University of Exeter business graduate brews up his own recipe for success

QWERTY BeerBox was launched in April 2020 by Business School Graduate, Quinn Leatherbarrow-Stokes, aiming to give breweries an e-commerce functionality through the creation of regional beer collections. Following the success of his lockdown business, Quinn has now gone on to brew up a second venture, QWERTY Commerce, a full-service e-commerce business helping craft alcohol brands increase their online performance.

Quinn’s course at the University of Exeter Business School included a placement year, which he spent with the likes of Amazon developing expertise in e-commerce. He then went on to secure a job with the e-commerce giant, utilising their fulfilment centre network to grow his business, however, after 12 months, Quinn has announced he is saying goodbye to his role at Amazon to become a full-time entrepreneur and focus solely on his two business ventures.   

Quinn continues to work closely with Amazon with 70% of their total sales for QWERTY BeerBox coming from Amazon customers. This year, BeerBox aims to hit £250,000 in revenue, which represents an outstanding 200% growth versus last year, and this month marks the first month that Quinn and his business partner and QWERTY BeerBox co-founder, Niki, have been able to both work full-time on QWERTY BeerBox, with exciting times ahead for the entrepreneurs.

“Myself and Niki are really excited for the future of QWERTY BeerBox and QWERTY Commerce, and have many plans to help grow and expand our businesses now we are both working full-time.” Quinn says.

“QWERTY BeerBox has given us a fantastic relationship with the breweries, whom we work with on a weekly basis, to help elevate the recognition their brands deserve, and QWERTY Commerce is a natural progression of this. We’re looking to offer our expertise in the e-commerce area to help push their direct to consumer model, reduce their reliance on trade sales and reach more national customers.”

Quinn and Niki are also working to launch an Alcohol Free box as more and more customers continue to choose no or low alcohol drinks options. According to the IWSR Drinks Market Analysis, the low and no-alcohol drinks market is continuing to expand, with consumption expected to grow 31% by 2024.

Professor Alexandra Gerbasi, Pro-Vice Chancellor and Executive Dean of the University of Exeter Business School, said: “Quinn is a testament to our students and a real shining example as to what can be achieved through sheer determination and hard work, putting into practice the knowledge and experience gained from his time at the university and the opportunities that have presented along the way. I want to express our sincere congratulations to Quinn on the success of his business venture QWERTY BeerBox and we wish him the best of luck launching QWERTY Commerce. We’re excited to see what the future holds for him.”

Quinn and Niki are currently focusing on introducing new partners and managing existing partners on Amazon, with plans to launch QWERTY Commerce in the near future.