PLENISH
In a nutshell (excuse the pun)
- Plenish Juices were founded in 2012 by Kara Rosen who started whizzing up vegetable packed juices in her kitchen as a personal health boost following a long period fighting illness. Kara was frustrated by the lack of organic nutrient rich juices in the U.K that weren’t full of sugar laden fruits and veg.
- Kara initially sold directly via an online shop and once sales reached £0.5m was able to secure distribution in the grocery multiples
- Following success in the juice business Plenish extended into plant based milks (called m*lks)
- The Plenish Brand is now worth £10m and stocked in WholeFoods, Waitrose and Sainsbury.
Principles
1: Define a clear purpose anchored in your unique DNA and how you add value in consumers’ lives.
- Kara says “ Its essential to make sure you are passionate about adding value to a consumer’s life with your brand”
- Plenish is a progressive company, “ founded to be a positive addition to fulfilling lifestyles”. The brand uses the verb “ plenish” as their name to describe the act of nourishing and fueling forward for what lies ahead “(*)
2: Use understanding of your customer and their purchasing cycle to define route to market and profitable business model
- Initially supermarket buyers said the business would not work for retail so Kara set up a website to sell the juice cleanse direct to customers. Selling direct through e-commerce relies on knowing your customer lifetime value will exceed the cost of acquiring a customer (usually a 2-3 times multiplier).
- By packaging the juices into a daily cleanse programme, with a minimum sales ticket of £59, Plenish could justify a direct to consumer approach. On reaching £0.5m sales the supermarkets were then keen to stock the brand.
What it means in practice
1: A strong brand purpose anchored in Kara’s founder story combined with a clear consumer insight and pioneering products underpin Plenish’s ability to extend beyond core categories to accelerate growth.
- Kara’s approach with both the initial juice cleanse products was to deliver products that are inherently more healthy than existing players on the market but still tasted great. This was then applied to the Plenish nut milks via a simple no nonsense ingredients list (nuts, Himalayan sea salt, spring water) and 3 times more nuts than competitors. They don’t contain any oil, sugar, dairy, soya or carrageans.
- Plenish products are also co designed with nutritionists to give further credibility.
- Plenish has recently expanded into Plenish Water+ (with bioactive cultures)
2: The brand has quickly evolved to offer a “ flexible” way to wellbeing.
- The website offers flexible packages from a 4 times a year cleanse for die-hard fans to group discount rates for friends and offices. Now the brand has expanded distribution into the grocery multiples it’s customer reach will extend to those making single unit purchases.
- The recognition that Plenish Cleanse is a system not purely a product has allowed them to operate as an e-commerce business as well as an FMCG brand.
What’s Next
- Kara’s has written a book “Fuel Your Ambition” showcasing stories of successful people which is now available on Amazon.
Sources
(*) HuffPost interview with Kara Rosen
Telegraph.co.uk Feb’17
www.plenishcleanse.com