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Exhilarating liqueur business
It is 8am on a Tuesday in Quian Cock’s liqueur factory. For Quian, it’s business as usual. Actually, it’s business as “unusual” because, unlike other days of the week, he’s out of stock. The end-of-year festivities have simply emptied his reserve. The increase in his sales has been noticeable: “We have been able to sell more than 5,000 to 6,000 bottles during this last year. This is a great achievement, especially compared to the previous year, as we sold 300% more.”
Paradise Liqueurs was launched in November 2003 by Quian Cock, who left the world of motor vehicles to open this business, which he admits has always been his dream. This is due to the fact that he has worked in several restaurants in South Africa, his native country. The young entrepreneur explains: “When you work in the restaurant industry, you get used to a variety of products. And you start wondering how these products are made. This is what happened to me when I had to serve the liqueurs to customers.”
Moreover, Quian took into consideration another aspect of the product: its price. “I noticed that liqueurs are very expensive in Mauritius. So I decided to start producing my own to put on the market at a later stage.”
Investment in research</B>
Before facing the market, Quian went through different steps. The first step was research. Regarding this issue, he ordered books from the Internet on chemistry and the production of all kinds of alcohol. As a matter of fact, he invested a lot in research and the young professional is far from having stopped his research. “I may have invested a lot but, on the other hand, I believe that, to sell such a product, you have to emphasize its quality first. This is why I put so much effort into research.” Once he felt he was sufficiently informed and documented, Quian started making the liqueurs.
While most of his ingredients are local, bottles and stoppers come from South Africa. To create the flavours, Quian mixed his ingredients on a trial-and-error basis. He mixed the flavourings with different kinds of alcohol such as rum, whisky or even cognac. Friends and relatives were the first to taste his concoctions. According to the young entrepreneur, his business has grown through word-of mouth.
The business started properly when Quian got financial help from another partner. Together, they had to decide how to handle distribution. They approached Eastern Trading Ltd who showed interest and who do the marketing and distribution for them today.
A wide variety to choose from </B>
Quian has managed to set up seven varieties so far. The phrase “so far” is important as there are still 18 more flavours on his waiting list. “For the time being, we do not want to throw those flavours on the market. We want the seven current varieties that we’ve chosen to penetrate the market well before launching any others.”
These days, according to Quian, the liqueurs in demand are Cafeo (coffee and vanilla) and Tropical Bliss (coconut and pineapple). But, before putting the different flavours on the market, Quian made sure that his liqueurs complement different types of foods. In this regard, the director of Paradise Liqueurs is quite straight-forward: “The Mauritian is something of a gourmet. This should not be forgotten. It was important for me to take this into consideration before putting the different varieties on the local market. It is a new business. So far, so good! We took a couple of knocks at the beginning but we have learnt a lot. We are confident that we are going about this in the right way!”
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