Arrowtown drinks (left) and James and Rob in their factory (right)

Alumnus launches new brand of alcoholic sparkling water

Alumnus James Smith (Economics, 2020) and his brother Rob started their drinks business while James was still a student at the University of Exeter.

Their company, Arrowtown, is named after a town in New Zealand where Rob first tried alcoholic sparkling water, or ‘hard seltzer’ and fell in love with it. Inspired, he immediately called James to tell him they should create a version for the UK.

James says: “We were both tired of bloating beers and sugary mixers and this is the perfect alternative. I was still at university and Rob had just left but we always thought we’d run a business together at some point and everything seemed to come together. We did a lot of research after Rob’s first taste in New Zealand and started to develop our own flavours – we now sell red berries, and lime and elderflower.”

While at Exeter James approached the Student Start-ups team for advice on how to successfully launch his business. He says: “They were great, they supported with workshops, they helped with bids for funding, they had ‘Entrepreneurs in Residence’ on hand to talk through ideas with, and people who acted as mentors. Having access to all of that support was really invaluable.”

Ten percent of Arrowtown profits are donated to environmental charities Tusk and Sea Shepherd UK, as both James and Rob are passionate about the environment and are keen for their business to help ‘do good as well as taste good’. They plan to continue to grow their business on the south coast of England where they are based before expanding across the country and trying to secure supermarket distribution. As well as local stockists they also sell directly to customers online through an online store.

Date: 2 March 2021