Two Fingers Brewing Co.
Two Fingers Brewing Co. is a craft beer brand and social enterprise, which gives all profits to the charity Prostate Cancer UK. Two Fingers Brewing Co. is based in Farringdon, London.[1]
History
Two Fingers Brewing Co. was founded by seven friends, who met whilst working at an advertising agency in London.[2]
In 2012, several of their colleagues were affected by prostate cancer and they were shocked to learn that prostate cancer kills roughly as many men as breast cancer does women,[3] despite awareness and funding of it being significantly lower.[4][5]
Around this time, the company where they worked was moving to a new building with its own bar, so they came up with the idea to produce their own craft beer to sell within it – and realised the opportunity for that beer to give back to the men that drank it, by donating all its profits to prostate cancer charities.[6]
After a positive response to a small batch of beer sold to family and friends, the friends decided to launch the brand nationally. So they spent 2013 building a supply chain of partners who all agreed to work at, near or below cost in support of the cause, as well as forming an official partnership with Prostate Cancer UK.[2]
Two Fingers Brewing Co.'s first beer, Aurelio, went on sale to the public in January 2014. Notable retailers have included Tesco, Ocado, Morrisons, Jamie’s Italian, and Club Gascon, the Michelin-starred restaurant.[6]
Products
Two Fingers Brewing Co. currently sells one beer, called Aurelio, but have stated ambitions to expand their range, giving each beer a man’s name that describes the characteristics of the drink. Aurelio is a Latin man’s name meaning golden, due to that beer being a golden ale.[7]
Aurelio is a 4.8% alcohol by volume golden ale, brewed with pale ale malt, crystal malt, goldings and admiral hops. Aurelio is brewed and bottled at cost for Two Fingers Brewing Co. by Hepworth & Co, the Sussex-based craft brewer.[2]
Design and branding
Two Fingers Brewing Co.’s logo features a hand pointing with two fingers, which is designed to represent an oath to better beer, in reference to the brand's commitment to great beer for a great cause, as well as a two-fingered salute to prostate cancer.[8] The hand points into a black hole, in an irreverent reference to the digital rectal examination for prostate cancer, although this is performed with one finger instead of two.[7]
Awards and honours
- Best Craft Beer Innovation, International Beer Awards, 2014[9]
- Selected as Official Beer of the 2014 Empire Awards[10]
- Contribution to the Community Award, Nectar Business Small Business Awards, 2014[11]
- Named one of the UK’s 100 most resourceful, inspiring and disruptive small businesses in the Smarta 100 Awards, 2014[12]
- Winner of a Business in the Community arc contest to win a London Underground advertising poster campaign, with an audience reach of over 2 million people and over 19 million opportunities to see[13]
- Selected to run a pop up bar in Downing Street for a special Christmas market in honour of the UK's second Small Business Saturday, in December 2014[14]
- Startup of the year 2014, The Guardian Small Business Showcase[10]
- Winner of the UK Final of The Venture, Chivas Regal’s contest to find and celebrate the world's most innovative social enterprises[15]
Partners
Two Fingers Brewing Co. works with a network of partners in order to run its social enterprise.[2] By role, these partners include:
- The UK's largest men's health charity,[16] Prostate Cancer UK[17]
- Sussex craft brewery Hepworth & Co.[2]
- Marston's for storage and distribution [2]
- Chesapeake for label printing,[2] who have since merged to become Multi Packaging Solutions [18]
- Sales support from Cube Business Services [2]
- Insurance brokerage from Sutton Winson [2]
- Corporate legal advice from Brabners[17]
- Electronic Data Interchange support from GXS,[2] who have since merged to become OpenText[19]
- Social enterprise support from the Business in the Community arc scheme [13]
References
- Fiddes, Mark (20 January 2014). "Mark Fiddes on a New Year Resolution we can all keep: fighting prostate cancer". Harpers.co.uk. Harpers.co.uk. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
- Sadler, Matt (December 2014). "The Aurelio Story, How Beverage Brands Can Be Messengers for Good". Zmags.com. Canadean. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
- "Cancer mortality for common cancers". www.cancerresearchuk.org. Cancer Research UK. 15 September 2014. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
- Turnill, Nicky (March 2010). "Cancer awareness research Dip One Full Report Final" (PDF). esds.ac.uk/. Arden Cancer Network. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
- "Prostate cancer research 'lagging'". bbc.co.uk/news/. BBC News. 1 January 2013. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
- Prosser, David (2 March 2015). "Small business person of the week: Fighting prostate cancer without running marathons". https://www.independent.co.uk. The Independent. Retrieved 24 April 2015. External link in
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(help) - Knowles, Victoria (31 July 2014). "Is this the best idea since beer itself?". https://www.2degreesnetwork.com. 2degrees. Retrieved 24 April 2015. External link in
|website=
(help) - Allsopp, Ashleigh (21 January 2014). "Ad agency creates beer brand to help fight prostate cancer". digitalartsonline.co.uk. DigitalArts. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
- Briggs, Fiona (15 May 2014). "UK beer that fights prostate cancer wins international innovation award". retailtimes.co.uk/. Retail Times. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
- Sadler, Matt (6 March 2015). "Startup of the year 2014: Two Fingers Brewing Co". theguardian.com. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
- "Karren Brady shares her expertise at small businesses awards". bmmagazine.co.uk. BusinessMatters. 8 September 2014. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
- "Two Fingers Brewing Co". smarta.com/smarta100/. Smarta. November 2014. Archived from the original on 24 April 2015. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
- "arc Advertising Campaign Launch first ad campaign for Two Fingers Brewing and SMaRT Garage Services social enterprise enabled by Business in the Community (BITC) and big business". https://bdaily.co.uk/. Global Entrepreneurship Week. 20 November 2014. Archived from the original on 24 April 2015. Retrieved 24 April 2015. External link in
|website=
(help) - Robinson, Howard (5 December 2014). "Small businesses create Christmas fair inside Downing Street to mark Small Business Saturday". https://bdaily.co.uk/. Bdaily. Retrieved 24 April 2015. External link in
|website=
(help) - Joi, Shihab (23 February 2015). "Two Fingers Brewing Co. crowned UK winners of The Venture". huffingtonpost.co.uk/. The Huffington Post. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
- Triggle, Nick (15 August 2014). "Prostate cancer drug ruling a 'fiasco', says charity". bbc.co.uk/news/. BBC News. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
- "Brabners advises on launch of new charity beer to help fight prostate cancer" (PDF). manchesterlawsociety.org.uk/. Manchester Law Society. March 2014. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
- "Chesapeake/MPS Unify as Multi Packaging Solutions". http://uk.reuters.com/. Reuters. 4 June 2014. Retrieved 24 April 2015. External link in
|website=
(help) - "Open Text says GXS acquisition will create growth opportunities". therecord.com/. The Record. 24 January 2014. Retrieved 24 April 2015.