“Mixology, cocktails, hospitality are in my blood – it’s a family thing,” Sahil Beri says when asked about his rise to the top of Innovation Beverage Group where he is now Chairman, interim Chief Executive Officer and Master Blender. “Both my brother and I have worked in the industry but it started with our dad,” he continues. “He was in the Middle East in the 1980s where he worked as a bartender, before eventually becoming food and beverage manager. Then eight or nine years later he moved to Australia.” Which is where the Innovation Beverage Group story began.
In the early days it was Beri senior, Anil and son Raj running the company which was then called Australian Boutique Spirits. Sahil was studying to be a pharmacist at the time. While he enjoyed the drinks and conviviality of the industry, he had no intentions of joining the family business, “I was adamant that I was going to do something on my own,” he laughs.
However, he did enjoy a taste of what was to come. “My dad and brother knew I had a talent for blending drinks, so they brought me on board to create a range of bitters.” Not just any old bitters but Australian Bitters, the brand that currently holds a 45% market share in Australia, the second largest market for bitters worldwide.
It made sense given Sahil’s pharmaceutical know-how and appreciation of mixology. The task in hand was to create a bitters range specially formulated to complement Australia’s unofficial national drink – Lemon, Lime and Bitters. “The product that everyone was using was imported all the way from Trinidad,” Sahil informs. “It didn’t make sense, so we decided to make our own. We wanted it to have a similar flavour profile to Angostura [the brand in question], because that’s what everyone here was used to. However, we wanted to give it a twist of our own and make it here in Australia.”
It worked. Australian Bitters, or Aussie Bitters as they’re affectionately called were such a hit that brother Raj pitched the range to Coca-Cola Europacific Partners in Australia and they took it on straight away.” But while the bitters were gaining momentum back home, Sahil was in London working in hospitality. “I’d finished my exams, spent some time in community pharmacy and had become disillusioned with it, it felt like retail to me. So I took time off, headed to London and worked in a bar. With my background in bitters, I helped them to launch a range of tonics and sodas which they produced in-house. ”
When he returned to Sydney 15 months later, his father was ready to retire and wanted his sons to take over the business. “With everything I’d learned over the years, I realised there was a lot I could do and I jumped straight into it,” he says excitedly. “That’s when we changed to the current business which focuses on a range of alcoholic beverages – not just bitters.”
That was in 2016. Since then, the company has grown exponentially, not only developing products but manufacturing and marketing them too. In fact, the award-winning portfolio currently includes 13 alcoholic and non-alcoholic ranges, all of which look to follow the lead of Australian Bitters by disrupting age-old brands. Sahil has also grown with the company, rising through the ranks and taking on positions as Master Blender, Chief Operating Officer, Chairman and now interim Chief Executive Officer.
While he admits that he misses sitting in his lab, “tinkering around and creating products, something I only get to do 5-10% of my time these days,” he laments, he is proving that he’s also adept at propelling the company beyond Australia and into the consciousness, and glasses of discerning drinkers around the world. Recent big wins at the Los Angeles International Spirits Competition should certainly help. The Aromatic Bitters was awarded up Best in Class with an impressive 94 points, followed by Gold for the Grapefruit and Orange Bitters, with one of the other brands, Bittertales, winning Gold for its Aromatic Bitters.
Ahead of the aptly named Taste the Oz’er Side*, the destined to be fabulous fun-packed, flavour filled tasting session at Tales of the Cocktail where he’ll be partnering up with esteemed drones visionary JJ Goodman for creativity, conversation and delicious cocktails, and the launch of Australian Bitters in the UK on 29th July, we caught up with Sahil to find out more about the his past and present as well as his future plans for the brand.
To register for one of the two Taste the OZ’ER SIDE Bitters Lab at Tales of the Cocktail at 3.30pm and 4.30pm on Wednesday 23rd July, sign up here
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So, Sahil tell us about Australian Bitters. What makes them different from others on the market?
Our Aromatic Bitters were created to work in one of our national drinks, Lemon Lime Bitters, but we still wanted the formulation to hold up in Old Fashioneds and Manhattans. Instead of mirroring the distinctive allspice and peppery top note of Angostura Aromatic Bitters we took the spiciness down and made it a little bit softer, a bit fruitier but not so soft that they get lost in a very strong bourbon.
For our Orange Bitters, we wanted something really punchy, really citrus-forward that you might add to your Old Fashioneds, Martinis or complement whatever base spirit you’re using. Our Grapefruit Bitters are similar for me as well. I wanted something really punchy, really full of flavour so it would elevate even a simple gin and tonic.
As for our Coffee Bitters, that just made sense. We’re Australian and coffee is coursing through our blood. As well as using the incredible coffee beans that we have access to, we’ve added Australian herbs like lemon myrtle to complement the roast that we use. I wanted something a bit more citrus forward so you can use them in a wide range of drinks.
As a chocolate lover, I wanted to add a chocolate bitters range. Here in Australia we had Aztec Chocolate from Fee Brothers which were great but a bit too sweet for me, so with our Cocoa Bitters I added more cocoa, ran some herbs through it as well as green teas, a bit of cardamom and a touch of salt. This one is relaunching on 23rd July.
Those are the five bitters that we’re focusing on for now. I have a backlog of around 20 different varieties that we’re going to roll out as and when needed.
What was the vision for the brand in the early days?
For my brother, I think it was for us to create a brand that we could grow and create cashflow. For me, I wanted to see the brand on the shelves wherever I travelled. Whenever I leave the country, I’m always checking out new bars and I’ve always thought how nice it would be if I could see bartenders using something that I’ve created; seeing them making really cool drinks with it.
What is your vision for the brand now?
The plan is to grow Australian Bitters beyond Australia and into bars and cocktails around the world. We’re going to keep expanding state by state, market by market in the US which I think is going to be a medium to long term plan as it’s going to take time to get some of the states open there. But there are a few key markets globally that I really want to be in. The UK is one of them. And then there are a few close to home, such as Hong Kong and Singapore, and I’m very keen to explore India as that is very much part of our roots.
What are you proudest of?
Our Bitters is always going to be the one that’s done extremely well for us. We now have close to 45% market share in Australia and that’s a big tick for me because, when you look globally, there’s one brand that dominates. For us to take such a significant portion from them is incredible. Don’t get me wrong, they were around first, they inspired a lot of great drinks over the years but to take them head on and do some great number on the back of it is a really proud moment for me.
What do you put the success of the brand down to?
I’m a big believer in having the right people around me. As much as I can do on my own, I need the team, especially when we’re trying to grow the business to a certain level. If the people around me know and feel that I have faith in them, we all win. They feel valued and I know that if I need to leave the business to travel to Tales of the Cocktail and London for a few weeks, everything will be fine.
Other than sharing the Australian Bitters love around the world, what other plans do you have in the pipeline?
Our next big product is Twisted Shaker, our range of ready-to-drink cocktails. With my love of cocktails and the market for RTD’s opening up, it made sense for us to do cocktails. Twisted Shaker are our twists on classics. We have an Old Fashioned, Espresso Martini, Cucumber Gimlet and Raspberry & Hibiscus Cosmopolitan.
Lastly, why do we need Aussie Bitters in our lives?
Biased as I am, because they’re great! It’s one of those products that’s still hand batched, there’s a very small team working on it, every batch is created with love. We’re doing 5,000 bottles a day which is a single batch for us, we are going to be expanding but I don’t want to lose that small batch feel to it, while we may start increasing batch numbers, that small batch will still remain, we’ll have 3-4 tanks creating the same thing. It creates a lot of control for us. while the company is now listed, it’s still a family run business – still 9 people working for the company – everyone knows each other, we all go out together and I think that reflects on the brand.
