From equity analyst to trusted advisor, Alex Oldroyd has helped scale, structure and sell some of the UK’s best-known drinks brands. Here, she shares the lessons she wishes every founder knew from day one.
Cash is king – right from the start
For Oldroyd, who spent 16 years in equity research at Morgan Stanley and Barclays before founding Fluxion Advisors, the single most important principle for drinks entrepreneurs is financial discipline.
“Every penny that you spend has to come from somewhere,” she says. “Either you’re going to have to generate it, or you’re going to have to raise it or borrow it.”
That means spending with measurable returns in mind, rather than chasing top-line growth for vanity’s sake. “It’s not growth at any cost,” Oldroyd cautions. “You need to start generating profitable growth or the business won’t be sustainable.”
In a category where flashy marketing can often take precedence over protecting margin, Oldroyd’s perspective is grounded in real-world deal experience. “There has been a tendency to think, ‘I can raise lots of money and throw it at growth’. But, if you’re not making money, it’s just not a sustainable business – and strategics won’t want to buy it.”
Your first investors are people, not pipelines
Entrepreneurs often imagine a perfect world where institutional capital swoops in early. The reality, however, is much messier. “Investors are all people – it’s people’s money being invested,” Oldroyd notes. “Your early investors are very rarely people you don’t know.”
Friends, family and local networks often provide that first financial backing. But even more important than where the money comes from is understanding the terms and the long-term implications. “A lot of institutional investors want a very high return,” Oldroyd explains. “They dazzle the entrepreneur with a really high upfront valuation, but what they’re actually doing is setting up a preferred return that gets paid before the founder sees anything.”
Her message is clear: structure matters. “You need to think about how the investor is coming into the company, how you’re going to get them out – and what happens if you miss your business plan.
“If it only benefits the investor and not you, then maybe you shouldn’t take the deal.”
Get it in writing – always
Even the best ideas fall apart without proper structure. In Oldroyd’s experience, one of the biggest weaknesses in early-stage beverage alcohol companies is the lack of proper contracts. “A handshake of ‘I’ll do this when we exit’ is not good enough,” she warns.
That applies to suppliers, agencies, distributors, co-packers and even co-founders. “You might be friends with these people, or have worked with them before, but you need professional and fair contracts that can last ten years or more,” she says. “Circumstances change. Relationships change.”
And those changes can have dramatic consequences. “If your contract ends on a change of control and that contract is critical to the business, then you don’t have a business,” Oldroyd says. “You need to make sure your key agreements survive a sale.”
It’s not just about protecting yourself; it’s also about aligning incentives. “If your partner is going to take quasi-equity and a share of the upside, they need to commit to generating that upside.
“If it’s all clear and on paper, you have a real partnership. If it’s vague, you have a risk.”
Own your IP, or someone else will
One of the most common – and costly – mistakes that Oldroyd regularly sees is poor intellectual property protection. “You need to be really clear on the ownership of all your brand assets,” she says. “If you’re going to sell, a premium price is paid by the buyer because there’s value in the IP.”
That includes everything from trademarks and recipes to packaging designs and marketing materials. “No one individual does it all – you contract people to help,” she says. “But I’ve seen brands come to sell, and realise they don’t actually own the brand image or the recipe, or have the rights to a key market.”
Oldroyd recalls several deals that were nearly derailed due to unresolved IP. “It can all be fixed, but if you’re in a sale process and someone’s holding a key asset, you’ve got no leverage. They can name their price.”
Her advice: Lock down IP early and revisit it regularly. “You’re building a brand,” Oldroyd says. “Make sure you own it.”
Focus beats footprint
With today’s interconnected markets and social media-driven hype, many alcohol brands aim to be everywhere, fast. Oldroyd urges caution. “I see brands sending pallets to 50 different countries, or launching five SKUs at once,” she says. “That’s not scale. That’s distraction.”
Strategic buyers – the eventual acquirers of most drinks start-ups – want simplicity. “Their ideal acquisition is a single SKU that’s really big in one or two markets. They’re not set up to manage a complex spider web of products and territories.”
Oldroyd has seen the downside of premature expansion, especially in the US. “Founders do a deal with a big distributor, flood the market and nothing sells through,” she recalls. “Suddenly, your brand is getting dusty on a shelf and retailers won’t touch it again.”
Instead, Oldroyd recommends focusing on building repeat purchase and brand pull in core markets. “Get on the shelf and make sure you’re doing something to get off it,” she says.
“Don’t confuse the consumer. Don’t confuse the buyer.”
