Cocktail hour: How Mr Consistent found million-dollar success in the pandemic by living up to its name

Within five months of launching its cocktail mixers, Mr Consistent’s revenue hit $500,000 per month. The brand’s growth story has been rapid, and in its three-year history, it’s sold more than 1,000,000 bottles, upsized its manufacturing facilities three times, and landed on major retailer shelves like BWS and Dan Murphys.

CEO and co-founder Jeremy Davidson talks to SmartCompany about the brand’s pandemic launch, brand pivot, and plans to go international.

Key takeaways:

1. Understand exactly who you are targeting with your product, and where you will find them;

2. Ask for help, always; and

3. Don’t forget to celebrate the wins. 

The concept

The idea for Mr Consistent came to Davidson while running his 500-seat capacity restaurant at Palm Beach, on Queensland’s Gold Coast. At the time he wanted to offer cocktail packages for events with 500+ people while ensuring quality, consistency, and fast turnaround.

The solution, and his next business venture, was a pre-made cocktail mix: Mr Consistent.

“Throughout my hospitality career, I’ve always known that cocktails provide a high potential revenue opportunity,” Davidson says. “But when you’re charging $22-25 for a drink, it has to be good quality. And the problem was that we would train people to make the cocktails, but suddenly another bartender would step in, and the drinks were no longer at the same standard.”

Working alongside Davidson in his restaurant was Michael Sebire. Upon selling Davidson’s Gold Coast restaurant, the two co-founded Mr Consistent with their friend Jarrad Bell.

Bell ran a branding agency in Sydney and used his expertise to tackle the marketing of Mr Consistent, while Sebire and Davidson managed the manufacturing and distribution. But the three quickly encountered an obstacle that would require an immediate change of plans: the pandemic.

The pivot

While the product development for Mr Consistent started in 2019, as the pandemic hit Australian shores, the brand officially launched in April 2020.

With hospitality venues forced to shut their doors, the co-founders lost their target market and needed to pivot quickly. Using Bell’s skills, they were quickly able to change direction.

“Jarrad quickly put together a website to facilitate retail sales and we began to focus heavily on social media,” Davidson recalls. “Initially, we sold to a small network of friends, but the brand grew quickly. People were locked down at home and wanted to try new products and hobbies, including cocktail mixing.”

From their years in the hospitality industry, Davidson and Sebire both knew their primary retail customer well: 18-25-year-old females. Having a solid understanding of the brand’s target demographic meant Bell could target the marketing tone and platforms to that group.

“In general, 18-25-year-olds are very active on social media.” 

“But during the lockdown, they had nothing to do except scroll, and they were saving money by not going out. This made it easier to reach them.”

The trio also began selling their product at farmer’s markets during the pandemic — an experience he describes as invaluable for providing instant feedback and perfecting their “elevator pitch”.

Similarly, they “gave away a lot of products” in the early days. Davidson and Sebire ran parties and functions, allowing people to taste their mixers and combat one of their biggest marketing obstacles: the preconception that cocktail mixers were cheap sugary cordials.

“When people tried our drinks, and we were able to explain that we source fruit directly from farms, they understood our product and the price point,” Davidson says. 

“We were able to switch their preconceptions because until then, premium cocktail mixers really weren’t a thing.”

Rapid growth

Once lockdown restrictions began to ease, the wholesale market opened to the Mr Consistent team, and they could start targeting hospitality venues as initially planned.

Despite knowing their product offered terrific value to venues, they were still surprised by how quickly sales increased.

“We kicked off in April, and I remember that by Melbourne Cup week in November, we had our first $100,000 revenue week,” Davidson says. “So, within five months, we grew from zero to half-a-million-dollar months.”

Source: Supplied

The team needed to make rapid changes to keep up with the demand.

When launching, it was just Sebire and Davidson creating and distributing their product. “We had a little shed in Murwillumbah, about six by three metres long.”

“We made all the products, bottled and labelled them by hand. It was very hands-on. Then we delivered what we sold to people that day. We would still be delivering cocktail mixers at 10 pm some days.”

In order to scale, they needed to employ more people and automate their processes. The team of three grew to six people by June 2020, 25 by November of the same year, and then 60 staff by March 2021 — less than a year after launching.

Over the last three years, Mr Consistent’s production facilities were upsized three times. The biggest upscale was an almost $3 million project which they tried to fund almost entirely from cash flow. “Sadly, we didn’t have enough cash to do it,” he admits. “We were trying to do everything on a shoestring, which caused a lot of stress and pain in the business. Had we sat down and thought through the funding process a bit better, it would have got us a better result, faster.”

Ultimately, a private investor and a couple of small lines of credit resolved the brand’s financial concerns. And the whole process of upsizing and automating was only possible because they asked for help. “We initially knew nothing about beverage manufacturing,” he reveals. “We had to reach out to people in the industry we knew and ask for help.”

It was this willingness to ask for advice and understanding of their limits that Davidson says contributed to their success. 

“If we’d come at this venture thinking we were God’s gift to cocktails, we probably would have fallen flat on our faces.”

“Knowing we needed to find the right people to ask for help gave us a better starting point.”

Expansion now and into the future

Initially, Mr Consistent achieved approximately 80% of its revenue from e-commerce. But by September 2021, the numbers had flipped and wholesale dominated around 85% of the business.

“We’ve gone through ebbs and flows with selling to retailers. There’s less margin when selling B2B compared to selling B2C, but now that we’ve got ourselves into larger distribution centres, the profitability component really shifted from retail to wholesale.” 

“Bars and venues can order us on their usual form, through their usual supplier.”

Entering competitions provided an unusual opportunity for the co-founders to establish their growth targets and business direction. In 2021 the team won the Gold Coast Young Entrepreneur Award and became finalists in the Telstra Best Business Awards. 

“Despite having probably 100 staff at that point, it helped us cement the idea that we aren’t a garage business anymore,” Davidson says. “The application process really humbled us but also allowed us to think about where we are at and where we want to target our growth. We had been running so hard and so fast that we hadn’t had the opportunity to ask those questions. The application meant we had to figure out some long-term stuff, which has been a real benefit.”

When looking to the future, Davidson shares that the team has high hopes. 

“At this time of year, venues traditionally tighten their belts. Plus, interest rates keep going up. Our products offer a way for businesses to be a little leaner while still offering a quality product. You’ll see lots of new venues coming on board soon.”

They also have their sights set on a global presence. 

“We believe our concept is a global solution, particularly for restaurants and bars.”

“We want to secure the market share in Australia over the next three years and then look to expand overseas.”

Overall, Davidson says they’re incredibly proud of what they’ve created. “In those initial two years, every time we had a success, we made an effort to celebrate and recognise it and ensure everyone involved felt part of that success because there must be enjoyment with all this work. As well as a strong belief that what you’re offering is valuable.”

Davidson’s tips to other entrepreneurs:

1. Get the right team around you. According to Davidson they should have the right expertise and attitude, understand their weaknesses and be prepared to learn more.

2. Hustle hard, and don’t expect any days off for the first 12-18 months.

3. Follow your gut. Many decisions around when to upsize are institutive because forecasting and budgeting can initially be a crystal-ball activity.

4. Finally, know your exit point so you can choose when to withdraw from something that isn’t working and find other solutions.