Gavin Blowman: Update

When Gavin Blowman won If we can, you can Challenge for the Sunderland Echo last year, he was set to revolutionise the beverage industry with his ‘Chooba’ drink; made from quality ingredients like milk, blossom honey and Chinese red tea. The drink also contained 'Cassava' balls which are sucked through a fat straw and chewed along with the drink which are made from all-natural (and 100% vegetarian) ingredients, and Gavin had just created the world’s first instant Cassava following intense production and manufacture testing. On the cusp of sweet success, we caught up with Gavin to see how it was all going.

Hi Gavin, how’s things been going?

“Well unfortunately about 9 months ago business got really tough. Despite usually being the eternal optimist I entered a period where a little dark cloud just hovered over my head. With business hard, I developed a very negative, critical attitude where I just thought things weren’t going to work out. So I really had to re-assess and think how I was going to move the business forward.

“However, I think now I’ve turned the corner. I’ve made some big changes and decisions recently and am feeling positive that I’m about to really move the company forward. I’m no longer in partnership with my former- business partner Fabian, as we just can’t work together! We get on fine, and are still friendly and in contact, but we’re just too different as people and therefore we can’t work on a common business project together.

“I still wanted to keep the Chooba brand, but I was struggling for inspiration on my next steps. I knew that I needed some kind of outside counsel; someone who could help me see the wood from the trees.

I went to Ian Baggett from Adderstone Group, knocked on his door and explained my situation. He convinced me that I’d come a long way, I’d learned a lot, and that I should look for new opportunities within the same industry, rather than give up on something I believe in.

With some thought I explored other options such as selling the drink at festivals, or even removing the chewy Cassava balls from Chooba and selling them separately as a snack. But these just weren’t angles I wanted to take.”


So how have you decided to move the business forward?

“Well the UKTI provided me with funding to go to New Zealand and Australia to carry out market research; the experience really helped clarify in my mind the sort of product I was going to sell and how I would be launching it.

“It was whilst I was over there that I really discovered the new direction to take the business. Not only did I get the opportunity to carry out my research and go to relevant meetings, but the excursion gave me a valuable few weeks to get my head together. I came back a lot more aware of the opportunities out there, waiting for me to grasp.

“I’ve come to the conclusion that I want to move forward with the Tea Frappé brand. It’s a delicious drink, like Chooba, but it no longer involves the production of the Cassava balls that went into the drink. Controlling quality production was a much of a problem as effectively maintaining the natural element which was so important to the drink. So Tea Frappé, our grown up milk shake, is how I’m going to progress and move the business forward.

“The cost of production of Tea Frappé is much less of an issue than it was with Chooba. There is another tea based drink currently produced in New Zealand, properly brewed with cinnamon, berries and other natural ingredients. It’s then filtered, and presented in a glass bottle. It’s a beautiful drink, but quite expensive as it’s naturally produced with no artificial chemicals. It works out at about £2.50 retail price, but people pay it because it’s delicious. So this is confidence inspiring; if a product’s good enough people will pay for it.

“When I was in New Zealand I talked to a company who were extremely interested in the Chooba brand. They told me that a lot of the massive, worldwide companies tend to use New Zealand as a launch-pad for their products. Having a culture similar to western countries they test launch products (such as new Coke flavours) to find out what people think of them. With a population of only 6m, if it’s not well received the brand will probably not be damaged.

“So this is what I’m going to do. I’ll test Tea Frappé in New Zealand and see if the general population likes the brand, likes the product, likes the packaging, etc. If all goes well I’ve got a supplier and a manufacturer in Sydney, who could help expand the brand to Australia. Ultimately, my aim is to license the product out to other countries, so the brand expands without actually having to move operations to each country.”


So is this the way in for Tea Frappé, an overseas launch? Do you not think there’s still a market in the UK? The samples at the If we can, you can Celebration went down a storm!

“There could be….but not yet. As well as being a good platform to launch Tea Frappé, I truly believe that New Zealand, Australia and possibly the USA are ready markets for a cold, milky, tea drink. I think I have a real chance with releasing the brand over there. Unfortunately, the UK consumer market isn’t quite there yet.

“I also have a leg-up from the UKTI. Instead of having to contact the New Zealand equivalent of Starbucks or Costa and persuade them to stock Tea Frappé, the UKTI have helped lever me into launching the product through the British Embassy. Because it’s good for the UK as well as the brand (as we are a British company, exporting a British product to foreign soil), they agree that it’s perfectly in tune to what’s needed in this economic climate.

“I’m really looking forward to launching in New Zealand. People have given me a lot of recognition, told me they’ve loved the product and still look forward to seeing it in stores. And I’m really looking forward to getting out there, and showing everyone what a great product Tea Frappé is. I fully appreciate that I won the If we can, you can Challenge as a result of a public vote – I’ll do all I can not to let those voters down!”


Gavin has promised to keep us updated on how things go in New Zealand and will continue to log on and be part of the If we can, you can community.To check out Gavin’s delicious Tea Frappe drink click www.teafrappe.co.uk, or to read more about his journey with the original brand, Chooba, visit his ifwecanyoucan profile at www.ifwecanyoucan.co.uk/Entrepreneurs/Gavin-Blowman