It has been four years since Karina Sudenyte and Maciek Kacprzyk started their sustainable drinks business.
Those four years have seen a number of challenges and changes.
As 80% of their sales, pre-Covid were to the service industry they had to completely rethink how there were going to work when the pandemic completely changed our way of life.
"We had to become Amazon experts overnight," said Ms Sudenyte.
However, the biggest change to the business came about two years ago, it was the complete renaming and rebranding of the company.
The business had been born from trips to the supermarket and seeing the fruits all the same size and wrapped in plastic.
"We started to do a bit more research on what we consume, particularly fruit and vegetables, and what happened to the fruits that were rejected," explained Ms Sudenyte.
"This is when we decided to approach farmers about where all of those fruits end up and discovered how much waste there was. We were shocked at what we discovered and decided we needed to make a change."
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The business was originally named Get Wonky, as the pair used ‘wonky’ fruits that were not being sold to make their fruit drinks.
Ms Sudenyte, 25, and Mr Kacprzyk, 28, who are originally from Lithuania and Poland respectively, had met while at the University of South Wales and came up with their business plan.
They wanted to stay in Wales because they felt the country helped and nurtured entrepreneurs. At the start they accessed assistance from Big Ideas Wales, which is part of the Welsh Government’s Business Wales Service and is part funded by the European Regional Development Fund, as well as the Accelerated Growth Programme and the Entrepreneurial Spark powered by NatWest programme.
Get Wonky was doing well, they were supplying caterers, a small supermarket chain, and a number of venues across the country.
However, the pair felt it was failing to stand out in a marketplace. With Morrisons’ wonky boxes making headlines the young entrepreneurs felt their business was being associated with the big supermaket.
"We were losing distinctiveness and we always wanted to have this, so this is when we starting to think about having a rebrand," said Ms Sudenyte.
This is where fate played seemingly its hand.
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“We would never be able to afford such a rebrand. We were often helping students to gain experience and one day we came across a girl asking for a graphic design job and if we can accept her to do some freelance work for us. It turned out her mum was a creative director at the Coley Porter Bell, part of Ogilvy. Of course we had to pitch to the board of Ogilvy in order to convince them. We were in the right time and moment, and we were so lucky they have invested their time and money for a significantly reduced rate of the amount we would never afford to pay.”
Ms Sudenyte says they while they were lucky to get the opportunity the decision for the agency to rebrand the company has been justified. The work on changing Get Wonky to Flawsome! won a gold DBA award earlier this year.
The Design Business Association (DBA) has been measuring success, sharing excellence and best practice in design effectiveness for more than 30 years and the global scheme recognises wide-ranging examples of design across all sectors and disciplines.
The Coley Porter Bell agency winning this award is a real honour and the company was hailed for its work.
Get Wonky was distributed by six wholesalers, but leapt to 21 following the redesign, including the German largest supermarket Edeka, as well as Carrefour and Ad Delhaize in Belgium. It saw a 536% year-on-year growth following the change.
The business had also been seeking to secure external investment, but rebranded as Flawsome! it acquired eight investors, while enabled new product developments, further increasing distribution and sales.
Ms Sudenyte says they while they were lucky to get the opportunity the decision for the agency to rebrand the company has been justified.
Ms Sudenyte also pointed out the award was not solely about design but also linked to the sustainable and environmental work the company does.
"Brands need a social and environmental purpose at their heart to engage with their generation, the Z’s and the Millennials, and 1/3 of consumers care more about the environment than they did five years ago," she explained.
Starting Flawesome! for Ms Sudenyte and Mr Kacprzyk wasn’t all about making juice it was about making a a positive impact on everything they did.
The pair work closely with small to medium sized farms struggling or had surplus, so that way they hjelp out each other. Flawsome! also works with Fare Share, a national network of charitable food redistributors. The company has donated 33,000 portions of juice to the scheme, and the plan is to reach one million donations in the next three years.
“Giving back for social good in line with our values,” says Ms Sudenyte.
The Flawsome! story is not only socially and environmentally good but it has also helped the company win new partners. Ms Sudenyte says it helped the company win the contracts in Germany and Belgium where a back story is important for retailers.
The outbreak of Covid-19 and the subsequent lockdown has seen a change of direction for the company, with Flawsome using Amazon to go direct to the client (DTC).
“We had never traded on Amazon,” said Ms Sudenyte.
“It was not our priority, we were focucessed on food services, and oulets such as restaurants and universities.”
While Amazon has not recouped the sales lost during the lockdown period it has had the benefit of helping build the brand with consumers.
This period has also seen Flawsome! look more closely at the spirits and mixers market, something they might not have done without lockdown. There sparkling range has proven popular and has been included in craft gin clubs.
It has also given them time to think of new and unusual opportunites.
“There are 20,000 pumpkins going to waste every year at Halloween,” says Ms Sudenyte.
“We have started approaching retailers with aproposition and have had good feedback.”
Whatever happens Ms Sudenyte is adament the business will keep its philosophy. It’s a philosophy that saw the pair named on the Forbes Under 30 Europe Social Entrepreneurs, along with Greta Thunberg.
Ms Sudenyte does not want the business to become mainstream.
“We are more about educating and also doing our bit for environment. It’s about remaining sustainable, zero waste, and fair trade, we will not dilute that. For us it is extremely important to stay where we are, it’s all about creating awareness.
“Flawsome! is on a mission to make other people as passionate about sustainable drinks as we are.”