‘There are blessings and curses that come with being first’ – Seedlip founder Ben Branson speaks to Global Drinks Intel

In 2015, Ben Branson created Seedlip, the world’s first distilled non-alcoholic spirits brand. Within a year, he’d secured investment from the Diageo-backed business accelerator, Distill Ventures. Then, in 2019, Diageo acquired majority control of the brand with Branson remaining on-board as a minority stakeholder. Since then, he’s been busy with Pollen Projects, a “venture studio dedicated to the non-alcoholic category”. Global Drinks Intel editor Olly Wehring spoke to Branson earlier this month about both Seedlip and Pollen Projects as well as the latter’s debut pair of releases.