336,000 followers, tens of millions of views and over $1M of sales without a single penny of paid advertising the TikTok sensation Cocktail Cards is quickly becoming a global hit. All of this achieved single handedly by its founder AJ Rantz, based out of Seattle, Washington.
Until now.
These unique cocktail recipe cards are set to elevate home bars across the UK & Europe as Dominion joins forces with AJ, not simply to become their exclusive distributors but to create a new branch of Cocktail Cards including socials curated and uniquely created for the European market.
Having already received orders from major retailers such as Harvey Nichols and started taking our first sales on the Dominion Marketing built Cocktail Cards Europe website, we have very quickly sold much of our first test order. As such we are excited to announce we have just signed an agreement to purchase almost 3,500 packs of Cocktail Cards set to land in the UK in late October this year.
But what are Cocktail Cards?
After spending 10 years as a bartender in the states -much closer to what we’d call a mixologist in Europe- AJ like many was laid off because of the pandemic… After hundreds of fruitless job applications and many of his loyal patrons asking how to make his unique recipes at home, AJ spotted an opportunity. To take his passion for craft cocktails, his know-how in marketing from various hustles, and a whole lot of gumption to bring you 100 cocktail recipe cards for you to make at home!
He took his idea to the -at the time- exploding social media platform TikTok where it found a real home. Within a few months he raised $4000 of crowdfunding required to complete designs and get a sample of the product.
This is where everything changed for AJ.
A video showing off this early sample went viral. He went from planning to order just a few hundred units to having over $100,000 of pre-orders in just a few months. The next 18 months were a simple story, AJ would order what he thought was more than enough inventory to last 4-6 months, and then it would sell out long before the next order was planned, leading to him missing out on 6 months of sales in 2021.
With the collaboration of Dominion Wholesale here in Europe and his continued reinvestment state-side by the end of 2022 we hope to change this.
Founded by Chris Hammonds and Diarmaid McCann, Dominion Wholesale has recently been formed with a simple mission, become the go-to home bar kit provider throughout the UK & Europe. Our first move towards this goal is enabling our market to access the American sensation Cocktail Cards without the ridiculous shipping prices, time and duties that have plagued European shipping until now.
In collaboration with Dominion Marketing (founded by Diarmaid McCann) we have created a symbiosis which allows us to go far beyond the meagre resale of products which give wholesalers the -largely deserved- reputation as middle men. With high-conversion direct to consumer websites, cross-platform paid ads, effective amazon management, being a baseline for our expert team, we are able to focus on creating viral content produced specifically for the European market allowing us to expand the Cocktail Cards brand far beyond the promising reach it has already shown here!
Flipping to the retail side our newly minted Head of Retail, Chris Hammonds, is already hard at work having secured Cocktail Cards a place on the shelves of every Harvey Nichols store before our test order even landed! This deal was closed so early in our business we only had enough stock to offer them half of their initial requested order! As we look to the future, we appreciate we won’t have stock for our retail partners until October this year at the earliest. Nevertheless Chris is hard at work talking to retailers, sending samples and unfortunately having to fight some away with a stick due to our lack of stock!
This lack of stock is something we are looking to solve, as such we have decided to make a big bet. In fact this may be the biggest bet myself or Chris have ever made. To spend over $50,000 USD on our first proper batch of Cocktail Cards. Set to -hopefully- land at the end of October this production run -made specially for us- will allow us to meet the holiday season demand of our Cocktail Club members across Europe, have enough stock for existing retail partners to meet their customers demand and fill test orders from new retailer partners in the new year. With all this in mind we hope to see Cocktail Cards as a premium retail staple by the end 2023.
Building out such a sales machine as we have described here shall be no easy feat. However, we have the skill, we have the hustle (as of writing its 4am on a Saturday Morning) and we have the Scottish grit required to make this work. We will expand the Cocktail Cards brand, create loyal customers of our own, and bring about a new age of high-quality but cost-effective bar accessories. So you can enjoy your favourite cocktails, just as though from your favourite cocktail bar, minus the massive price tag!
Lets shake our best cocktails together 😊