Two best friends have explained how they quit jobs at ASOS and Sky to start up their own tequila brand. The pair took a giant leap of faith to start the business, but now say they don't regret it.
Wynter Karo, 26, and Alice Parmiter, 27, both from Wandsworth, were inspired to create their alcohol brand Pimentae after travelling to Mexico. The pair went full-time with their business in March 2021, ditching their jobs at Sky and ASOS respectively where they each had an annual salary of between £30,000 and £40,000.
“The concept was very much born in the kitchen,” Wynter told The Mirror. "We often sat on the balcony, drinking an unholy amount of spicy margaritas, forever wondering who’d be tasked with the laborious job of making the next round… We used our friends as focus groups to test various iterations of our spicy margaritas, ranking them based on spice, sweetness, aroma, colour and what they’d be prepared to pay.
“For the six months pre-launch, we, alongside the rest of the UK, were working from home. By miracle, myself and Alice lived a three-minute walk away from one-another, so we allocated every spare minute building Pimentae and taking the concept to market.”
Wynter and Alice started the business with £15,000, which was made up of a combination of their own personal savings, loans from friends and family, their monthly salaries and some spends on credit card. The launch money was used to develop recipes, trademark Pimentae, launch their website and purchase their bottles and labels.
In the last year, the friends have made more than £100,000 in net sales revenue and say their best success has come from trade shows and festivals. “Our bank balance takes the shape of a roller-coaster ride, with large outgoings followed by influxes of significant revenue, depending on whether it’s time for a production round or festival season,” explained Wynter. "Cash flow management is the difference between Pimentae existing or not.”
But the start of their business hasn’t come without difficulty. “We’ve learnt the hard way, if you need it, there’s probably a globally shortage of it,” said Wynter.
“Due to Mexican law and strict regulations surrounding the Agave plant, tequila can only be produced in Mexico and in turn imported to the UK. A consistent supply was imperative for us to regularly produce our cocktails based on demand.
“Sadly, we were too early stage to work directly with a tequila brand so we ordered our tequila in bulk via a wholesaler. Five days before our production round - manufacturer’s set these dates in stone - our wholesaler sold 700 bottles of our tequila to a larger brand so we had no stock for our next round.”
Wynter and Alice have no regrets about their journey and plan on growing their business over the next few months. The pair currently don’t employ anyone else, but will hire part-time brand ambassadors over the summer.
Pimentae now offers two different tequila based drinks - Tommy's Chilli Margarita and the Cucumber and Elderflower Eclipse mix, which launched this month. They are priced at £29.95 on their website.
“Whilst revenue is never guaranteed off the back of events, we’ve always found with great risk comes great reward,” said Wynter. "We’ve never taken a walk before you can run approach.”
