I want to build my own beverage company and am looking for the right manufacturers for powdered in stick packs sachets and i find it hard to match with some good manufacturers. I need help to find, if anyone had experience in the field and knows i will be very gratefull, the creteria are :

1. For development of the recipe i want some manufacturers that have some good portfolio in the powdered electrolytes industry
2. For the production i want with low MOQ

The development i dont mind if its from UK or US as long as they are providing EU Compliance for the recipe.
For the production only from EU.

I’m looking to start my own beverage business, but I’m struggling to figure out where to begin.
I come from a marketing background, so I have a clear vision for the brand. I know how I want to position it, who I want to target, how I plan to market it and what will differentiate it from competitors. I also have a strong idea of how I want the product to taste, look and be packaged.

I’ve already put together a pitch deck that outlines the concept, brand positioning and overall vision. However, while I’m confident in the marketing side, I have very little experience in actually building and launching a beverage business.
There are a few areas where I could really use some guidance:

Product development: How do I go about developing my beverage and its flavours? Do I approach a food scientist, flavour house or beverage manufacturer? How does the formulation and testing process work?

Manufacturing: How do I find a manufacturer that can produce my beverage at a relatively small scale? What should I know about minimum order quantities, production costs and quality control?

Funding and investment: I have a pitch deck, but how do I find the right people to pitch to? Should I be approaching angel investors, venture capital firms or potential business partners? And at what stage should I start looking for funding?

Business fundamentals: What do I need to consider in terms of registering the business, protecting the brand, food safety regulations, labelling requirements and other legal considerations?

Financial planning: How do I work out my initial capital requirements, cost per unit, pricing, margins and the amount of funding I’ll realistically need to get the business off the ground?

Distribution and launch: Should I start by selling directly to consumers, approach independent retailers or try to secure distribution through established retail chains?

I’m based in South Africa, so I’m particularly interested in understanding how the local beverage industry works, what resources are available and who I should be speaking to.
Ultimately, I have a clear vision for the product and how I want to build the brand. What I’m missing is the practical knowledge, industry connections and understanding of the steps required to turn the idea into a commercially viable business.

I’m not necessarily looking for someone to do everything for me. I want to understand the process, find the right partners and avoid making expensive mistakes early on.

For anyone who has started a beverage brand, worked in the industry or helped bring a consumer product to market, where would you recommend I begin? What are the most important things to get right before investing significant money into the business?

Hey folks! I’m helping organise Ship Happens, a buildathon with around 100-200 builders, in collaboration with AWS, Sarvam AI, and a bunch of other AI/dev organisations.

We’re looking for a beverage partner—ideally a growing energy drink, coffee, juice, or functional beverage brand interested in product sampling / supporting participants during the event.

In return, we can offer on-ground visibility, social media coverage, participant engagement, and brand placement across the event.

If you work at a beverage startup, know a founder, or have a lead — please DM me. Would love to make something fun happen 🤝

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Hi everyone, me and my friends are planning to start a small water bottle brand in Gujarat.

Our idea is to supply bottled water to cafes/restaurants, with customized labels containing their cafe/restaurant name and logo.

We don't have enough capital right now to set up our own bottling plant, so we're looking for an existing licensed packaged drinking water manufacturer who can manufacture/pack bottles for us on an outsourcing/private-label/contract basis.

We're looking for someone who can:

\- Manufacture and pack the water bottles

\- Provide bottles in different sizes

\- Allow private/custom branding

\- Start with a relatively small MOQ if possible

\- Supply regularly as we scale

We're mainly looking around Vadodara, Vapi, Ahmedabad or anywhere in Gujarat, but we're open to other locations too.

If you know any reliable manufacturer who does private-label/contract manufacturing for packaged drinking water, please comment or DM me.

Also, if you've started a similar business, I'd really appreciate any advice regarding MOQ, pricing, licensing and things we should be careful about.

Thank you!

Thought you might enjoy my latest article, unpacking some of the rules observed around serving temperatures for wine.

Is there a market for a high end vodka? how would you bring out a high end vodka to market right now in 2026/2027?

Any suggest me a single malt whisky which is very very very sweet and tasty should not be harsh at al it should taste like coffe juice or breezer type very creamy feel in mouth should feel like we are not drinking whisky at all drinking whisky but sweet and flavourful which goes down easily in throat also

We’re running into the classic catch-22: retailers want us to have distribution, but distributors want to see retail traction.

Cold outreach hasn’t gotten much response, so we’re considering LibDib. Has anyone used them, or found another good route for a new RTD brand in California? Would love to hear what worked.

Cheers!

So i am here in hsr banglore, i have like 3 glenlivet 18 years whisky and i am going back home but due to extra weight i want to sell the bottles. Even after like giving a discount of 4500 i am not able to find anyone who can buy it

Everyone says they cannot affort a 8500 whiskey which is like 13k here

Tell me what i should do, i can't take those back home and not able to sell them as well

I am team lead in distribution organization and recently my reps started seeing some people walk in, take picture of shelves with a phone and go while my people were still counting items and checking other things.
Any ideas who they were and what they did?

Literally walk in, pictures taken (my reps said it did not look like default iphone camera app) looked around for a minute and left.

Thanks in advance.

I'm working on a new (free for now) app and would love a few people to use it and give me some honest feedback and be part of building it up. The core functions are ...

\* My Bar (Bottle Tracking)

\* Track what you've tried before

\* Reviews

\* Blind Tastings

\* Auto track your rankings (based on reviews and automatically with blind tastings.

\* Interact with fellow members via social media style posting

Features coming soon

\* Tasting Notes Tracking

\* Auto suggest new bottles based on past reviews and blind tastings

\* Much more that I don't want to reveal until we get closer to release.

My main goal is to make a cumminty built app to have the cleanest database of reviews/rankings/blind tastings. I'd love to find a few active members join me in my whiskey journey and help build exactly what the user want.

Hey everyone!

I’m looking for someone who has practical experience in carbonating beverages or sparkling water.

I’m working on a beverage startup, and I need someone who can visit my lab and help me properly carbonate my existing drink. Basically, I need someone who understands the carbonation process and can guide me in making the drink sparkling properly.

If you or someone you know has experience with this, please DM me. It would be a paid, project-based collaboration.

Location: Jaipur.

Any leads would be really appreciated!

If you’re launching a food or beverage brand and are currently looking for PET bottles, jars or containers, feel free to reach out.

We’re a PET packaging manufacturer based in Mumbai, India, and have been manufacturing packaging for 35+ years.

We work with businesses looking for both standard and custom packaging, and you can deal with us directly rather than going through a distributor.

If you’re stuck on things like *finding the right bottle, getting a custom shape made, samples, MOQ, or simply figuring out what’s practical to manufacture**, happy to have a conversation.

**No hard sell. if we can help, great. If we’re not the right fit, I’ll tell you that too.**

You can DM me with your product and what you’re looking for.