Non-alcoholic brewer Mash Gang is plotting moves into adjacent categories as it seeks to diversify its product offer.
The business has registered to trademark its name with the Intellectual Property Office under classes 30 and 33.
The classes applied for cover coffee and coffee beans, coffee beverages, chocolate, ice cream and distilled spirits including vodka, gin, whisky, whiskey, rum and tequila.
Mash Gang founder Jordan Childs said the company planned to launch a small batch non-alcoholic spirit in January 2024, and had ambitions to produce nitro cold brew coffee in the future.
“We never saw Mash Gang as just being a brewery,” he said. “We’re not called Mash Gang Brewing Co or anything like that, because it was always supposed to be just part of what we did.
“When we first started we wanted to make energy drinks and sodas and stuff like that. Everything that has been trademarked is kind of beverage or beverage adjacent.
“I’m super into my coffee and I love a lot of the canned coffee offerings on the market right now. I think there’s kind of a crossover point with what we do with flavour that would be great in a nitro coffee.”
He said the business was not presently planning a move into full-strength alcohol, however.
“It’s not something we’re going to touch – certainly not for a while and probably not under the Mash Gang brand.”
Mash Gang, which operates a contract brewing model, is currently crowdfunding to scale volumes and expand its draft offering. The brewer produces its alcohol-free and lower-alcohol beers at partner breweries in Aberdeen, Zagreb and Chicago.
Childs said Mash Gang was “looking to raise our first million” via private placement and the equity raise.
“If you’d asked six months ago, I think our goals would have been a lot, a lot smaller,” he said “But we’ve had such an uptick in the last year. We will do our first £1m in turnover this year – last year was £250,000. The demand is only growing and it’s a really exciting position to be in.”
Grocery ambitions
He added Mash Gang had no plans to build a bricks-and-mortar production facility.
“We have really good production partners. So we plan to continue doing that,” he said.
Mash Gang’s grocery exposure has so far been limited to a collaboration with Northern Monk, listed with Morrisons in January this year.
Childs said the business was “in discussions” with retailers but didn’t have “the big four banging down our door”.
“I’ve always seen us in grocery from day one; we just don’t get invited in,” he said. “We’re just too early out of the gate at the moment. But we’re having those conversations.
“It’s about discovery and accessibility; in my local area there isn’t a botleshop but you can go into a Spar and get every beer under the sun. That’s the power of grocery reach.”
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