Au Vodka is one of the most sought after vodka brands in the world. Founded by two best friends – Jackson Quinn and Charlie Morgan – in Wales back in 2015, the brand has spent the past eight years mixing things up in the vodka category, from the introduction of its striking signature gold bottles and handcrafted pewter labels to its ultra premium selection of palate-tingling vodkas. Au Vodka has established a reputation for providing luxury products at affordable prices, and built a lively community of spirits lovers desperate to get their hands on its latest creations.
The brand brilliantly combines its British heritage with a bold new production process. Each batch of Au Vodka begins with the finest British countryside grain, blended with pure spring water and distilled five times before filtering. It sounds and tastes delicious – and it’s little wonder that the brand is now shaking up the traditional spirits market, achieving annual sales of more than £40m globally.
However, with competition ever increasing in the premium alcohol market, providing exceptional customer experience is essential for Au Vodka to sustain its success. As the brand continues its fast-growth global journey, it’s using Huboo’s trusted third-party fulfilment to meet every order and delight customers with service that consistently exceeds expectations.
Jordan Major, Head of eCommerce at Au Vodka explains that, “Service quality is our number one priority and we recognised the advantages of using third-party fulfilment to ensure accurate and speedy picking, packing and shipping at all times. We spoke with Huboo for months before signing up. What we saw during this time was an amazing level of commitment shown by Huboo towards its clients’ customers, which gave us the confidence that Huboo was the right fit for Au Vodka.”
Ambitious plans to conquer the global market
With a premium product range at its fingertips and a winning fulfilment partner on board, Au Vodka’s business has gone from strength to strength over the past few years, achieving a hugely successful launch into Europe and now planning for its hotly anticipated venture into the US.
“We’ve become the fastest-growing alcohol brand in eCommerce, and Huboo has played an important part in this growth story,” says Jordan. “Initially, we were trying to cope with the fulfilment load in-house, but we found ourselves limited by what we could offer and it was becoming difficult to keep our customers happy. Now, with Huboo’s help, we can switch off from day-to-day logistics and focus on market domination!”
He continues, “Huboo’s tech know-how and logistics infrastructure also means we can scale with ease, and the company is yet to show us any capacity issues – even during periods when we’ve been growing significantly month-on-month. Working alongside Huboo, we’re on course to break several world records as well as debuting more new products than ever in 2023.”
Part of Au Vodka’s success stems from the business’s ability to piggyback on calendar dates and seasonal trends with highly original, attention grabbing products – from limited edition bottles commemorating the King’s Coronation to its Pink Lemonade summer bundles.
“Au Vodka is an incredibly agile business, and in Huboo, we have a fulfilment partner that is consistently able to react quickly to last-minute concepts, offering us advice and ironing out any issues along the way,” explains Jordan. “We’re always looking for ways to surprise and delight customers, we love the fact that Huboo lets us personalise our already distinctive packaging with things like gift boxes and seasonal stickers – something you can normally only do when you’re handling orders in-house.”
Going for gold with brand ambassadors
For some businesses, launching so many different products quickly can dilute the potency of the brand itself. Not so in the case of Au Vodka – an excitable 385,000-strong Instagram and TikTok following literally cannot get enough of the brand’s product innovation, and Au Vodka has become adept at driving online engagement in the run up to each new launch to maximise interest and drive sales.
Au Vodka has also done a brilliant job of reaching younger audiences through its ‘Gold Gang’ of ambassadors. Inspired by the brand’s iconic gold bottles, this influencer programme includes rappers AJ Tracey and Big Narstie, DJ Charlie Sloth and boxer Floyd Mayweather, with Au Vodka running regular giveaways and partnerships through the Gold Gang to get people excited and grow its following.
“Our strategy is to maximise FOMO, whether we’re launching a new flavour, a limited edition, or one of our brand extensions, such as ice lollies, merchandise and gift sets,” says Jordan. “But this game plan only works if we can deliver the goods and ensure no Au Vodka fans actually miss out. We share our marketing plans with Huboo well in advance of every launch so that we can collaborate around inventory plans, staff the launches accordingly, and ensure that demand is met from the get-go.”
“Alongside this, we’re busy building long-term relationships with every Gold Gang member, as they are the voice of our brand. Through Huboo, we know we can always get new products to the Gold Gang ahead of their deadlines, giving them the time they need to instil their unique personality on all of the Au Vodka content they create.”
Capitalising on the overlooked D2C opportunity
Major alcohol brands have been surprisingly late to embrace direct-to-consumer (D2C) eCommerce, despite the pandemic and continued rise of online shopping leading to a boom in home consumption. Their loss is Au Vodka’s gain – the brand has quickly become an example of best-practice D2C marketing, with a large number of all products sold directly via the company’s website.
“We were quick to spot this gap in the D2C market and have seen amazing results targeting Millennials and Gen Z who much prefer eCommerce to in-store shopping,” says Jordan. “Our model makes it much easier to expand our product lines and reach, learning from a wealth of digital customer data to drive future product innovation, safe in the knowledge that whatever we come up with next, Huboo will be able to fulfil it.”
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