This three-part event, hosted by Speciality & Fine Food Fair’s Drinks Cabinet, will look at the trends, topics and producers set to define the 2021 drinks industry. After a presentation of drinks-focused market research and an in-depth panel discussion on the latest consumer trends and market opportunities, three emerging drinks suppliers will have the chance to pitch their product live in a Dragon’s Den-style final session.

Session 1 – Liquid Insights
10:05 – 10:30 AM
The opening session will see Kantar Group present some of the latest drinks industry market research, looking at data insights from the past year, examining the impact of Covid-19 and unpicking some of the trends that came to prominence in 2020.

Speaker: Kate Ithell, Client Manager, Kantar Alcohol Shopper & Consumer Insights Team

Callum Mathews, Category Analyst, Kantar Alcohol Shopper & Consumer Insights Team

Session 2 - Liquid Talks
10:30 – 11:00 AM
The past year has seen countless innovations in the world of drinks retail, from creative at-home cocktail kits and a rising presence of US imports to the continued growth of low and no alcohol option. In this session our panel of experts will discuss some of the trends and creative business models that have emerged from the lockdown period and will provide some tips, advice and insights to suppliers looking to grow their retail and on-trade presence.

Host: Herchelle Perez Terrado, Founder, The Drinks Partnership

Herchelle is the Founder and Director of Drinks Partnership, a business consultancy specifically for the drinks industry, founded in 2020. Herchelle has impressive credentials, spanning a decade in the drinks industry with a unique buying background having worked in key buyer positions for Waitrose, Marks and Spencer and Bestway Wholesale. Recognised for her outstanding results in commercial enterprise and customer engagement, Herchelle’s achievements include winning spirits buyer of the year by the IWSC and has also been a competition judge for The Spirits Business. Drinks Partnership aims to create better connections, to bring better understanding for drinks brand owners and suppliers resulting in improved engagement with buying teams across all channels in the off-trade.

Speakers:
•Laura Willoughby, Co-founder, Club Soda
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Laura Willoughby MBE is co-founder of Club Soda, the Mindful Drinking Movement. Their aim is to create a world where nobody feels out of place not drinking. Club Soda has individuals, drinks brands, and social spaces in its membership.

The inspiration for Club Soda comes Laura’s experience of giving up drinking seven years ago. A campaigner at heart with a background in movement building and politics, she realised that one of the big sticking points was a way to support people to take a self-guided journey to change their drinking.

Club Soda has over 45,000 individual members, have built a venue listing guide for mindful drinkers (clubsodaguide.com) and they run the UK’s only Mindful Drinking Festival.

•Raissa De Haas, Co-Founder, Double Dutch Drinks

Joyce and Raissa de Haas are the dynamic twin co-founders of award-winning UK premium tonic and mixers brand Double Dutch. Since launching in 2015, they have received numerous accolades with Sir Richard Branson supporting their vision by awarding them a coveted Foodpreneur Award. Additional honours include being featured in The Telegraph’s ‘Top 50 Most Ambitious Business Leaders’ in 2019, and taking a spot on the prestigious Forbes’30 under 30’Europe list. In just a few years, they have build a multi million pound business where most recently also the family Heineken invested a minority stake in.

While the world’s choice of spirits continued to expand, the twins saw a lack of innovation in the market for flavourful, low-calorie mixers. By the end of securing their second master’s degree, the twins had founded Double Dutch and launched their debut mixers - ‘Pomegranate & Basil’ and ‘Cucumber & Watermelon’ - to rave reviews and numerous accolades. Low-calorie, vegan-friendly and all natural using sustainably sourced ingredients, the brand now sells  to over 30 countries worldwide.

•Dawn Davies, Head Buyer, Speciality Drinks

Having started out in the drinks industry working in a pub whilst at university, Dawn moved to London to work in restaurants as a Head Sommelier at some of London’s top restaurants including Zuma, Boxwood Café and The Ledbury which she also managed.,

In 2007 she left restaurants to join Selfridges as their Head Wine and Spirits buyer and establishing the shop as one of the top wine and spirits shops in the UK. Winning various retailer awards of the year for the shop.  She also won the Julian Brind Memorial Trophy for Outstanding Achievement in the Wine Industry 2014.

In 2015 she achieved her Master of Wine and joined Speciality Drinks as their head buyer.  Working with brands to launch new products, find the quirky interesting products and predicting the next big trends.  She also manages the Events team and Shops.

She says she is passionate about ‘the little guy’ but recognise the importance of the big brands and has been responsible for launching many new brands into the UK market.

Session 3 - Drinks Cabinet Pitch Live!
11:00 – 11:30 AM
This final session will give three up-and-coming drinks suppliers the chance to pitch their product live to our panel of industry experts. Each supplier will have five minutes to pitch, followed by a Q&A with the panel before the winner is announced.

Thirsty Business: A drinks industry deep-dive