Cocktail business takes off with Finance Yorkshire investment
FINANCE Yorkshire has invested £125,000 in a business launched by a former accountant that supplies cocktails to luxury hotels, bars and airlines.
Euphoria Cocktails is run by 29-year-old Victoria Novis, who established the business two years ago.
Ms Novis has received an equity linked investment from Finance Yorkshire, in addition to private equity from business angels, to support the growth of the business.
She said: “Around two years ago I had my eureka moment. With alcopops in decline and cocktails increasingly popular, I thought there was a gap in the market for superior quality pre-mixed cocktails.
“Fresh cocktails are difficult and time consuming to make and also costly in terms of ingredients, equipment and staff training.
“Conversely, Nuba (Euphoria’s major product) is a very simple proposition of great tasting cocktails, individually bottled, creating a fantastic opportunity for busy bars and other establishments to offer a great alternative to the more usual product offering.”
Ms Novis spent three months researching the product and the market before taking nine months to develop the product.
The range of cocktails consists of a ready-made, single serving size cocktail in a bottle that comes in three flavours; Cosmopolitan, Mai Tai and Mojito.
Euphoria Cocktails has sold more than 100,000 Nuba Cocktails and the drinks are being stocked by national pub chain, Punch Taverns, are on sale in more than 200 outlets and available in-flight on all Easyjet planes.
Finance Yorkshire Contracts Manager Darren Morris said: “We recognised the value that private investors could bring to the company in terms of supporting Victoria in her first business venture. We felt confident investing in the company as despite being new to the sector she has generated huge sales.”
Five investors are supporting Euphoria Cocktails and Jules Hydleman, the former chairman of Innocent Drinks, is now Euphoria Cocktails’ chairman and non-executive director.
Finance Yorkshire provides seedcorn, loan and equity linked investments, ranging from £15,000 to £2m to help a range of small and medium sized businesses to meet their funding requirements for growth and development.
