Completing the business journey<\/strong><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Griffith says he\u2019s a big believer in the maxim of the last kilometre being the hardest in the entire journey of getting a product from idea stage into customers\u2019 hands.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wanted square bottles for Emma and Tom\u2019s, much like the premium juices in the US,\u201d he explains. \u201cWe met someone who believed in us and the business to do the bottling, which probably saved us around $30,000.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201c(But) one month from launch, the bottler said that they couldn\u2019t put the label on the bottle, because of its shape. I drove up there and said \u2018You are going to do this. This isn\u2019t even funny.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had to have a contract with the bottler and then take them to another labeller for a whole year until the bottler got the right equipment to be able to put labels onto square bottles. That cost us $110,000 in just one year, even with a seven cent a bottle discount.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Griffith says: \u201cIt really is all about distribution and delivery. Getting the product from the warehouse to the shelf is very hard. It\u2019s a very competitive sector. We thought, once you\u2019re into a retailer, you\u2019re in, but you can get delisted because they consider you too dear and you go broke.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Griffith says that price pressures were particularly tough during Emma and Tom\u2019s first year. Margins were slim.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
A price point of $3.50 a bottle, around a dollar more than the average competitor, was necessary due to the premium nature of the product and the cost of ingredients: \u201cWe use the whole of a mango, for example, in the product, which is very expensive \u2013 it\u2019s not like an energy drink,\u201d says Griffith.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Starting out<\/strong><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
The business may have had to endure initial pain but Welsh and Griffith\u2019s vision to introduce a new kind of juice drink to Australians is now taking shape. Founded in 2004, Emma and Tom\u2019s is now an international brand with sales anticipated to hit $5 million this year, employing 20 staff.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The business\u2019 rise is at odds with the backgrounds of Welsh and Griffiths. Although undeniably successful in their careers \u2013 Welsh held senior commercial and marketing roles at Uncle Ben\u2019s and NAB, and Griffith was an investment banker and chartered accountant who was a UN Security Council consultant for Iraq\u2019s reparations from the first Gulf War \u2013 neither had started up their own business before.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe definitely weren\u2019t natural entrepreneurs,\u201d says Griffith. \u201cI was 42 years old and na\u00efve, rather than 22 years old and na\u00efve.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The idea for Emma and Tom\u2019s came to Griffith during a skiing holiday in Canada, where he was confronted by a range of premium juices that weren\u2019t evident in Australia at the time.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Having just received a pay-out from the UK-based firm he was working at, Griffith decided that he wanted to take a crack at the idea in Australia. He turned to Welsh, a long-term wannabe entrepreneur who Griffith had met aged 12 at a swimming lesson.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew I had a solid friendship with Emma, so I told her about the idea, she thought about it for five days and then said yes,\u201d he recalls. \u201cWe hired a truck and did it. As for the name, we decided to use our weakness, the fact there were just two of us, as a strength.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
So, what\u2019s the secret to a successful business partnership? \u201cWe\u2019ve always got on amicably,\u201d says Griffith. \u201cWe have a good understanding of what we do. Very broadly speaking, Emma makes it and I sell it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve barely had a gruff word in seven years. It\u2019s about respect and communication. Emma\u2019s husband works at the business too \u2013 we\u2019ve tried to create a company that is fun to work at.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Like most aspiring entrepreneurs, Emma Welsh and Tom Griffith had lofty ambitions when they ditched their corporate careers to launch<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61921,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37470"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}