YOU TOOK THE UNIQUE STEP OF TEAMING UP WITH
FESTIVUS OVER THE SUMMER. WHAT WAS THE
THINKING BEHIND THIS AND WHAT WERE YOUR
FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS?
Being Official Brand Partner was a great opportunity for
increased brand exposure. We had a sponsored VIP area along
with our sampling van and adverts across all the flyers, banners
everywhere you looked and videos regularly on the screen in
front of 80,000 ravers across the four festivals.
The highlight was the on-stage giveaways throughout the
weekend. At Garage Nation, Heartless Crew had the whole crowd
chanting Riot Squad. Then at Sunborn, DJ Luck and MC Neat
invited us on stage with them to do a Facebook live feed and we
got to hand out all sorts of freebies.
Later on, MC Neat came over to our marquee and told us he’s
a massive fan of our Sub-lime flavour. Safe to say the promo
team made him have a cheeky pic before they gave him any free
short-fills.
WHAT WERE YOUR OTHER 2018 HIGHLIGHTS?
A massive highlight was reaching such a high level of output after
our successful launch of Punk Grenade in August. We had so
many pre-orders that we had to increase the amount of machinery
in our production room.
We had anticipated that this launch would be successful as the
lemonade range is based on our most popular Pink Grenade
flavour. This was our first brand other than the original Riot Squad
to be in our patented bullet bottles. The week after launch was a
record week, with several tons of juice dispatched from our HQ to
shops in the UK and distributors all over the world.
Taking Riot Squad worldwide has been a real highlight, not just of
this year but of my career so far. Seeing your business become
an international success is an incredible feeling.
WHAT DO YOU HAVE PLANNED FOR 2019?
The whole company is beyond excited for what we have to launch
in 2019. A mixture of continuing to conquer more new markets
and more innovative flavours and brands. Roll on January but we
have a few surprises before then.
“TAKING
RIOT SQUAD
WORLDWIDE HAS
BEEN A REAL
HIGHLIGHT, NOT
JUST OF THIS
YEAR BUT OF MY
CAREER SO FAR.”
VM20 | 45