In fact, Kerala means ‘land of coconut trees’, so as he was born there and had grown up drinking coconut water, it seemed natural to him to commercialise it. He was also at that critical point, just out of university and having finished travelling, when he knew it was the time to get real and get a job, or create one that was interesting for himself.
Apparently, coconuts do not all taste the same and are rather like wine, in that it depends on the terroir and the time of year when they are harvested.
“If they grow by the coast, the coconut water will taste more salty,” he explained. “There are different varieties of trees, and coconuts can be orange, green or yellow. Of course, they all end up brown once fully ripe.”
Cocofina uses a small coconut from Thailand and The Philippines (and not surprisingly is currently experiencing availability problems) as water from the big nuts grown in Brazil are less sweet. The company sells it as a low-calorie hydration product aimed at a female audience, but without any health claims.
What’s hardest here is consistent supply, as Jacob explained: “If the company were buying from Brazil, it would be possible to have one farmer with a 15,000 hectare plantation, but in Asia farming is very fragmented. It relies on strong relationships and the promise of future revenue.”
Did you know the shocking fact that after just one hour, coconut water starts to go off? “We continuously move small quantities,” he said. And the cost of these raw materials? Well since launch, the cost of raw materials has more than doubled. Today, the global coconut market is worth $400m, and that’s after just five years.
There is seasonal variation too. With groundwater being used to grow coconuts, they tend to be sweeter in the hotter months, as there is less water in the coconuts.
For Jacob, life is busy: “We are tripling our sales every year,” he said, but it’s not easy to keep up with demand. “Do we blend or do we keep the taste the same?”
There are no easy answers. The company has just launched three ‘from concentrate’ flavoured variants that are very stable, and with no need to refrigerate. These are in apple & blueberry, mango & guava and tea & passionfruit variants.
The company has been approached by the major players, but Jacob is keen to keep the company independent and sell away from mainstream distribution.
“We are selling through ABC1 outlets, through health clubs and ‘grab and go’ outlets,” he said. “The Tour de France team and Team GB both were drinking it and now we are targeting yoga clubs.”
Customer expectations are high, though, and they are currently undergoing a packaging revamp. I have to finish with a few impressive facts regarding product processing waste. It just has to be the best ‘end to end’ product when it comes to sustainability: the coconut water from green coconuts does not have a pulp around it and goes directly for use as a beverage. However, the coconut milk from older coconuts is submitted to centrifuge and the resulting coconut oil is cold pressed, the white coconut is dessicated, while the brown husk is used as fuel and as a water filter. Wow!
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