Food & bev. services Company news South Africa

Thirst enjoys success during 2021 hardships in the South African liquor industry

While the South African liquor industry haemorrhaged R8.5bn in lost sales in 2021 due to the pandemic and trade restrictions imposed on retail liquor stores, Thirst enjoyed success.

Through 2021, Thirst, South Africa’s leading mobile bar solution, continued to show resilience, flexibility and agility in hard times and not only grew from strength to strength, but showed impressive levels of success.

“Our success was down to keeping our staff employed. As mentioned, we saw nice growth in bringing the cocktail experience to people’s homes through our team building packages. Our TH_RST products also saw nice growth through Takealot and online stores,” said Thirst owner, Clyde Ackerman.

Ackerman continued, “We took our services into the digital world and vertically integrated our own products into our ecosystem leveraging off the brand we have created over the last 16 years. Our virtual team building became a massive hit with online corporates. Teaching individuals how to mix up some incredible cocktails in the comfort of their own homes was a success.”

According to Ackerman, Covid allowed the Thirst team to take the TH_RST brand and vertically integrate its products into an ecosystem. “We introduced the TH_RST branded ready-to-drink G&Ts. Another popular product that we brought to the market was our dehydrated garnishes which have been flying off the shelves on our online store and Takealot. We are also busy finalising a new canned product that will play into the new normal.”

Thirst also introduced fully curated gift boxes and virtual packages. He said, “Apart from the booming virtual side of the business, we designed a variety of gift boxes with some of the biggest alcohol brands in the country.”

The Thirst team carefully managed business costs and continuously innovated with the times, continuing to push the boundaries in order to stay relevant in changing times. “Don’t be scared to push the boundaries and keep believing in yourself. Align yourself with good people that can help give you solid experience.”

Ackerman truly believes that 2022 is going to see an upturn in the industry. “Looking at the busy trends towards the end of 2021 has been a really good indicator of what the future is going to look like. With all the new services we have created, I am confident that we will see some new fruitful revenue streams within our business and all our hard work will pay off,” concluded Ackerman.

About Thirst

Thirst, South Africa’s number one specialists in bar solutions, offers a wide variety of services that cater to any size business or private event. For more information, call 011 444 9401 or email az.oc.tsriht@ofni. Thirst Gin and Tonic are available on: https://online.thirst.co.za/thirst-products/.

Thirst Bar Services
Thirst has fostered a reputation for providing excellent service from a platform of market leading equipment. By continually offering new, unique and innovative locally and internationally inspired products, like the Thirst Bartenders Marker, and using mobile bar units that are state of the art.
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