Three MBA students from Cambridge Judge Business School have launched two new beer brands — Varsity Draft and Lagerithm — with a stout in the pipeline, to be followed by a flagship brew — a new British export beer.
“We think that there’s a gap in the global market for a British beer that’s premium but not a craft beer,” said Aditya Nigudkar, who co-founded the venture along with Ashwin Balivada and Akshit Gupta after the three natives of India met as members of the Cambridge MBA class of 2015 at Cambridge Judge. “We’re aiming for a young, fresh British product that appeals to a global audience.”
The company launched three other brands prior to its flagship bran in order to fine-tune the brew, packaging and brand identity before exporting the signature brand to global markets, beginning with India, North America and Africa.
Beginning with a pub chat last summer, the trio devised plans for production, design and distribution, and then registered their Cambridge-based limited company, 3ABC.
The venture contracted with established British brewery Elgoods, located 40 miles from Cambridge in the town of Wisbech, to brew its product, had the beer labels designed by agency Cartils (which has also done design work for the likes of Grolsch beer and Wyborowa vodka), and put together a marketing and distribution plan with various agencies.
The company’s beer labels feature designs based on iconic Cambridge images such as rowing oars and mathematical formulae created in the University.
Alan Pateman, production director at Elgoods, said access to market was the largest obstacle for new bottled beers, so 3ABC has worked hard on this aspect.
He said: “The recipe choice and quality of beer has to be the best to enable a successful future. 3ABC have put a tremendous amount of effort into the research of the market and are using several channels to access the market for the two products they have started with.”
The target markets for the brand are students and other young people who sometimes splurge for something more premium, as well as internationally minded professionals and British expatriates living abroad who long for real ale.
