Bloody Mary

Bloody plans to expand the range with a vegan SKU and a non-alcoholic variant

RTD cocktail brand Bloody Drinks has hit a £250k crowdfunding goal to support its growing supermarket listings.

The campaign on the Seedrs platform is currently overfunding and, at the time of publishing, has raised £265k from almost 200 backers.

Launched in 2019 by Will Best and Harry Farnham, Bloody is the first ready-to-drink bloody mary stocked by major supermarkets, with listings at Sainsbury’s, Waitrose Ocado and Selfridges.

The business is also making in-roads into foodservice at restaurant chains and pub groups, including developing a drink for Wagamama, and in talks to launch with airlines and hotels.

It generated almost £350k in revenue last year, according to the Seedrs pitch.

Bloody will use the money to support its supermarket listings, increase DTC ad spend across social media, hire new staff and develop three new products, including a vegan friendly bloody mary and a non-alcoholic version.

Best said: “We launched Bloody Drinks because we could see that the RTD market was changing. The premiumisation of the category meant we could bring a drink of the quality and complexity needed to make a bloody mary, and consumers could instinctively trust that we might have pulled it off.

“Luckily for us, once they do take the plunge and try us, they tend to stick around - according to one of our grocery accounts we’ve got the highest customer loyalty in the category, and we’re slowly translating that into a real community of Bloody Drinks lovers. Which is another reason we wanted to connect with our consumers on an even deeper level through our crowdfund.”