From beer to tea - building a brand from scratch

Beer and tea. While they are both among the most consumed beverages in the world - tea beats beer for first place (if you don't count water) - it's not a combination that usually comes to mind.

Filip Carlberg successfully combines his extensive marketing experience from the beer industry with his passion for a start-up in the tea industry.

What really inspired Filip to get involved in the tea sector and bring all his drive and enthusiasm was the emergence of a promising partnership with BRU founder and CEO Bogdan Krinitchko. Filip is now co-founder and CMO of BRU and has made it his mission to make BRU the gold standard in tea.

What is it like to move from established brands in the alcohol industry to an innovative start-up in the tea sector?

"One of the things I love about building BRU as a brand is that we are bringing innovation to the market and challenging habits that have remained the same for decades - a very exciting and invigorating experience. Like a good cup of tea! Interest and knowledge about tea is growing, more and more people want to make healthy choices while experiencing premium quality. I feel driven to create an offering that provides a perfect tea experience for our customers. In addition, the work we do constantly challenges me to get out of my comfort zone, which is exhausting but incredibly rewarding."

When Filip worked with larger companies, he certainly had bigger budgets and more collective experience to fall back on, but one of the great things about being part of a start-up is that it pushes him to be more creative. "Because we are still small, we can be flexible. We have developed many innovative solutions that will help our business to start selling in 2023 and grow beyond."

Building a great team is crucial in any start-up. Filip is building a team with individuals and companies to establish BRU on the market. "We have a fantastic team and together we can achieve a lot. We have decided to manage most of our marketing activities ourselves instead of working with agencies. This brings us closer to our customers and we believe it's crucial to keep this knowledge in-house."

Would Filip return to work for an already established brand and avoid all the hassle of building a new brand?

"With BRU, I can use my experience to create something that reflects the attributes I want to see in a premium brand - quality, consistency, comfort, innovation, transparency and sustainability - I love it!"

But how does Filip know that the world needs BRU and its innovative tea maker, the BRU Maker One?

"There is no product on the market today that offers the convenience of a capsule machine with the quality of a traditionally brewed tea. The BRU tea machine allows tea drinkers to brew any tea imaginable to perfection, whether mate or chai, fruit or herbal tea, green, black or even iced tea or even homemade tea blends to your own recipe! Every cup will be perfect, traditionally loose without capsules and the associated waste.

We often hear from our customers that we've helped them drink more tea, and that's exactly why we're here."

Bring it on!

You can contact Filip at: [email protected]