What we Do
Cheval Rouge provides expert advice on growing your drinks business in two key areas - reducing your costs via improved operational efficiency, and developing new channels and markets, especially internationally. We have found that many drinks brands starting out develop a great product with a strong brand story. Cheval Rouge helps with the next steps to grow profits via cost control and increasing sales - think of us like a commercial development team that you can deploy at a scale that suits your budget. We will analyse your business and products, and give immediately actionable steps to increase sales and improve margins.
What we Do
Cheval Rouge provides expert advice on growing your drinks business in two key areas - reducing your costs via improved operational efficiency, and developing new channels and markets, especially internationally. We have found that many drinks brands starting out develop a great product with a strong brand story. Cheval Rouge helps with the next steps to grow profits via cost control and increasing sales - think of us like a commercial development team that you can deploy at a scale that suits your budget. We will analyse your business and products, and give immediately actionable steps to increase sales and improve margins.
WE UNderstand how to grow your brand profitably
Our clients create innovative products and unique brands to engage and delight consumers. However In the early stages of a growing drinks brand the commercial strategy can be difficult to pin down when the business is changing constantly. We provide concrete recommendations and easy to implement solutions tailored for growing drinks businesses, along with ongoing support to embed changes. We have applied this expertise in dozens of countries, and every time we have provided the client with immediately actionable changes to make in their business.
reduce costs and increase efficiency
Using a combination of industry standard measurements, alongside our own best practice, we can quickly identify where the issues lie that impact your margins.
usE Insights to identify EXPORT opportunitIES
Do you understand your product fit in major export markets? What are the costs in growing your business into new markets and channels? We interpret industry data and use our years of experience in exporting drinks to create bespoke commercial strategy reports for your brand.
implement REcommendations
Ideas are easy, Implementation is hard! Once you have reviewed our recommendations we will work with you to implement these changes, enter into new markets, and measure results. We will train your team in commercial best practice and provide you with tools to continue to grow sales and profits.
cost reduction and operational efficiency
cost reduction and operational efficiency
Understand the Drivers of Value
The performance of your business - most often its profit and revenue - can be tracked to a range of ‘value drivers’ - such as average price per unit, gross margin, product mix and so on. Understanding your performance - whether positive or negative - relies on accurate interpretation of your value drivers. With years of experience in commercial development, Cheval Rouge can provide you immediately actionable steps to improve your performance, many of may not require significant capital investment
Identify what drives your results
When your business performs better or worse than expected, it is tempting to look to simple explanations - number of cases sold or costs of production increasing. However these metrics do not give any deeper insight than the obvious ‘sell more and reduce costs’. By diving deeper into the changes in your commercial performance, Cheval Rouge and your team will work together to give a detailed summary of where you should be focusing to improve your top line results. Below are a couple of examples of the type of insights found through this approach
Customer segment VS cost to Service
In a business with 30 distributors, you might look to segment these into ‘top 10’, ‘middle 10’ and ‘bottom 10’ in terms of revenue generated. However our approach looks deeper than simple revenue, and can identify that once the cost to service is taken into account - including complexity of export, time spent with the client, level of A&P investment, trade terms, and payment performance, you may well rank your customers differently, and perhaps 5 ‘gold standard customers’ will be identified that deliver the most value to your business. This insight can help you better select distributor partners in future and improve your profit margins,
How much does that bottle cost?
While of course every business wants to control costs especially when revenue is yet to start coming in, a drinks producer, especially in the early stages, can make decisions that have a hidden impact on costs that are harder to reduce when the business has grown - using a custom bottle, a unique closure method, a particular ingredient, or label process might restrict your choice of suppliers in future, or might even prevent your brand from growing as quickly as the market demands! This always needs to be balanced with your brand proposition, but with Cheval Rouge you can better understand how the decisions you make today will impact your business at scale.
Identify EXPORT opportunities
Identify EXPORT opportunities
Where should I expand to next?
Many drinks brands find themselves early on in their journey looking at export markets. Whether the allure of travelling to new countries, industry reports highlighting category growth overseas, or even a personal connection to somewhere remote - you will have thought at some stage ‘Will my brand work away from home?’ Finding out the answer to that question can be expensive and painful, and the team at Cheval Rouge will work with you to understand your ambitions and tailor an export strategy that suits you - or even advise you to delay export until you are ready.
Am I ready?
Exporting out of your home market might seem as simple as finding a distributor and taking an order but there are many factors to consider - what is my gross margin domestically vs export? Do I have continuity of supply? Have I registered my trademarks for future global sales? Does my product suit export? Are my pricing expectations realistic. Cheval Rouge can answer these and more to ensure you are ready to explore export opportunities.
Dov’È? OÙ? DondÉ?
With over 150 countries where export of alcohol is possible, it can be overwhelming to choose where to focus. Do you stick to markets speaking your native language? Those geographically close to you? Perhaps just the top consumption figures in your category? Sometimes the fit for your brand isn’t immediately obvious and Cheval Rouge is here to translate.
Ready to SHip
Once we have identified the target markets, who will be your trusted partner in the market? How much investment will be necessary to achieve your goals? What payment terms will you need? Cheval Rouge can identify options for your best partner in a new market and guide you through the steps to be ready for export.