10 Questions with Georgia Beattie – Lupe Wines

 

10 Questions with Georgia Beattie – Lupe Wines

Georgia Beattie is on the brink of something big. In fact it already is big. At just 25 she has experienced successes most people only dream of. I caught up with her for a coffee and walked away inspired. Lots of entrepreneurs have lofty ambitions. Georgia doesn’t. They are real and she is almost there.

1. What is Lupe and where did the idea come from?

We’re a single serve wine packaging company with a house label product called Lupe. The idea came to me when I was at the bar of a Melbourne festival and realized they didn’t serve wine. I asked the bartender why this was to which he replied it was just “too difficult”. “With beer and spirits we can throw them on ice and serve them up in no time”. I immediately saw the opportunity for wine in more accessible packaging.

 

2. What’s your background?  Did you always want to run your own business?

Yes, for as long as I can recall. I’ve always wanted to be my own boss. The concept of growing someone else’s business seems foreign to me. I come from a family of wine, my father has a winery and a string of boutique bottle shops so delving into this project I had some natural advantages. I also studied entrepreneurship at RMIT which helped me achieve the right mindset but in reality, the skills that would have really come in handy in setting up Lupe would have been in engineering! Luckily I was able to find some investors that were trained in this area.

 

3. I understand part of your course was spent in the US. How does the entrepreneurial scene differ between here and there?

Yes, I spent 8 months at Babson College which is a highly regarded entrepreneurial school in Boston, MA. The people there were incredibly inspiring, many of which had projects which had gone on to successful IPOs. There’s a tremendous culture of entrepreneurship over there that we don’t really have in Australia. Everyone’s so encouraging and open in sharing contacts and information. Here on the other hand, it seems entrepreneurial endeavors are often frowned upon for being too risky, entrepreneurs themselves are quite cagey with their ideas and when you make it, you’re often shot down due to the tall poppy syndrome! It’s a massive difference in culture.  When I look back at my time at Babson, simply being around such an inspiring culture I feel it gave me the confidence to ‘go in hard’ with my idea when I came home. And in reality it’s the only option you really have.  If you don’t back your idea 100% and go all in, who will?

 

4. Who’s in the team?

In the immediate circle there’s myself, my two principle investors looking after the production, my brother in sales and five employees on the production line. We then have our distribution partners in Japan and Singapore.

 

5. How did you go about raising VC and bringing the product to life? How long has it taken?

When I first had the idea 2 years ago, I went about trying to produce a prototype on my own which turned out to be incredibly difficult as the injection moulding technology needed to produce the appropriate wine glass didn’t really exist. The company supplying me the lids put me in touch with a business in the UK who were working on a similar project and had custom built a machine capable of producing what we were after. Within two weeks I had been to London, negotiated the Asia Pacific rights to the packaging technology and had a machine custom built for my own purposes. So there was an initial outlay required from myself to get it ready to pitch.

Once we began pitching the idea to investors, the word spread very quickly since the idea had legs and we weren’t after a ridiculous amount of money. I soon realized that lots of people were willing to throw money at the idea but what I really needed were investors with appropriate experiences that would add value to the business. In particular I needed investors with manufacturing expertise and distribution connections in which I was lucky enough to find.

 

6. Where do you see the market for Lupe?

In Australia our main focus is on outdoor events where serving in glass is prohibited and quick customer service is essential. We’ve already been in discussions with some of Australia’s biggest festivals all of which have replied “it’s about time”. We also see retail as a secondary opportunity.  We’re cautious however in how we position ourselves there. We’re sensitive to the traditional nature of wine the product and the rituals that go along with it. My father’s bottle shop has proven an invaluable resource for testing what works and what doesn’t in this regard. We’re also taking cues from other markets a little further developed than us. In the UK the product has been very well received in theatres and cinemas so we’ve recently begun conversations there. 

Our biggest opportunity however, and where we spend most of our time and effort is in Asian retail. We already ship 1-2 container loads a month to our distributors in Japan and Singapore and we’re in negotiations with South Korea and China as we speak. The reason for the demand is twofold: the Asian wine market is experiencing tremendous growth as they become more westernized and since it’s less established they’re far more open to the new packaging format. For them, the idea of buying a 750ml bottle of wine to share at a restaurant makes perfect sense, but to buy for your home, where you might only have one glass a night, seems strange. We aim to have setup a manufacturing facility in China within the next two years.

 

7. Are you a packaging business or a wine business?

Good question. We are a packaging business. Lupe, (our house brand single use wine)  is a consumer facing brand but in reality its just a tool to prove the concept and the demand of our packaging solution and capabilities to the established wineries.  We don’t have the capital, time or experience needed to launch and distribute a new wine brand. In saying that I do believe that there is room in the market for a brand of wine with a more youthful character to it such as Lupe but it’s not our priority or core business.

 

8. What are the best and worst things about having you own business?

The best is the challenge itself and the little rushes you get when you get that little bit further down the track towards achieving your goals.

There really is no worst thing. If I was to say anything it would be that it’s hard not to get emotionally involved in the business when it’s your own. You take it to heart when someone dismisses the idea or you get down on yourself when you’re spending time on something un-business related when you know there’s so much work to do. You can never really switch off. And sometimes it’s hard to level with people about your challenges because so few people have been through what you do. To counter this, I’ve set up a range of mentors who constantly kick my arse in to line and remind me to see the business from a birds eye view and remember how simple it really is what Im doing and not to get bogged down on the little stuff.

 

9. What’s been the biggest thing you have learnt throughout your journey

The biggest is never to assume anything. When planning I’ve found I need to consider all possible outcomes and strategize appropriately.The others would be around looking after my health – healthy body, healthy mind. De-stressing and moving forward from an issue is really important too. I can do this over a morning jog most of the time. 

 

10. Who /What inspires you to do what you do?

It’s not really someone or something, it’s the challenge. I love the game. I’m chasing an empire and every day I can’t get out of bed quick enough to start chipping away at it.