SB meets… Thomas Henry

Launched in 2010 within the Berlin bar scene, Thomas Henry has become a global player in the premium mixer segment. We talked with Marco Frizzarin, senior international brand manager, about the brand’s ambitions for 2024.

How has Thomas Henry grown over the past couple of years?

Our brand enjoyed impressive yearly growth in a high double‐digit percentage range up until 2020, when the pandemic hit. 2020 was a somewhat challenging year. Through the right business and strategy decisions though, we bounced back from the hard Covid‐19 times into a rather successful 2021 in which we even managed to slightly pass our 2019 revenue. This growth has continued to the present day, driven largely by our focus on alternative flavours such as our Pink Grapefruit, Cherry Blossom Tonic and Wild Berry, and our Botanical Tonic, all aligning to emerging trends within the industry.

Are sales led more by the on-trade or off-trade? 

Our global approach is to first make the brand relevant in the on‐trade, conquer the market, achieve proper distribution, and to then take that success into the off-trade so that consumers can enjoy high quality Thomas Henry mixed drinks also at home. Overall, our sales are led by the on-trade – it is where our brand comes from, where it is best placed, and where we can properly build it and be close to our core target audience: the bartenders. The on-trade has a special place in our DNA, hence our brand claim – ‘Born in Bars’.

Where are your strongest markets?

Our products are distributed in 51 markets, and we are even the category leader in some of these markets when it comes to premium mixers. The core business is still in Europe. The German-speaking countries, Italy, Spain, as well as Benelux, the Balkans, Nordics, together with Central East Europe are the bulk of our strength and are all experiencing stable growth. When it comes to mixer brands that are not part of huge corporations nor publicly listed, it is safe to say we are the leading non-corporate and independent premium mixer brand on the European market.

Which markets will you be focusing on in 2024?

Expanding our business on a global scale is our goal, and since we already have a strong footprint in Europe, next year we will also focus on further driving our business in the Americas, Asia, and emerging markets on the outer rim of Europe. The US accounts for a third of the global mixer market, which makes it interesting for us to aggressively expand there. We are ramping up our business in the US on the West Coast, as well as the East Coast, and will soon have considerable distribution in some US states. In Asia, we are already available in South Korea, China, Taiwan, Thailand and Singapore but there is still room to grow. We are eager though to develop the, so far, rather small premium mixer category there.

How are you managing the rising costs that are affecting the trade?

The current global situation, including inflation, the war in Ukraine, as well as soaring commodity prices have, of course, impacted our business, and are daily reminders that plans need to constantly be re-evaluated. Even if our margins are becoming smaller, and there is a lot of additional obstacles for our purchasing and production departments to properly operate, we are still experiencing overall growth and are therefore confident that we will get out of this even stronger.

Do you think the tonic and mixer market is oversaturated? 

The mixer category, especially the premium mixer category, has become a very competitive space. We see though that there is still a lot of growth that can be achieved through executing smart strategies and staying true to the core business, which is being an amazing tool for bartenders to create great moments for consumers. That is why we focus on extensive community and advocacy undertakings, and work very closely with our distribution partners, their brands and our truly amazing brand ambassador team to establish long-lasting value-adding partnerships with outlets.

What are your growth ambitions for 2024? 

It will be again another complicated year, but we have set up a great catalogue of activities to strengthen our positioning in Europe, create even closer ties to the global bar community, and establish a great footprint in the Americas and Asia. We have already had our first 2024 business plan meetings with some of our distribution partners, and there are great growth ambitions for the next year, making us very confident to hit another year of mid-double-digit percentage revenue growth globally.