Beer52 Limited

Company description

Beer52 runs a subscription-based craft beer club, delivering beer from various microbreweries to its members.

Beer 52 is a craft-beer subscription delivery service that sends out a selection of beers in a box every month. In each box customers get 8 new craft beers, that are expertly hand-picked from different microbreweries across the world, and a copy of Ferment magazine which is packed with articles and news about the craft beer scene. Each monthly box has a different theme to help you learn all about global craft beers.

Project impact

- Funded £19,817 from the 2nd Chiasma (Food) in Apr 13 The business impact: - Launched in September 2013, six months after founder James Brown attended a Design in Action Chiasma - Trademarked Beer 52 name - Beer 52 broke all previous sales records when it was featured on Groupon UK, selling out in under 45 minutes - 500+ brewery partners - Currently 7,000 monthly subscribers paying £24 per month - 70% year on year growth - Beer 52 is valued at £4m - Has a turnover of £2.6m - Targeting £41m annual revenue by 2019 - Won £45,000 from Scottish Edge (2015) - Raised £818k in investment through two rounds - Employs 11 salaried staff and 4 freelance partners (4 designers are salaried) - Ferment magazine is now listed in 400 WHSmith stores, around the UK, and will be on sale in June - Launched in Ireland 2015 - Launching in Denmark (2016), Holland (2016) and USA (2017) - Gift cards available in Tesco and Red letter days - World's largest online craft beer retailer Design in Action's Impact: (James Brown, founder of Beer 52) said - I guess I didn't know that much about Design to be honest. I could appreciate good design but - in the other start-ups I worked on before, they didn't invest in design as it was seen as a luxury, something that was nice to have but that you didn't need to have. I now realise that it's a must-have! At the beginning, we just wanted to get to market as quickly and cheaply as possible and the packaging wasn't right and hadn't been tested enough. We had a very short window to fix it - people were waiting for their beer and starting to get angry - and the designers in the team got to work testing various alternatives and doing drop tests. There were a few different boxes and we eventually found one that worked. The design process is a collective responsibility and is evident in the team - all input is welcome and there is no one decision maker. It is very much influenced by design methodologies and co-creation.