Popular Farmer's Market Kombucha Company Finds Growth in the Middle of the Pandemic

Company Profile

Founded in 2019, Seeking Kombucha is a women-owned, minority-owned, LGBTQ-owned small business located in Seattle, Washington. They are a small batched & brewed company that provides 100% raw, vegan, organic, and gluten-free kombucha and kombucha mocktails. The company owners have deep Mexican & Filipino roots, and as second-generation immigrants, they take much pride in intertwining their cultural background with their business. The business owners believe in sourcing their ingredients from the local community and supporting other Washington small businesses & local farmers.

Situation

Over the years, Seeking Kombucha has grown its business by attending farmer's markets across the Puget Sound and a small presence in restaurants and breweries. Given these outlets, the company has been able to capture a significant portion of the market. In early 2020 they were seeking market expansion, with projections of growing significantly locally and across the U.S.  When COVID-19 hit selling at farmer's markets was no longer an opinion, the team had to quickly shift gears and find new outlets and business resources to continue realizing their expansion.

Seeking Kombucha was also looking for opportunities to increase efficiency and profitability while increasing its position in the market. 

Solution

Impact Washington part of the MEP National Network™ was introduced to Seeking Kombucha through Seattle Made.  Seattle Made is a grassroots collaboration of over 600 urban producers and manufactures working together to find and share the resources they need to “make it” in Seattle! 

Impact Washington conducted a Business Evaluation to understand the unique challenges the company faced during the pandemic. The Assessment is a comprehensive standardized 'value' diagnostics for small businesses, created through a series of online surveys by Impact Washington, outlying the current company valuation, its value gaps, and suggested areas of strategic emphasis for most significant revenue/value enhancement.

The assessment led this two-person team thru a series of questions regarding 18 Business Value Drivers.  The output of the baseline assessment provided the company with an industry-validated enterprise value and an analysis of the "value gap" with clear indicators of areas of emphasis to close the value gap.

Impact Washington's Small and Rural Account Executive prepared a Strategic Business Report and Findings document presented to the owners. The report covered a plan for addressing "red flags" and pursuing the most impactful opportunities revealed in the analysis.

The evaluation helped the company find critical and actionable drivers contributing to most of the success for Seeking Kombucha and opportunities to increase business performance and help them realize their expansion goals. 

Results

• In March 2021, open a taproom in South Lake Union
• Increase in sales by 300%
• Grew company from 2 to 8 employees (400%)
• Increase customer retention to 85%