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Like most people I receive far toomany emails, and this might be because I have two Yahoo accounts, plus a Gmailone. I also have my own work email account, which is strictly for business. Unfortunately, I’m not a person who keeps ontop of his inbox, despite the best of intentions, although for professionalreasons, my work emails are kept right up to date. The other day, I noticed an email from Beer 52, the long-establishedbeer subscription service, advising me that Flavourly, another beer deliveryorganisation, had ceased trading after entering into administration earlier inOctober.

Slightly puzzled that Beer 52 had my email address, I rememberedthat I have dealt with this beer subscription service, at some time in the past.Working onthe basis that one person’s misfortune is another’s business opportunity, Beer52 appear to be approaching former Flavourly customers, in a quite unashamed grabfor business. This was evident from the email, below, which went on to say. “Beer52 wasapproached to see if they could help Flavourly members continue to discovergreat beer. and were delighted to share the following service update."

“As a former Flavourlycustomer, you have earned a free case of craft beer (worth £27)! Click below and useyour personal code and we'll send an 8-pack of craft beer from our latesttheme, award-winning Ferment magazine and a couple of snacks.” Itsounds tempting, or perhaps not, although there is no obligation to continue withyour subscription because that is what you are signing up to, should you decideto take-up their offer. Beer 52 confirm this by saying, “Of course, you’re freeto take the case and run. But if you decide to continue your monthly beer,drop, we’ll send you a new themed box every month, from the haziest NEIPAs tothe crispest pilsners. No minimum commitment, cancel anytime.”
I have used several beersubscription services in the past, but it’s worth taking a closer look at Flavourly,not just because they are in the news at the moment, but because they operateda rather different business model to other beer providers. This involved partneringwith selected craft-beer breweries, commissioning one-off “specials” or“collaboration beers”, and then guaranteeing to buy these beers in largevolumes. The beers were then offered to Flavourly’s customers as exclusives.
This provided a certain volume for the breweries concerned, alongsidethe bonus of a firm commitment from Flavourly to take the entire batch. Theaim was to boost efficiency, attract investment in new equipment, and negotiatebetter rates on ingredients with their suppliers.
Therefore, unlike certain other online beer retailers, Flavourlywere not a subscription service, and with nothing to sign up to, customerscould just order, as and when they pleased. Having said that, the company didtend to pester you with emails, highlighting their latest offers, but with noobligation to buy, you could just delete these messages. The beers that thecompany sold were packaged solely in the 330ml can format, which musthave helped streamline their mail order despatch, business model. This did at least mean that potential subscribers had aninkling of the types and styles of the beers they would be buying - animprovement on the “traditional” beer subscription services, where the providerrather than the customer, chooses the beers supplied. From my point of view, collaborationbrews were alright for those wanting to tick beers on “Untappd,”but perhaps not for those who preferred something more permanent rather than “one-offs.”
Flavourly was set up by Ryan O’Rorke in 2012, following an appearanceon Dragons’ Den, where he was offered investment by all five dragons. Heeventually accepted a joint bid from Piers Linney and Peter Jones for £75,000in return for a 20% stake. Over the previous two years, Flavourly had generated£600,000 in revenues, had shipped more than 500,000 products to its 10,000subscribers, and was forecasting a tenfold increase in sales.
Flavourly also raised cash through several crowdfundingexercises, but In 2017 it was sold to Drinkshare Holdings for £118,000, acompany which Mr O’Rorke was a director of. At the time of the fund-raisingFlavourly was touted as having a value of £1.2m, so somewhere along the line thecompany decreased quite dramatically in value, and investors who backed theoriginal startup were reputedly left out of pocket. I’m not sure how you value a company whose only assets arethe stock it is currently sitting on, plus possible warehousing anddistribution space. The latter two can be contracted out, so in the end itboils down to the offers that Flavourly had in which to tempt the customer. I’mbeginning to think that apart from the possible novelty value, the brands plus typesof beer the company were offering, had slowly stated to lose their appeal. This is certainly what happened in my case.At the beginning of March 2022, I ordered myself amixed case of 48 cans of “craft beer” from Flavourly. Mymotives in buying this rather large case were mixed but were underscored by adesire to have a selection of different beers at home, to choose from. I’m notsure whether this actually worked, as some of the beers were, quite frankly,disappointing. You could argue that with such a large selection to choose from,there are bound to be a few duds, and you would be right in thinking this. However,at the other end of the spectrum you might expect there to be a few stunners,but there wasn’t any, although there was a few worthy of seeking out again.
I worked out that there were 22 different brews,which suggested that whilst there were two cans of most of the beers, theremust have been three of some of them. At the end of the day, you win some, youlose others, and on the plus side I had the chance to enjoy some interestingbeers. The flip side is the continual search for the new and the original does,at times, invoke a deep-seated sense of longing for the comfort and sense ofsecurity that goes with the familiar. In which case, make mine a pint of Harvey’sSussex Best!
In summary, I feel the points I have raised above must haveat least been partly to blame for the fall in valuation of Flavourly as a company,and the decision to put the business into administration. but where this leavesthe breweries commissioned to produce the specials and collaborative beers, isany one’s guess. The concept behind Flavourly remains a bold one, and an interestingone too. The reasons for its failure are varied, but in the end probably boildown to the fickleness of the great British public.Whether this could have been foreseen, is a question foranother day, but one thing’s for sure, I won’t be taking Beer 52 up on theiroffer, as eight cans of supposedly “free beer,” just aren’t worth the hassle ofcancelling my subscription further down the line.
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