UK-based Pimentae was set up in 2021 by Alice Parmiter and Wynter Karo with the aim of redefining consumers’ understanding of Tequila with its ready-to-drink (RTD) and ready-to-serve cocktails.
Now sold at UK retailers Waitrose and Ocado, the female-founded business is also tapping into local on-trade venues that are on the hunt for bar-strength drinks that can be conveniently served in cans, bottles or on-tap.
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Just Drinks sat down with Pimentae co-founder Alice Parmiter to discuss the group’s domestic and broader European expansion plans, as well as the challenges the company has faced as a female-founded business.
Fiona Holland (FH): What are Pimentae’s key growth ambitions for the year ahead?
Alice Parmiter (AP): We’re growing really quickly, which has been exciting. We won our first national retailer last year, which was Waitrose. We’re very much still trying to grow our awareness as a brand and we’re doing that through the endorsement angle, in terms of people actually really liking the liquid and understanding that ready-to-drink cocktails don’t necessarily have to be that sugary, bad quality liquid that sometimes is associated with it. One [aim] is just really honing in on that piece and trying to shift that perception a little bit more and then we just really want to grow the brand and start to take it into new markets.
At the moment, we’re just in the UK, so maybe looking at some European markets, Spain, maybe the Netherlands, and start to tap into some of those areas. When you go into those markets, they still don’t have Tequila-based RTDs necessarily. There’s maybe one or two brands, whereas if you’re in the US, the shelves are flooded. Here, even in the UK, there still are lots of brands doing Margaritas, but we’re the only brand specialising in Tequila RTDs as its own category. We just really want to hone in on that and bring out a few more SKUs.
FH: On those new European markets, you’re not launching there yet but are they where you might like to go in the next 12 months?
AP: Yeah, obviously with Brexit and everything, there’s a lot more barriers to entry into a new market and, particularly with RTDs, because we’re not a spirit, we’re in this middle category. Also we’re a high-abv RTD, we’re at 14.5%, which is slightly above the low-alcohol threshold.
It’s working out which markets are commercially viable in terms of importing, exporting all of that, where there’s demand for Tequila and which markets are where we’re able to find distributors who can tap into supermarkets, because some of them are monopolised. For example, France, it’s very heavily dominated by Pernod Ricard, so coming into a market like that, we can’t really compete.
FH: Besides Europe, is there anywhere else you’d be looking to enter?
AP: We’d start looking at Europe. Other markets we’ve spoken about where we know that they love Margaritas are Australia, Canada and, then, obviously we know that there’s demand in the US. It’s a bit of a beast, we don’t have the financial backing or the budget to be able to actually do well in that market at the moment but hopefully one day in a few years it will be the right time and we can tap into that market as well, because I think that there is so much opportunity.
At the moment, we’ll test and learn in a few smaller markets where we can apply a more reserved amount of resource and then grow from there.
FH: Do you have any targets for sales value and volumes in the next year? How do you plan to achieve those?
AP: We hit £1.1m ($1.4m) this year [2024] in revenue. Last year, we did £465,000, so we’ve grown quite a lot in a year. A lot of that came from retail. We have a multi-format sales strategy: we do cans, bottles, kegs and bag and box. The reason we do that is to speak to consumers at every touch point in every channel.
When we entered the RTD space, we decided what did we actually want to do and what do we want to achieve as a brand? And it was: let’s specialise in Tequila cocktails as a category, let’s bridge that gap and make it more accessible. How are we going to do that? Be available for people to drink in every touch point and then that creates a really nice halo effect. As people discover us at a festival, then they pop into a shop, and it’s that association.
The retail angle, we know that we really want to grow that but then also, one thing that we’ve always done well as a brand is events and activation. That’s how we initially grew the brand. We were very lucky because a lot of people see it as a loss-making exercise or a marketing investment, and we found a way to do it profitably when we were starting. The models have changed over the years but it’s something that we really love because, as well as being a revenue driver for us, it’s a way to get that mass liquid on lips, actually speak to our consumer, get them engaging with the brand and really bring them into our brand world. That’s something we really want to drive a bit more. How can we get the cans and the kegs into festivals and activate across the country?
That’s something we’re looking to do more efficiently and grow in the on-trade as well. We’ve got an amazing team looking at bars and restaurants and how we can tap into the RTD on-tap. Perceptions have really shifted over the last couple of years with that. I think people are struggling in the hospitality industry and it’s really sad to see a lot of venues closing. One thing that comes at a huge cost is staff and trained mixologists, so, if they can bring in students or staff who have less training and less expertise, who can just serve good quality cocktails on tap, it automatically ticks a lot of boxes for them.
Where some of the bigger brands have tried to do it, the quality just hasn’t been there, so they’re still charging £12-13 for cocktails that do taste very artificial and very sugary. That’s something we’ve really tried to hone in on as a brand and make sure that people can see that the liquid is good.
FH: What barriers has Pimentae faced as a female-founded business?
AP: We’re definitely in a very male-dominated industry. We’ve been very, very lucky in that we’ve surrounded ourselves with incredible people who have had our interests always at the forefront and have always championed us.
It’s just really [about] breaking barriers and trying to believe in your vision. Along the journey, we’ve had a lot of people try and tell us that what we’re doing won’t work, that the multi-format strategy is too complex and to simplify the proposition, and that predominantly had always come from men who’ve been in the industry for a long time. I think there’s a very archaic way of looking at the industry and, actually, if you’re not going to do things differently, you’re not going to get different outcomes.
We were always very set in our vision of, okay, we’re going to own this category, we’re going to just do Tequila. We want to do the multi-format strategy and this is why this is our vision. We want to make Tequila more accessible and we’re not going to do that if we’re just focusing in on one canned product. Also, if, for example, we won a retailer that was driving most of our revenue, and then another brand came in and we got knocked off shelf immediately, that risks our whole business.
Less than 2% of VC funding go to [UK] female-founded businesses and that’s squeezed even further in the F&B space
It’s just cutting through the noise of advice coming from a lot of angles, from people who have also been in the industry a long time. It’s understanding what to listen to, what not to listen to, and really being sure in what we’ve gone and set out to do, rather than taking all the advice that’s sometimes against what we have planned.
The other thing that’s been a big challenge is the raising. Less than 2% of VC funding go to [UK] female-founded businesses and that’s squeezed even further in the F&B space.
Raising is really, really, really tough. The market is even harder at the moment where, just with how the climate is… where people used to look at growth in brands, they’re now wanting to see profitability… That’s been tricky because for us as two female founders, it just takes ten times more work and ten times more outreach to find that funding.
There’s a lot of female funds for tech businesses, but… there’s actually no funds really supporting female-founded businesses that have product-based companies. That’s been tough but we’re raising our seed at the moment so that’s really exciting, and we’ll get there. It’s just breaking down those barriers.
FH: What do you think some of the best opportunities in the Tequila market are worldwide at the minute?
AP: It’s a hugely growing spirit which is super exciting. I can talk more towards the UK and our experience but there’s this huge knowledge gap and almost education piece that we’re bridging in terms of people not actually understanding where Tequila comes from, the story behind it, the heritage of the craft. A lot of people don’t actually know that it’s a protected spirit and owned by the Mexican government and there’s this huge negative perception and shot culture that has formed around the spirit. I think slowly, we’re seeing this massive shift in people starting to discover the agave category in a different way and understanding that actually it’s a beautiful spirit, hugely complex, that can be sipped at room temperature and savoured and enjoyed not as a shot.
A lot of bars have seen the rise of Tequila soda [and lime] instead of gin and tonics. Then also in the cocktail space, we’ve just seen the introduction of a lot of new flavours. People know the Margarita and the Paloma but, when you’re going to a lot of bars and restaurants now, they have really exciting citrus-based flavour cocktails, lots of spice that’s being introduced with Tequila as well, so that’s really nice to see.
It’s just the demand and the knowledge around it is growing and in a different way, and actually that’s very much reflective in the kind of US trends that are trickling down into some of the European markets.
FH: Is it a challenging time to be in Tequila in the UK, given the general slowdown in spirits we’re seeing globally?
AP: [With] Tequila, we’re lucky that it’s still growing. It’s growing less than it was last year. I think last year it almost overtook vodka globally as the fastest growing spirit. This year is still growing, slightly less than it was but people are just willing to try something new and also people are drinking less but better. Therefore, they’re opting for slightly cleaner spirits, or slightly more premium spirits. Where they were, maybe going in and buying a bottle of gin people are [now] investing slightly more into a premium bottle of Tequila and enjoying that at home, rather than a gin and tonic, and that’s where we’re seeing a slight shift.
FH: Where is Pimentae produced? Does any part of production happen in the UK?
AP: The Tequila comes from an amazing distillery called Casa Maestri. It’s a family-run distillery out in the old town of Tequila that gets imported here, and then we blend and can here. We have two [third-party] facilities. One in Exeter, who does our canning, and then one’s in Surrey, who does the bottles, kegs and bag and box.
FH: Are you looking to raise a specific amount in your seed round?
AP: We’re raising around £1m, that’s to fuel our growth… and also to grow the team. We’re still a very small team in comparison to some of our competitors. We’re an all-female, five women team, which is amazing what we’re doing on such a lean team. But to supercharge our growth, grow our team, support these listings and be able to also invest in marketing. We’ve never actually had money to invest in marketing, so everything’s been done very organically through events or through storytelling on Instagram and TikTok.
FH: Do you expect to raise another round in the future?
AP: We’ll probably have to raise again, whether that’s 12 months on or whatever it is. I think we’ll have to raise again when we start to maybe look at some new markets. We’ll need extra support, extra feet on the street there and money to invest in those markets as well.
