A mutual love for craft beer, gin and coffee led to the creation of newly-founded Devenick Drinks.
Friends Andy Christie, Glen Urquhart and Bryan Gray work with local and national small batch breweries, coffee roasters and distilleries, and offer the products via their e-commerce business.
Devenick Drinks currently has 22 suppliers onboard with 77 individual products available.
The trio juggle running the business along with their usual day-to-day jobs. Mr Christie and Mr Urquhart are also co-founders of Granite City Tour Company.
Promoting local produce
Mr Christie said: “We all come from oilfield backgrounds but have all been involved in start-up businesses in the past – I guess you could say that we’ve kind of got the entrepreneurial bug.
“The idea of starting Devenick Drinks actually came from our mutual love for craft beer, gin and good quality coffee!
“We loved trying out new craft beers, spirits and local coffees during lockdown and are naturally big advocates of buying local – and Aberdeen & Shire certainly have so much to shout about in that respect.”
Devenick Drinks launched in April and has just recently joined Aberdeen’s first independent food delivery app focussed on supporting local businesses, Aberdeen Eats, run by husband and wife team Fraser and Alison Scott.
Mr Christie, a business development manager for an offshore service company, said: “We champion both local and national products and provide a no-nonsense service that delivers direct to your door in just a few simple clicks.
“Our suppliers gain repeat orders as well as giving them another platform to promote their product through.
“We also offer free shipping within a 15 mile radius of Aberdeen.”
Demand for online ordering
Starting a business during lockdown has brought its benefits for Devenick Drinks.
Mr Christie said: “Being an e-commerce business meant that Covid didn’t really affect our operations, if anything it has probably helped because people’s movements have been restricted due to lockdown.
“It has certainly helped drive the launch of our business as people were still restricted to what they could do and where they could go.”
Looking to the future Mr Christie, Mr Urquhart & Mr Gray aim to keep growing.
“We are continuing to increase our supplier portfolio and product offerings,” Mr Christie said.
“We’ve already been in discussion with a few start-up breweries around stocking their products when they are ready to launch.
“Our ultimate aim is to expand into larger premises which we hope leads to job opportunities as the business grows.”
Mr Christie has shown his support for the North East Now campaign, which has made it easy for people to support local firms from a wide range of industries during the pandemic.
The initiative is driven by Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce and backed by creative agency Hampton and Aberdeen Journals.
He said: I think the website is fantastic. It’s a very welcomed addition for the area as it promotes all types of local businesses and acts as a ‘one-stop shop’.
“It also highlights the beautiful area that’s on our doorstep such as Balmedie Beach and Deeside!
“I think we share the same views and pride in supporting local businesses and we hope that Devenick Drinks could be another great addition to North East Now.”
For further information on Devenick Drinks, visit www.devenick-drinks.co
To find out more about North-East Now, visit www.northeastnow.scot
To share your positive business story, email stories@northeastnow.scot