Movers and shakers
Twins behind Double Dutch on their drinks market success
While studying in Antwerp, Dutch twins Joyce and Raissa de Haas, who were not fans of the Belgian beer scene, struck a deal with their friends. Every Sunday they would make batches of mixers with whatever they found in the fridge if their friends bought the spirits to accompany them.
Their concoctions, such as strawberry and mint-infused soda, were a hit and six years later their “fun” hobby has turned into a premium mixer business with expected revenues of £3m this year, distributing to 24 countries, and churning out nearly a million bottles a month.
While Double Dutch is still relatively small, with just 16 employees, its 27-year-old founders are already making waves in the industry with their beverages, which include cranberry and ginger flavoured tonic water, and a cucumber and watermelon mixer.
The sisters grew up in the home of gin, the Netherlands, and their childhood house in Eindhoven contained a jenever – or Dutch gin – distillery. Their parents, who “always liked a good drink”, Joyce says, decided to keep the distillery working to produce spirits for themselves and their friends, hosting tastings and parties. “We grew up knowing all about [spirits and] distilleries, drinking a lot of them and building up a good knowledge of them,” says Joyce. She and Raissa both spent time working in the finance industry before deciding to run their own business. By the time the sisters were undertaking their second masters course, in technology entrepreneurship at University College London, they had honed in on mixers as the business path they wanted to pursue, writing a dissertation about the need for new mixers and tonic waters amid the growth of the spirits industry. The university was impressed enough to name their business concept “most promising start-up”, despite the fact their concept was not technology-focused, awarding them £10,000 to kick-start the venture and access to office space for a year.
The business has since raised an additional £1.5m from angel investors including Jack Keenan, the former chairman of Stock Spirits, who previously sat on the boards of Diageo, Moet Hennessy and Marks & Spencer; Rupert Clevely, the founder of Geronimo Inns; and Ian Edward, who sits on Brasserie Blanc’s board.
When Joyce and Raissa were deciding on their fundraising strategy, they considered crowdfunding, but say that opting for angel investment has allowed them to benefit from the expertise of their backers.
“I’m very happy that we went with private investors because they help us quite a lot with networking but also with strategy,” says Raissa. “They’re all from the food and beverage industry as well, so I think that’s quite useful.”
The sisters are currently seeking to raise an additional £3m to £5m and are weighing up whether to allow venture capital investors through the door, noting that it could impact the company’s culture.
Double Dutch markets itself as a premium product, and has secured the title of Fortnum & Mason’s “house tonic”, knocking rival Fever-tree off the shelves. It is also stocked in Harvey Nichols and Selfridges, and at a range of high-end bars and restaurants, as well as hotel chains Hilton, Intercontinental and Marriott, in addition to London’s Dorchester. This premium pitch is one element that the sisters believe has set them apart. “Other brands like, for example Fever-tree, are now so mainstream, you see them everywhere,” says Joyce.
But they aren’t afraid of going big: Double Dutch is already stocked in Marks & Spencer and with Ocado. The sisters have also signed a lucrative deal with US retail giant Target.
“Up until now, we deliberately stayed out from the really big high street retailers, just because we really wanted to set the premium standard and I think, in hindsight, that was a really good choice,” says Joyce. “But now, for 2019, we do want to go into one or two of the high street premium retailers, just because the brand is now ready.”
The opportunity to pitch to Target came about after the sisters won a prize for most creative, inspiring and disruptive food and beverage start-up from Sir Richard Branson in 2015. They were flown to the US by Virgin, as part of its Start-up Foodpreneur project, to compete for a contract with the American retail behemoth. Raissa and Joyce say Branson inspired them to be persistent in the face of setbacks.
He also gave them tips on their pitch, taught them a lot about communication and advised them to secure their export deals quickly, they say. The twins also received advice from Virgin’s marketing experts on their packaging to better capture consumers’ attention.
Joyce and Raissa walked away with a deal to sell into 300 Target stores on a trial basis and to roll out later to 1,500 of the retailer’s 1,822 branches.
The sisters are still working on their strategy to make the most of the opportunity to sell into the US, deciding on an action plan. They still work with Virgin’s business accelerator programme, including giving talks to young entrepreneurs.
Despite £4bn rival Fever-tree’s dominance, Joyce and Raissa are confident there is room for Double Dutch too. “Fever-tree, they have done amazing,” Joyce says. “They’ve opened the market for premium mixers [and] educated consumers … but for us, we focus much more on our innovative flavour pairings and we don’t have quinine in all our mixers. We try to focus not as much on gin.”
Quinine is a key component in tonic water, a classic accompaniment to gin, but the sisters recommend that their pomegranate and basil mixer is enjoyed with tequila, while the cranberry tonic was designed with Hennessy to pair with their cognacs and can also be paired with whiskey.
Like Fever-tree, they also have a ginger beer and a ginger ale in their range. The company has about 80 partnerships with spirit brands and regularly works with Diageo for events. “What our brand is very much about is not just your gin and tonic mixer,” Joyce says.
“It’s very much offering more choice to consumers, really bringing that restaurant cocktail experience to home, but making it as easy to make as your vodka soda, or gin and tonic.”
The sisters also have their eyes on the travel market and recently launched 150ml cans. They are already supplying exclusively to Eurostar, Tui and cruise operators including Carnival Cruises. They are about to sign exclusive deals with two more airlines and are pitching to others – including Virgin.
Despite overtures from potential buyers, Joyce and Raissa do not plan to give up their autonomy any time soon, saying they are keen to grow the business before entertaining any approaches. They are also not ruling out taking a similar route to Fevertree and listing publicly one day.
“We’ve been growing about 300pc year-on-year and that’s what we’re forecasting for the next five years. We want to grow Double Dutch to a global mixer brand and stay involved as long as we can,” says Raissa.
“Realistically, we need to look at an exit plan in the coming five to seven years because of our investors, but that’s not to say that we cannot still be involved. We’d probably have to, because we called it Double Dutch,” she jokes.