Working as a barman in the early 1990s, Gavin Yates noticed shot glasses being stolen by patrons. This inspired him to make miniature cocktails and package them into closed shot glasses so patrons would still get their five-finger discount, only this time the brand name goes home with them.
Back in the early 1990s, Gavin Yates and his father started making miniature pots of breakfast jam that grew into bigger condiment brands such as Dural Park Jams, Blue Mountains Honey and Granny Kookaburra Jams and Sauces.
Working as a barman in later years for extra money, Yates noticed the number of shot glasses that were being stolen from the bar. From this, he derived inspiration to create mini cocktails and pack them neatly into shot glasses with a pull-off lid, like jam jars.
Knowing this would only become a craze, Yates decided to add a brand name to his miniature cocktail range – Steinbok. This way, when people with sticky fingers got a hold of a shot glass, the brand name would also go home with them. A permanent advertisement of Steinbok would then be sitting in someone’s kitchen.
“When people were stealing my shot glasses, I realised this was a great way to promote a business. So I started making cocktail shots and putting the brand name on the shot glasses,” said Yates.
By 2000, having sold over a million miniature cocktails with the Steinbok brand name on them, Yates felt it was time to bring out a 700mL bottle. This was soon to be followed by new products of liqueur including Drifter alcopops and the ever popular Granny Smith Sour Apple schnapps.
The motivation behind the products
In describing the motivations behind his business, Yates explained that he was looking for ways to help make the bar industry more efficient at providing service to customers. This desire drove him to create the pre-pourer, a design element within the bottle cap that makes opening and pouring easier. It was the first of its kind.
“I wanted to make a product that allowed bars to deliver service faster and easier. Another one of the products that we created, called Barman’s Choice, which is a cordial, was the first to have a pre-pourer inside the cap, so when the barman opens the cap, the pre-pourer pops up and they can pour it straight from the bottle. So innovation to make the job quicker and faster for the bar industry is probably one of the biggest motivations for our products,” said Yates.
Yates went on to explain why he chose schnapps over other types of alcoholic beverages, saying it was about finding a place in the market where the competition was weak. While most products are ordered by brand, schnapps are ordered by flavour. This way he could follow the latest trends and create products that would guarantee sales.
“The primary reason behind choosing to create schnapps is because they are not brand-name-specific. What I mean by that is, say, when someone goes up to a bar and orders a butterscotch schnapps, they order a butterscotch schnapps. They just know the product, not the name of the brand that sells butterscotch schnapps,” said Yates.
“There are a lot of products in the industry that are known by their product name, for example Midori. You cannot create a melon liqueur and think you can compete with Midori. People come to the bar and ask for that product by the brand. So we did target a non-specific product that would pour in volume and I daresay that we are the second biggest manufacturer of schnapps in this country now.”
Moving Steinbok online for better engagement and interactivity
Like most businesses today, Steinbok have gone ahead to establish an online presence, though the website is still in the process of becoming more interactive and engaging.
“We’re currently upgrading our website to be interactive. While there’s still a ‘to be continued’ tag on our website, over the next four to six weeks, we’re going to have a buyer’s section for licensed venues to log in and look at wholesalers’ prices around Australia where they’re located,” said Yates.
“We’re also going to be putting a ‘barman’s tour’ section which will feature bars that have our products in them, and that will also be linked to Facebook. So we’re going to offer cocktail bars, not only a better, more innovative and cheaper products but we will also feature them on our website as a little barman’s tour,” he added.
Using social media platforms to raise brand awareness is also one of the key strategies Yates is incorporating into his long-term business plans, especially to target younger generations who are tech-savvy and active users of social media.
“We’re getting quite savvy with Facebook and we’re going to generate organic likes, especially to target younger adults who use these sites. Steinbok also has a presence on Twitter. Our main plan with social media is to organise lots of events and do a lot of charity days. We want to let Australians know through our social media pages that we are active members in the community and we are a brand name,” said Yates.
Difficulty with distribution when big brands dominate
One of the biggest problems with entering the alcohol industry today is that big brands are already dominating the market. Opportunities to outshine the others do not come as easily, and require patience and perseverance.
Yates explained that there are two main distribution channels for the liquor industry – on-premise and off-premise. Off-premise is dominated by two major retail companies – Woolworths and Coles. Woolworths owns BWS (Beer Wine Spirits), Dan Murphy’s and Woolies Liquor, while Coles owns Liquorland, First Choice and Vintage Cellars.
“It’s very hard to get a run. We have one product, our Granny Smith Sour Apple Schnapps, in Coles. So this year, with our new packaging on Steinbok, my job is to romance the major retailers until they take on more of our products. I will be going to Melbourne, where both head offices are, to consolidate our relationship,” said Yates.
“On-premise is primarily where we’re found and it’s not dominated by major retailers. It’s very independent and usually small private groups such as hotels. While we’re quite extensively found in bars around Australia, our goal this year is to not only be in bars but to be in major bottle shops as well,” he added.
The benefits of being a small company
While big brands already have an established reputation and fan base, there are a still a number of benefits small companies enjoy. Yates said that manufacturing and distributing new products is a much faster process.
“Having a small company really allows us to stay on ground. I have direct contact with my reps everyday and I go out and sell with them as well. We’re always looking out for new trends to help us decide what our next shot should be. Being a manufacturer, I can make any liqueur in this facility and I can bring out a new product quite quickly. We don’t have the tiered structure of a large company, and I think that’s one of the benefits of remaining a small company,” said Yates.
Yates intends to grow his Steinbok brand and develop more schnapps in the future. But he points out that they are not out to try and create trends, they’re out to follow trends. This way they can be quick in the process of manufacturing products that will facilitate sales.
“We have a collective innovative range of products that best suit the bar industry today, and we will continue to make more schnapps. But the way we stay current is by observing trends in the industry and applying them at a manufacturing level,” he said.
One piece of advice Yates would like to remind start-up business owners of is: “The day that seems too hard is the day you need to keep on going.”
Simple, but true, because no matter how enormous the challenges are, perseverance is one of the most important contributing factors to business success.
For more information on Steinbok, visit www.steinbok.com.au.
