Six months ago, we reported on Dragon Beverages and their ambitious plans to ‘disrupt’ the vending industry in the UK. UK Head of Sales, Michael Sutton told us: ‘We looked at the energy drinks market in the UK and we thought, ‘it doesn’t have to be like this’.’
The company behind the Dragon brand, Kingsley Beverages, clearly meant business, having invested £45m in a purpose-built manufacturing and distribution facility in Peterborough. ‘We’re bringing our portfolio of great tasting products, in 500ml and 250ml cans, to the UK’s vending operators’, Michael said then. ‘We’re ready to disrupt the market by offering operators quality products which deliver real value to their customers – not to mention outstanding margins for them.’
So, how’s it going? Since that first article, Dragon’s sales and marketing machine has gathered pace in a concerted effort to ‘get the message out there’ – and with considerable success. ‘Since we launched in February of this year, we’ve run promotions with the key distributors in the channel and we’ve featured heavily in the Trade Press, to bring the brand to the attention of the operators’ Michael said. ‘Now, we have over one hundred operators who regularly stock Dragon in their machines and we’ve run a series of successful trials with NIVO and and other buying groups. Maybe best of all, we were nominated in two categories at The Vendies, which was an amazing result for us after just six months around the industry.’
Dragon is the fastest growing Energy Drink in the Vending Industry
The upshot of all this activity is remarkable: Dragon is the fastest growing Energy Drink in the Vending Industry this year. Many of the initiatives Dragon has adopted to build the brand have been aimed squarely at those consumers who fit the product’s profile, to build awareness of the brand, so they may have slipped under the radar of some operators.
For instance, did you know that Dragon is a title sponsor of MXGB – Moto Cross Great Britain, which delivered fabulous publicity across eight rounds up and down the country. Dragon was also Title Sponsor at Gravity, Europe’s largest automotive show which attracted 30,000 people to the NEC Birmingham. And that’s by no means that: Dragon were highly visible during May at LandRover BIG weekender, Shildon Big Weekend, Rugby Bike Festival, Devon Balloon Festival; Sandringham Pageant of motoring and the Convicted Car Show.
On top of all this, the company is attending multiple dates on the TCR Championship – and the Winter Drift Battle in Scotland and they’ll also be front and centre at the famous Weston Beach Race in October. These events alone have delivered crowds of ‘the right people’ – more than a quarter of a million of them… And ’the right people’ have clearly been impressed; judging by the growing, active social media audience that Dragon is enjoying every month.
‘We’ve definitely been out and about sharing the good news about Dragon Energy Drinks’, Michael said. ‘We’re doing everything we can to introduce our product to our target market and this will continue into 2025. We’re working hard to build demand for Dragon Energy drinks with the aim of making the decision to include them in vending machines a ‘no brainer’.’
If you’re not yet one of the brand’s vending ‘converts’, ‘now’ would seem to be a good time to reassess your energy drinks offering.
Keep up to speed with developments in vending, OCS and automated retail HERE on Planet Vending.
Want to know more about Dragon Energy? Click here.
