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SXOLLIE co-founder Laura Clacey is a strong creator, making cider fueled by trying new adventures. The brand represents the idea of a hustler, disrupter, and go-getter, and Go Inspire UK spoke to Laura about her motivations and inspirations.
Go Inspire UK: What was the motivation around curating SXOLLIE Cider?
LC: I often found myself staring at the bar not knowing what to order. Wine and G&T would be my first choice but are way more alcoholic than beer or cider. This can be dangerous as the rounds progress, and I just didn’t like the taste of cider. So, I thought, why not reinvent cider? I knew that South Africa has incredible fresh produce, and wanted to see if I could create a positive social and environmental impact by making a natural cider using no added
crap, while creating employment and opportunities for people in rural South Africa.
GI: What makes SXOLLIE cider stand out from other cider companies?
LC: We are the only cider in the UK made from eating apples you know and love
We are one of only a handful of ciders without bucket loads of added sugar
We are the only UK cider company with B corp certification.
We look and taste very different to other ciders in the UK (in that it actually tastes like the apple it’s made from!)
GI: How has your business has grown since the start?
LC: Gosh, so much this time last year we had 4 employees, we now have 13!!!!
GI: Who do you want to inspire with your work?
LC: I don’t feel like an inspiration - I’m just doing what I love and hoping to make a great tasting cider that people love. But if along the way young females decide to follow and set up alcohol brands, the world would be a better place!!! Also, if my team feels inspired to wake up every morning and be happy to come to work, all the better!
GI: What would you say to any entrepreneurs - especially female entrepreneurs out
there who want to start their business idea?
LC: Hmm, a few things actually;
To succeed you need to either have an idea that is totally unique, OR have an idea that exists already, but do it better. If you can’t do that you will get lost.
What makes YOU the right person to make this happen?
It’s much more work to run your own business than work for someone else, so if you are considering it because you want an easier life - then it’s not for you.
LC: If you’ve thought about these three questions, and taken a hard (and objective) look at your idea, yourself, your motivation and skill set then just go for it and HUSTLE.HUSTLE.HUSTLE!
GI: You talk about your life in South Africa a lot on social media - how has starting
your business in South Africa affected your work life and the growth of your
company?
LC: Running an international business is never easy, there are additional supply chain challenges and sometimes not being able to speak to people face to face can be a challenge, but I am proud of our brand (and my) South African heritage. I don’t think it’s held us back, but rather made us unique. No British cider company can copy what we’ve done as the apples we use need sunshine to get that delicious sweet taste. That’s why we don’t need to add any sugar. So that’s our unique positioning which has enabled us to get listings that a small company our size should never have access to!
GI: SXOLLIE cider focused on sustainability - what is that process like and how do you ensure your product is as sustainable as possible?
LC: For us, sustainability is about much more than just carbon emissions. It’s about people, and the overall health of our planet.
Cider as a beverage is the most sustainable beverage on the planet with regards to production, soil health etc.
So from the start, I’ve only worked with sustainable suppliers who share our passion for sustainable produce. This extends to our apple farmers, our bottling plant, shipping solutions etc. Having a decade of experience in sustainability reporting and strategy implementation I was uniquely placed to assess our suppliers before using them.
Some examples of how this then translates to making the world a better place include:
We don’t add any sugar or crap to SXOLLIE. Sugar is one of the most opaque supply chains fraught with human rights issues and modern day slavery. Most UK ciders use loads of sugar (and not surprisingly - sugar doens’t grow in the UK - so where are they getting it from?)
Our carbon emissions are lower than our competitors for a number of reasons:
We don’t add any sugar - that sugar comes from all over the world. Also, the emissions and environmental damage caused in the sugar supply chain from deforestation to grow it, to the processing of sugar from essentially a grass, to little crystals is dirty and requires a LOT of processing. It’s horrific really.
Our shipping emissions (which are offset) are the equivalent of driving 200KM in a truck. As our bottles are produced on-site at the bottling plant we eliminate about 10 trucks of bottles being moved across the country to other bottling sites.
It’s about people too, we’ve created numerous jobs in South Africa within our supply chain. Jobs that didn’t exist before. We also hire young talent in the UK and provide training. Our team is really diverse too. I hope we’re creating a positive work culture too!
GI: How have you cultivated your creative judgment into your brand?
LC: I’m a very creative person - so I’ve tried to do everything differently from the look and feel of SXOLLIE compared to other ciders, to the way we execute marketing - our budgets are small, we need to be creative to get the same stand-out.
GI: Can you tell us about the different flavours of SXOLLIE cider and why you
decided to use these?
LC: We use only single varietal eating apples. We have a naturally sweet Golden Delicious, which is stocked at Nando’s as well as Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and Morrisons. Our Granny Smith is more tart and stocked at Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons as we as on draught at over 60 pubs in London. Then our Cripps Pink is an in-betweener. It won best cider in the world a few years ago… that’s at Waitrose and Morrisons.
These are all apples you know and love - so why not try them in a cider!!
Instagram: @sxolliexider
Photography by Laura Pink
Styling/Direction by Marina Sardanopoli
Fashion by Ilbou
Article by Natasha Farwell
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