Cider brand launches capital offer to push growth

Zeffer cider has launched a public capital offer of up to $1.2 million, to help launch its Asian export strategy and further increase its domestic resources to drive growth.

The premium cider brand, founded in Matakana by Hannah Bower and Sam Whitmore in 2009, has already experienced impressive results in the cider category, which is now worth more than $100 million per annum in New Zealand, with Zeffer alone producing over 300,000 litres per year. 

Globally, Zeffer is exported to the USA, UK, Australia, Canada, China, Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan. International cider sales are already surging, growing at 25% Compound Annual Growth Rate in the past five years. It’s anticipated the global market will grow by an additional 730 million litres through to 2021 too. 

Josh Townsend (pictured), Sales and Marketing Director at Zeffer, says with cider now being one of the fastest growing alcohol categories in much of the world, the time was right for the company to hone its focus on two key export markets – China and Thailand.

“Mainstream beer brands have stalled in recent years as consumers have become more educated and demanding of more premium or craft beers. We believe the same trend towards ‘premiumisation’ will emerge for cider.

“Whilst cider is still a relatively new concept for China and Thailand, we’ve noticed its now really starting to take off. Given their respective free trade agreements, climates, burgeoning middle class and their demand for craft beverage now booming, it presents massive opportunities for us to capitalise on,” adds Josh.

With support from New Zealand Trade & Enterprise, the Zeffer team will be in China and Thailand next month to set up point-of-sale systems, provide customised marketing collateral, and train their local sales teams.  The company has already secured distribution agreements in these markets too.

“We will continue to sell in and explore other international markets as opportunities arise, such as Singapore, but we anticipate the bulk of our export growth over the next two years will come from China,” says Josh.

Zeffer is also seeking further capital to continue its domestic growth. New Zealand will still remain a focus for Zeffer and will become a test market for new products before they are exported.

“Our long-term goal is to grow Zeffer to 10% of the total New Zealand market share in off-premise cider sales, from approximately 1%-2% currently.

“We are at a significant point in our journey and this next stage presents an exciting opportunity to onboard Kiwis who love our cider, to not only become shareholders, but to continue to share our world-class cider beverages on a global stage,” concludes Josh.
 
To find out more information about Zeffer’s Snowball Effect offer, which went live on Wednesday 1st March, visit www.snowballeffect.co.nz/offers