Anyone else invented something in your head, a world-first that would bring you riches and fame? But somehow it’s still only in your head? Me too, but Greater Good Fresh Brewing co-founders Alex Dixon and Ralph Broadbent actually did just that.
Ralph and Alex set up the indie music festival Y Not Festival and turned what was originally a party in Ralph’s garden to a 25,000 attendee festival that had the like of Noel Gallagher and Snoop Dogg headline. They then sold the festival business for millions.
Now they are the men behind The Greater Good Fresh Brewing Co in Walthamstow and this month they are finally launching that invention – The Pinter.
Find out more as the guys answer our 7 Everyday Interview questions.
Alex
What did you want to be growing up?
This one is a little bit of a standard answer – a footballer. My passion is playing and watching football and I still haven’t given up hope of getting picked up at 34 years old.
Where did the idea for your brand come from and how did you bring it to life?
I used to home brew. Ralph liked drinking it but couldn’t be bothered to do it, so we teamed up to make it easy for people. The actual brand came from the more creative side of the business. It’s quite lucky that I have other people to lean on for skills I lack! But essentially it evolved from that initial idea into Fresh Brewing, a new way to brew which enables people to drink Fresh Beer in their home using the Pinter, something that people just can’t do at the moment.
What has been the greatest challenge to your brand/work?
The greatest challenge for me has definitely been the technical side of getting the product to market. The notion of Fresh Brewing with the Pinter is entirely new and that means huge obstacles. It is actually an extremely technical product and it has been really tough to get the product to where it is – but I think people will love it, so it will be all worthwhile.
Who was or is your greatest influence?
I would say my Dad who has always supported me in pursuing a career which I enjoy, rather than feel like I have to do. i.e. spending 5 years training to be an aerospace engineer and get into designing the Pinter!
How would you describe your personal style?
Most of the time I would describe it as ‘warehouse chic’ – trackies and a hoodie. When I left my corporate job I was so happy to leave the suit behind!
Tell us something no one knows about you?
I am pretty open to be honest so don’t hold many secrets, but I am a huge England fan and travel all over the world to watch them play football.
7 words to describe yourself
Dedicated, beer-loving, risky, inventive, passionate, fortunate, plonker.
Ralph
What did you want to be growing up?
Royal Marine – I always liked the idea of the comradery and throwing everything you’ve got at something. Through university I came to feel like I would have more control over my own destiny by choosing what projects to do – which ultimately manifested itself in our businesses and the huge sense of satisfaction that has come with inventing the Pinter – knowing that people all over the world will finally be able to have Fresh Beer at home because of what we did.
Where did the idea for your brand come from and how did you bring it to life?
It’s really evolved a huge amount over time. We were originally (back in 2010) going to sell home brew kits to students and the company was incorporated as Stu Brew. As we moved on, we started to work on the technology and over a period of time it became clear that Fresh Beer was the holy grail of home drinking. We invested all our savings into the business – the vast majority of which came from the sale of our Festival Group (a business we had previously built). We put together a team of very talented and committed people as what we now call The Greater Good Fresh Brewing Co and eventually managed to focus very intensively on product development. Fast forward a few years and we’ve got the Pinter – the culmination of all those many years of design/development/trialling and learning and a world first product.
What has been the greatest challenge to your brand/work?
Without a shadow of a doubt it is the engineering and manufacturing challenges. It is probably more difficult to manufacture a product then it is to make the prototype in the first place. Essentially there are a huge amount of physical limitations about how you can make stuff in mass production. We’ve been pitched against big corporate organisations that have enormous amounts of cash to spend on this kind of thing and they still haven’t managed to do it. We’ve made over 300,000 products to get us to where we are today and we’ve manufactured them all ourselves. It’s been a huge feat to bring the best brewing practices into this new Pinter. Looking back, we had no idea how hard it would be – but that’s probably a good thing that we didn’t know! But it will be worthwhile when we’re able to realise the vision of incredible quality Fresh Beer in people’s homes.
Who was or is your greatest influence?
I don’t think there is a specific stand out individual who has influenced me. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. Probably the biggest thing I use as a reference point is NASA getting a man to the moon. I really feel like the challenges we face day to day across the world in business are relatively small compared to that achievement. For all it’s faults that it may have, NASA was successful because it got an amazing team of people pulling in the same direction. It wasn’t Neil Armstrong who made it possible – it was every man and woman in the huge team that they had. I think that’s the essence of making great things happen.
How would you describe your personal style?
It changes to suit the occasion – since having kids it’s quite functional but I try and dress to the occasion, if I’m seeing investors vs going to a hipster brewery. We started in business when we were reasonably young – I was meeting with the police and councils to organise festivals at 18/19 years old so it was always important to give off the right perception, otherwise you wouldn’t get the show – which I think probably led me to a routine of dressing for the occasion.
Tell us something no one knows about you?
I’m not a big one for secrets – I think probably my best story is that when I was at university after a pretty big night out, I went to a casino with a mate (as a poor student), won £3,000, took a taxi to the airport and bought a one-way ticket to the furthest available destination – which happened to be Egypt… we then woke up as we were touching down (in Egypt). [shortened version!]
7 words to describe yourself
I love every second of every day.
Words by Patrick McAleenan
