We are currently living in difficult times – which may be a big understatement. There is nothing we love more than seeing people and companies studying these dark times and getting the most out of them.
Bae Juice – a product that is light in packaging as well as purpose – spoke to Retail World Magazine about their beginnings, their now and how they are tackling every challenge that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic has asked. Tim O’Sullivan, managing director and co-founder of Bae Juice, spilled the juice on this exciting product journey.
What is Bae Juice and why is it unique?
Our product is made from 100% Korean pear juice and contains enzymes that help with hangovers. It's pretty amazing that these two elements are in the same sentence, and with the support of CSIRO, we believe this could be one of the few natural products that can support alcohol metabolism. Our 120 ml squeeze bags are designed to help consumers drink them on the go and not take a sip before a big evening. The feedback on our branding was rewarded for hard efforts.
Can you talk to us about introducing Bae Juice?
We launched Bae Juice for the first time in January 2019. It was one of the best days in our life. We had worked for over a year to get the 100% Korean pear juice, structure and business, build a brand and bring it to Melbourne.
Our mission was to give the product to as many people as possible. When our delivery of 50,000 units arrived, we decided to publish them on our Bae Juice Instagram (@baejuiceaus). If anyone wanted to try the product in Melbourne, we were ready to give some samples.
Over the next 3 days we drove over 30 hours each and delivered over 2500 units by hand to build up hype about our new brand. People started sharing pictures and sending our page. It wasn't planned, but excitement drove the idea!
Where is this product stored?
We are currently represented in over 100 branches across Australia. We mainly focus on Melbourne as we are based here with over 45 IGAs and other independent companies. We are pleased that we can branch heavily into the liquor retail sector and further expand the indecent distribution of food.
What inspired you to launch this product on the market?
Spending time in Korea with friends and family of my girlfriends was the main reason to stumble across such an amazing product. Sumin's friends often gave me pear juice while drinking to relieve my hangover. They explained that the pear alleviates the effects of hangovers and their parents and friends do all of this. It was almost universally known and after some research, everything made sense.
There is a property in the Korean pear called DHM that speeds up the metabolism of alcohol and leads to fewer hangovers. For me and the drinking culture in Australia, combined with the huge health and wellness marketing, we saw an enormous opportunity and have not looked back since.
How did you prepare for the challenges that COVID-19 posed?
Our approach was simple and something we identified very early on. Liam, my business partner, noticed that managers worked in all independent stores most days during the pandemic, and he saw an opportunity to present our product to the right person. As a result, we opened 40 new IGA stores in the past 4 weeks, which strengthened our sales in Melbourne.
Online, we've tackled new ideas such as same day delivery, competitions, discounts, and the ability to run our online advertising in-house to save important resources.
What have you planned for the future?
We are currently working on 2 new products. Given the current circumstances and health, our hero product, the Korean pear, is mixed with a traditional Southeast Asian herb to strengthen immunity. We are excited to continue to develop our overall brand and continue to bring new niche health products to Australia that we believe are outstanding in the Australian market and benefit consumers.
Visit baejuiceaus.com.au to learn more!
