like you kind of get those butterflies before going in like when it's the first one and eventually like hi i'm jacob i do this like are you interested and it's like when you realize that they're just trying to do their job just as like as much as you are you kind of get over that but i remember when i first first started god i did not i did not enjoy those kind of cold calls into the corner shops and cafes and all that kind of thing yeah it was a steep learning curve for sure but you've got to learn really quick or else you'll sing amazing from from those days now with allura like i love what you guys have done with some of the activations with some of the pub groups so um i'd love to touch on them like how those relationships came about how you've activated and yeah as i said great seeing you on menu um but the brand itself is absolutely stunning and the way it appears on menu in person is just done really really well yeah that's that's all down to mr mantini jamie but we basically launched a year and a half ago now so we're into kind of our second just over our like first year of full year of trading but we were fortunate enough to launch kind of as a brand into Young's initially into their full estate and so yeah for the most part of last year our main mission was basically just to make Young's a success and like obviously their estate is big enough that you can basically build a brand out of that one single kind of company so at the time when we launched it was just me and dom sort of working full-time so what was it i think 230 pubs um we made it our mission to visit literally every single one before the end i can't even remember before the end of may i think it was so we we ticked off 230 pubs between us in about three months which was crazy but kind of that contact time and especially as a new brand put us in really good stead it kind of put us on the map everybody hopefully knew about us we kind of taught the serve and why we're different to Aperol and why we're definitely different to a limoncello and those kind of hours and times you spend with staff is for us we found the best way to build our brand and so yeah I guess yeah we spent a lot of time doing that and then obviously through the summer I'm sure you guys have seen on LinkedIn we used our cart to pop up in various different pub gardens which again was great it was it got kind of liquid on lips hopefully a little bit different to kind of some of the other kind of bars and setups you see Jamie is super big on on doing everything with purpose so when I kind of come to him with an idea it's always like why it's not yes do that it's what's the reasoning for it go back to the drawing board which and which initially annoyed me a lot because it was like I just want to do it Jay but hopefully you'll kind of see in all we do like the bars the kind of merch we make posters all that kind of thing it's it's always got value and it's always tied back to the island of Prochadour like we're super conscious that our whole brand is is kind of built from the island and I don't know if you've seen pictures of it but it's absolutely stunning it's faded pastel houses it's kind of we say golden era of italy it's like going back in time we um we're fortunate enough to go as a team earlier this year actually and kind of soak in the island and see it for ourselves and it is stunning so yeah like i say jamie's very big on basically everything we do as a brand is is tied to procida um so yeah we used the cart basically as our as our way of building ourselves um which was great it's long days and a lot of weekend work but no it paid off for sure a few a few flooded pubs if i remember correctly yeah yeah yeah the white cross has quickly become our favorite pub um and i'm sure you saw this year we installed the boat into the garden but yeah it must have been about this time last year now probably nearly to the day happened to do a pop-up and to be fair i didn't know it quite flooded as much as it does but um yeah we were in there this german news crew turned up there was all sorts of reporters there and then it was just me and actually my housemate at the time he was helping me out so i've sold some allura spritz and we were in our barefoot up to one of these dishing out spritzes around the garden to the pub goes which is hilarious yeah yeah good fun good good for content good experience yeah i mean great way to get the brain uh sorry the brand out there with the the bright yellow liquid and uh yeah i'm on that as well whenever i think of allura now i just think of that photograph with all the glass of aperol and the one alora like how much it really pops yeah that is just so powerful like i don't know who how that came about again i imagine jamie's been involved with that it's actually jamie can't take claims this is actually his wife holly so yeah holly holly came up with the idea and we've we've used that a lot as you've probably seen in in kind of our cons and stuff purely like from a yeah from a color perspective it's like every spritz near enough on pub menus at the moment either red or orange like Aperol Campari so even what we kind of say is the black sheep and in the field of white sheep it's like hopefully when we grow and get bigger it's like people well even now to be honest it's like people kind of see a yellow spritz and like oh what's that like we've not seen this before and kind of that takeover we see when we do activations of people switching over from Aperol to Allura and kind of growing that yellow wave is what we say so yeah no it's a great image.

17:55Jacob Wood:Yeah Hugo seems to have been a popular one for this summer as well from your perspective like what's what's the next challenge are you looking for retail is it a food service player what's the goal with the the brand and the availability side yeah so obviously the past year or so we've we've purely just focused on on trade and like deliberately done that it's like we don't want to kind of launch into a you know a sainsbury's or something without a cult following behind us so we want to really build ourselves in those pub gardens in really nice restaurants to build a community of basically allure drinkers and only really until i guess the past couple months have we started to look at off trades um and go after that a little bit more whether that kind of be well we launched into bailey and sage which is cool uh we actually launched into booze now so kind of a bit more up north um and then looking at kind of a few other spots as well so i guess off trade for us is like a big one but then also foreign markets earlier in the year we launched into italy which is amazing so yeah we're sold now on procreter and actually when we went it was it was like awesome to see kind of a law of spirits on menu where it wasn't london and it's like super cool thing so yeah david who we work really closely with out there he's an absolute legend he's kind of got well basically nearly got us into every bar on procedor which is which is awesome so yeah distribution there but then also kind of to capri ischier and then hopefully into naples as well so really growing our italian market and then also i guess off trade too which hopefully hopefully should come i imagine on procedor it's a real sense of pride the fact that's made on there and it's using their lemons and it's all those things of like yeah actually it makes sense to sell something that's made in the island and the bottle was rebranded in italian and yeah it's gorgeous yeah for us it's like we can't kind of go big on procida and then like not have it actually available on the island it's like we can't use this island and then just bring it over here so like we're yeah like i said we're super connected to procida in italy so having it available there is a big thing for us so yeah but then i guess another like thing for us is we definitely launch with just the spritz in mind.

19:53And I kind of, it's sort of like naturally happened. Obviously the spritz is fairly seasonable. Like now we're coming to the end of summer, it's definitely tailed off slightly. But I guess from launching into more pubs and bars and restaurants, we've kind of encouraged bartenders and drinks buyers to play around with the law and use it in various different ways. So although the spritz is definitely our main focus, actually the bigger opportunity for us is we're we're a laura we're not like a limoncello we're not a flavored gin we're not kind of a celebrity backed whatever laura is a laura similar to how april's april and so we're encouraging bar staff and teams to kind of play around with us and use us in different serves so that hopefully we can fix some of that seasonality but for us we can then go to pubs and bars and really show up in different ways whether that's a spritz we we kind of share some ingredients with vermouth so we're used in a negroni a lot now negroni weeks obviously just just started two days ago and so we're in a few menus now across London for Negrani Week um we're sold in in Sketch with coconut champagne and a guava it's it's like been really cool to kind of see us naturally sort of develop into a load of different serves and and for us that's meant that we can now go to a bar and be like we can do your bespoke menu where there's five different Allura serves instead of just offer them the sprits which which has been really great for us because it's kind of way more attractive for a bar manager or buyer that we can be used across many different formats which has been great.

21:20Jacob Wood:I think that must be one of the biggest challenges from my opinion it's like the the education side it's like you're you're trying to teach people a way of like using this new product in multiple things and how to get the most out of it how to do the right serve I know it was similar with Bativa they were saying well actually it's a double concentrate so you don't actually need to use as much and just educating people around that because if they try it for the first time get it wrong it's like oh so the education piece must be key which is why visiting 230 pubs in three months is a quite a quite an achievement yeah it was a lot but like like i said it's invaluable it's like even just not using prosecco like people kind of found that strange to grasp like to begin with because basically every sprit if it's not if it's not a non-alc uses prosecco so even that education thing and then kind of i guess the biggest one for us and i'm still maybe is like a little bit of a barrier is like educating people that we're not a limoncello the amount of times where we've kind of pitched into somewhere and they're like no we've already got a limoncello and it's like actually like just give us a taste like we're we're we're a lot different and like i say we can be used in in various different ways that i don't think limoncello necessarily has that kind of flavor profile and depth to be able to do that um yeah the education is is a big one for us from you from like a sales perspective like when you get those initial no's or those pushback when it's like no no you're not hearing it right like how are you doing this to kind of reconvince them or re-engage and have you got any examples of where someone's like no we don't need it and then eventually they're like oh i get it now this is amazing like it's gonna happen yeah where yeah there has been a few it's it's kind it's funny it's like it's it's getting in front of people and actually being able to sort of show them that even from like a color perceptive like looking at it like we're 100 natural so we're not that sort of a luminous yellow that you sort of associate limoncello with um the smell yeah the main thing for me it's not necessarily where we've had like a flat arm where usually you do manage to get in front of them and it's you can then show them and and kind of show the variety of drinks we can make with it and you they quickly sort of realize that yeah it's definitely not a limoncello and it's funny because when people try it obviously a lot of people have now drank limoncello spritz it's become more popular and so even when you're doing these pub activations and things like oh no i don't like lemon cello i'm like just give us a try um and like initially they're still thinking in their head even when they try it's a lemon cello spritz and then you see them going back for more and more and then you're like oh you get it now for us it's just getting in front of people and like i say getting liquid liquid on lips that does win them over fortunately like not being biased but it does taste great so um i agreed i think even i gifted a bottle to my friend last year for his birthday he was like oh i love limoncello i was like no no no like it's not limoncello like try it differently and um yeah i had like the following week he was like so yeah last weekend we did nearly the whole bottle it was absolutely delicious i have to get more of this yeah it's super dangerous um particularly when we're doing these pub activations on the weekends it's like you stood by the bar it's like oh yeah might as well just have one now it's up um so yeah no it's great are we are we going to be seeing any step into the world of like rtds is is something you can't disclose that seems to be the the popular way of getting it into people's hands i should have asked dom about this i don't actually know what i'm allowed to say i'm not um like i was saying we've kind of developed a vast sort of array of cocktails now i think we've got around 20 different varieties but kind of the three that we'd always pitch into somewhere all super simple so the allura spritz which is obviously just 75 mil allura 75 mil soda we've then got a take on a paloma which has been super popular actually this summer particularly which again is really easy 75 millilora and then 75 mill pink grapefruit soda and then our third one being we call it sunny and dry so 75 millilora and then 75 mill ginger ale and so that's like three different drinks all super simple easy to make but give three vastly different kind of flavor profiles we've had like loads of success particularly this year pitching those in so yeah they're kind of the three that we're hopefully maybe going to launch into an rtd as like a mixed mix pack and then yeah we'll see it's kind of like in in the works at the moment so yeah we'll see about that well uh we'll message dom and uh and see if we can include some of this yeah no i think all three of them sound amazing i think it's just that convenience factor i know even for like lalo lalo was all about boxed wine they're still all about boxed wine but they launched the cans as a way of reducing that barrier to entry like getting people to spend 30 quid on a boxed wine they're a bit like oh wow that's quite high whereas it's like oh actually you can try it but like have a a six pound can of wine instead it's like you've suddenly reduced that barrier people trying to go oh my god it tastes so good from a can and which again was another big perception change in the world of wine and then you try it from a box and like oh wow it's even better like this all tastes amazing it's just like providing i guess a different moment for people to drink it like on the go whether you're going for a picnic in the park or barbecue like even though from the bottle it's super easy to make like sometimes you just want a can and it's it's like ready to roll so yeah we'll see um it's definitely it's definitely something we're thinking about whether it's kind of next year or the year after i'm not too sure yet but yeah could be cool space yeah i mean bativa have done it and i think that seems to be doing really well from them i think i saw is the law now on delhi yeah we're on delhi i've personally never worked with delhi like i think i love how nowadays there's loads of influencers and people that i used to work with when i was at hura or other brands and seeing them kind of launch their products into the wild I don't know, like Rachel Ammer's got her jerk sauce.

26:42Jacob Wood:I've seen loads of other brands doing their things. So they just seem to have really exploded this last two years, three years. It's been incredible. What's it been like working with Delhi? Yeah, Delhi's cool. I can't touch on it too much because Dom's kind of the guy who oversees Delhi. But yeah, like you say, they've absolutely killed it. It seems all the cool brands and new launches pop up on Delhi. So it's somewhere that we targeted right from the start. And when did we launch them now? probably about six months ago now so yeah no they're they're super cool and like the guys they're great i can't say too much like i say because dom works with them predominantly but yeah from the outside i guess looking in and seeing the bits that we're pending to do with them it's great and it's definitely a space where we want to be it's like all the kind of cool new brands are popping up there so yeah no they're cool they're great yeah no it's a really cool concept i think they've just absolutely smashed it from a user experience perspective offering perspective like doing things that you can only find on platform it's just a really really clever way of drawing people in to go okay if i want to find new brands that's where i'll go and i know from like the the bread and jam startup summit there was loads of brands like that was the first place they were like i want to be on deli um and it was like two years ago i was like i don't know what this is like i've never never heard of it it wouldn't have been somewhere that my mind went to whereas now anyone who's like like i'm listening to get some listings where should i go i'm like well your product's really cool like speak to deli yeah yeah exactly yeah it's kind of yeah it's kind to that place now where people yeah want to be and i guess because like off trade and like online stuff wasn't our initial thinking it's probably why we didn't launch with them straight away um but yeah like i said we've unlocked now and we're doing we're doing cool things with them and to be honest probably we haven't done enough so we're looking to do more bits of them kind of over winter particularly and then into next year too so and you do um you do have a d2c arm as well that was from from my perspective i think that was the first time i bought some for my friend with D2C.

28:30Jacob Wood:Is that still around? Is that still thriving? Yeah, that's still great. Shout out, Jamie. He'll kill me if I don't say. We've kind of done a new menu website takeover. So yeah, that launched quite recently. So yeah, definitely check out the website. It's super cool. A lot different to kind of your typical websites and Jamie's super proud of it. So I can talk about the website and not mention Jay. So yeah, no, it's great. If you want to find us online, that's definitely the best spot. and you can also get some lunch as well from there which is cool yeah yeah i love the hats and i think the the branding's gorgeous as i've said i think the the bottle itself looks stunning and yeah i was having a play on the website looking at the recipes because uh i was like right how are we gonna how are we gonna use our elora now like we've got to come up some recipes or like let's see what they've done and yeah i think user experience like layout colors palettes everything it's just so so nicely done and i think that plays through personally i can see elora going a really long way um and i think it's absolutely delicious thank you yeah no no i hope so too so for those um it's all been super positive apart from obviously the rainy experience i'd love to know some times when things didn't go to plan this could have been at soul fresh before uh laura like a tough day at the office uh how you got through that yeah i think we touched on soul fresh first i think just that like initial probably three four months where i was out in the field I guess still finding my feet getting because my pitch wasn't great and because I guess I didn't know the products like that well it was like that rejection thing as somebody who probably didn't take rejection that well uh before it's like a big hurdle to overcome so I guess those days in the field where you kind of visit 10-15 spots and you're kind of getting no's all day they were some of the worst days I guess it's all fresh for Laura it's kind of a funny one but also super annoying so So for as amazing as the cart looks in kind of LinkedIn pictures and what we post on socials, the cart, the old one, we've got a new one now, but the one from last summer is an absolute nightmare.

30:27It broke more times than I care to remember in transit. So I'd turn up to a pub, the leg had snapped off or something had fallen off. So I remember one particular afternoon I spent at the Leather Bottle in Earlsfield, basically with a toolkit, just fixing the cart. and yeah it was kind of I guess for nearly all the activations last year it was like fingers crossed the cart's intact and I don't need to be drilling something into it to hold it together for an evening or afternoon so it wasn't necessarily a bad thing and we joke about it now but like yeah the cart breaking on us um was definitely the bad days and then I guess the summer weather last year was pretty bad for the most part um and so trying to activate I guess the summer brand in the rain me and dom spent one afternoon at the ship in wandsworth in the absolute soaking wet so yeah those activations in the rain were never fun but kind of laughable moments and that you get over fairly quickly but um yeah they'll be the two main ones from i guess life at laura so yeah they make

31:30Jacob Wood:great reflections for linkedin posts as well you get something out of it even if it's a horrible 24 hours or whatever it is yeah those are those props and those carts and things when they break and you go oh not this again like yes there's been some other great examples i can't remember who it was but they had a whole activation stand that just wasn't designed very well and had to like manually weigh it down the sandbags every single time they're like really sorry team i'm gonna come and help you do that um yeah it's just like trying to patch it together without hopefully out the public like noticing so yeah no good title like yeah like you say like good for linkedin posts and bits like that but you try and keep it on the hush as much as you can now this is the music one i'd love to know from your experience in the working world if there's a particular song that comes to mind when you think about your work and your experience yeah I was actually I was thinking about this more than probably all the other questions you asked me purely because I couldn't think of one but the one that's not necessarily I guess like maybe linked to like working life at Allura but I should have mentioned before I joined Allura I moved out to Oz for three months lived in Sydney and it was actually on the flight back obviously knowing that I was going to join the company there was one song that I distinctly remember listening to and then kind of thinking about how this next year or so is going to play out Allura.

32:40And it was Home by Good Neighbours. Not necessarily kind of linked to, I guess, work or anything, but it's just like that moment I remember really distinctly. It's like I landed from Australia and then the next day I joined Allura. So I didn't have time to kind of think about process kind of being away. It was like I was straight into life here. So yeah, that song Home by Good Neighbours is my one, I think.

33:04Jacob Wood:Love it. That's great. It'll get added to the playlist. yeah there's a lot of great songs on there now it is i put it on the other day actually i was listening through like wow this is a wild eclectic selection some are like very on the news in terms of like the title or whatever like queen ones and things like that but others are such unique stories i'm like oh yeah i remember this was nadine's one or this was tasha's one or whatever is it on spotify is it on there yeah yeah it's it's it's in the link of every uh every podcast episode so far it's just called the the unfounded selection i'll definitely re reinvigorate this post but um yeah there's well a good 50 tracks or so now and yeah there's a there's a few wild card ones in there you're like what the hell is this like whose song was this but yeah i love it there's a few screamy ones a few angry ones i can imagine there's all sorts of yeah i can imagine exactly how yeah we get we go from limp biscuit to uh taylor swift i think so even there's even a couple of disney songs in there for welcome for me definitely so i'll plug that in the ears exactly and for anyone who is kind of getting into the sales world or the drinks world we've already kind of touched on field sales is like a great way of kind of getting out there and learning but have you got any other kind of top tips or advice that you've experienced and gone you know what that's really what i'd say yeah i think like i say field sales if you're like kind of looking for an entry role is definitely definitely what i'd say the way to go is and then obviously getting kind of don't fear rejection it's like for every 10 doors you knock on the 11th is usually the one that's going to open so when you get that win it kind of really gives you that high um and then also like don't be afraid to say what you think particularly in small companies that you're almost more valued because you're out out in the field kind of seeing product chatting to the people who are actually drinking it or buying it so never feel like because you're junior and maybe have way less experience than say the founder or your manager that you that you aren't listened to and valued because for the most part i found actually what you say is almost more relevant than the people who are kind of in office all day because you're out there and seeing people so yeah don't be afraid to basically put your thoughts forward and shout when you need to shout yeah no i think on that there's some great examples like uh a bottle collector or like the people who go around clearing glasses they have the eyes and ears on the floor at any time of day in the venue so those are actually the people you want like to really be like right what have you seen what's going on out there like have you noticed anything and and communicating and there was a great example in the bear with an episode called the forks i don't know if you watch the bear if you've seen it it's all about like a cooking show and all of this but um the example is this manager or the guy's kind of all over the place and he's like right we're gonna get you a stage in a really high-end restaurant and he's like great this is amazing like i'd love to do that and they were like right you're gonna be on forks he's like what do you mean i need to be managing i should be doing this i should be project managing i'm the manager of this place and they're like no no you're starting on forks and he's literally like first first day he's like polishing just doing it and you see him chatting away and like as kind of the day goes on as the week goes on you see he's kind of starting to do things a little bit better care a little bit more and it's like that care then went from forks to dishes to next bits to then serving to then actually presenting then managing hosting it was like every little thing came back to how much you look after polishing those forks and i think that episode is by far one of my favorite series episodes of all time i think it's just it just really nails home this point of like care about the small things and the big things like that's how you get to excellence exactly it's like putting yeah putting those small things in place or even like yeah like you say learning the small things usually puts you in good stead to do bigger and better so yeah amazing and uh for those who we've already said obviously the website at the young's pubs um balian sage like delhi we've got a few places already shouted out um for from your side like where if people want to find out more about allura is the website the best place yeah website or message me on linkedin um i'm also on the allura instagram so drop a message there um laura underscore drinks is the instagram or yeah linkedin um yeah i'm easy anyway amazing i never actually asked at the at the start of it obviously we've got the lemon and the limoncello and the fact that it's italian but the name allura like where was the the origin or the the thought behind that yeah i'm sure a lot of people probably listening have been to italy or or at least have heard an italian speak like a laura is kind of this word much more beautiful word than than us saying um or like and it's like ah laura it's kind of a stop phrase that that is super common in italy so from like that perceptive it's like it's a word that hopefully people know but then also from kind of the brand and marketing point of view it's it's super close to app roll um they're kind of the two reasons more so that it's it's a word that hopefully people associate with italy having been or heard an italian speak but then yeah from marketing play a and a it's like app roll or so yeah they're the two they're the two points smart yeah and i seeing a laura spits on menu uh instantly you know it's italian like you kind of go oh nice like cool what is this but yeah another point i guess i didn't really touch on is like the big opportunity for us is like apart from campara and aperol spritz there's no other branded name spritz it's like there's a hugo spritz but that's hugo isn't a brand it's like a name so the massive opportunity for us is make allura the branded limoncello spritz essentially we feel we're definitely better than limoncello spritz so yeah the kind of yeah the big opportunity for us in that spritz space is is to be that branded lemon spritz essentially yeah i made the made the mistake of ordering a limoncello spritz somewhere and it nearly blew my head off uh this wasn't in the uk this was somewhere in northern italy i think it was yeah yeah i was like it's definitely not an allura spritz and the thing the thing is that people don't realize i guess from drinking limoncello spritz which is what we kind of addressed as to why we we're definitely not a limoncello is like the alcohol content in limoncello like typically it's 30 to 35 percent and then obviously you're adding prosecco too so what you end up getting is is a spritz that's super strong in terms of alcohol content which kind of defeats the point of a spritz or you get one that's diluted down by so much soda that again it doesn't really taste of anything like i guess the two problems we found with limoncello particularly in a spritz is is a the alcohol content which we address so allure is just um 18 so much more low um and then also the sugar content so limoncello's got heaps of sugar in it we've we've got well we don't really use any sugar we say roughly around three times less sugar so they're the kind of the two main problems essentially with but what we think is is the problems with the limoncello spritz is the alcohol content and then the sugar content which we've both addressed in in allura's a liquid and allura just tastes so much better so that's your closing remarks of uh if you haven't tried it hopefully we've talked about enough now that you go okay like i'll bite like let me go and try one now yeah exactly run it off on the website please thank you brilliant no i've absolutely loved this yeah i'm excited to see where the brand goes i think it's been fascinating to see how the brand's grown already in just a year and a half i could see it again summer just being strength to strength the activation is always great the the brand is stunning so yeah keep keep doing what you're doing yeah i've really enjoyed this i think thank you for your time it's been great and to everyone listening thank you so much we will see you on the next episode goodbye see you later