How Andy Skora and Will Morgan created cult Aussie beverage brand FELLR in a Bondi garage during COVID

Andy Skora and Will Morgan became mates while working together in Sydney, and dreamt up an idea that would take over the Australian alcoholic beverage industry.

The pair were working as field sales manager and senior brand and innovation manager at French alcohol giant Pernod Ricard when they decided to branch out on their own.

They created cult beverage business FELLR — but it wasn’t without a few bumps in the road.

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Skora, 40, and Morgan, 39, founded FELLR in 2020 from a Bondi garage and, four years later, are now projected to exceed $18 million in sales next financial year, up from $12 million last year.

This is thanks to the movement of more than 5,500,000 cans and schooners annually.

With 40 per cent annual growth, the brand is the official seltzer at Merivale venues including the Sydney Cricket Ground and has collaborated with other cult Australian brands such as Gelato Messina.

Most recently it launched its own ginger beer.

Skora and Morgan decided to start a seltzer company after seeing a gap in the market for craft premix and craft ready to drink (RTD) beverages.

“We were just like … there’s a big opportunity coming in the seltzer space,” Morgan told 7NEWS.com.au.

“There’s lots of cool brands in beer. Why not in this space as well?

“So, we decided to create something new.”

While brainstorming a name for their product, Skora and Morgan overheard a group of people greeting each other in a common affectionate way: “Hey fella.”

And thus their brand got its name.

“FELLR’s always about bringing friends together for the best times so it just made sense,” Morgan said.

Skora and Morgan quit their jobs in January 2020 to pursue their big beverage dreams — and then the COVID pandemic hit six weeks later.

“We got locked down in our apartments,” Morgan said.

“(We) had to try to create a brand-new product and a brand-new category, all (while) locked down.

“We kind of were doing flavour testing, we were doing brand design, everything while locked down.”

Skora and Morgan launched the first two FELLR products — Lime & Soda, and Dry and Lime — in June 2020.

The pair were still locked down in their apartments — and were each expecting their first child with their respective partners, which they described as a “crazy experience”.

Once they had created the product, getting it into consumers’ hands was a whole new challenge, Skora said.

“That was the other difficult thing once we did have it,” he said.

Traditionally, breweries take their products into face-to-face meetings at bottle shops, but masks and limited staff due to social distancing changed this experience.

“Every time we tried to talk to someone, (they’d say) ‘Can you just send us an email?’,” Skora said.

“So, we’re trying to start a new brand, discussing this … all over email and phone calls.

“It wasn’t the most personable thing … but we eventually got there.

“It’s difficult.

“I usually start with independent bottle shops and on-premise accounts because they have the leeway to put in products that they want, to a certain extent.

“But with the multinationals, in terms of BWS and Dan’s and Vintage Sellers and the likes of those, everything’s done through head office.

“So there’s usually one person who is the gatekeeper to maybe 1400 stores across the country.

“It’s a much different process with the national groups, but that’s why you start off … visiting those independent accounts and on-premise accounts where you can actually build relationships with the store manager, the owners of those shops and venues, and they can put it in.

“So it’s a lot of door-knocking. And that was all me and Will for the first year and a half of the business.

“We were the only ones not paying ourselves a wage for the first, what, eight months? And just hitting the road and visiting as many bottle shops and bars as we possibly could.”

“That was definitely one of the hardest things, especially when locked out,” Morgan said.

“I think the best feeling … was when you started to realise it wasn’t just our friends drinking the product.“

However, after the hard part came the best part.

“I think the best feeling we had in the word was … when you started to realise it wasn’t just our friends drinking the product,” Morgan said.

“It was really nice when you started to see, you know, like a random person just walking down the street with (the product), or just a random can on the street empty.”

Launching a brand during a pandemic presented a unique challenge, but also unique opportunities.

Usually, launching a product like FELLR would include showcasing it at events such as festivals — which bigger companies would normally have greater access to.

COVID accidentally levelled the playing field somewhat by limiting those opportunities for even the bigger players.

“(Our strategy) was definitely digital-first when we launched,” Morgan said.

“I think what made it in our favour a little bit during that time is that (the pandemic) really kind of brought everyone onto the same level.

“It was really about building an effective digital media strategy early on.

“So, for us it was really working with the right kind of ambassadors who we really aligned strongly with and who we (were) really inspired to work with, and they were really keen to support the brand from the outset as well.

“I think the biggest thing for us, though, was just to create a brand that really kind of did a lot of the heavy lifting itself.”

This meant standing out on shelves and differentiating the brand from the competition, which at the time included big international players as well as newer brands trying to establish themselves.

“I think the biggest thing for us, though, was just to create a brand that really kind of did a lot of the heavy lifting itself.“

“We knew everyone was going to be copying White Claw from the US,” Morgan said.

While other new seltzer products opted to emulate the white slimline cans and “obscure wave references”, the FELLR team wanted to stand out.

“We just knew that we had to do something completely different,” Morgan said.

“We always said, like, if you can get a product that looks really strong and really good in hand and you’ve got a liquid that backs it up and, you know, really pulls together the perfect product, then people are going to share your story anyway.

“People are going to share it on socials and hopefully it can create a bit of a snowball effect in itself.

“Because especially with small media budgets, we really couldn’t spend a lot of money to really get the brand out there.”

Being a local player in the market has also worked in FELLR’s favour, garnering a loyal following in some part due to this.

“I think, especially during lockdown, there was a lot of support local, drink local,” Skora said.

“And I think that helped from the beginning, as Will said, you know, being on a level playing field.

“Some of the bigger guys brought in international seltzers and they did well.

“White Claw did well because it just has that brand presence.

“But I think a lot of people were open to try new things and once they picked up ours they found out we were a local Australian brand and it tasted really good.

“So, we had that combination of local really good product from the liquid perspective but also a brand presence as well.

“I think a lot of the younger consumers did kind of gravitate to it.”

While FELLR is stocked in major bottle shops, a major sales channel for the brand is via taps in licenced premises.

“On-premise for us is a big part of the business,” Skora said.

“We do a lot on tap, which is quite unique because a lot of other seltzers didn’t start off doing tap.

“And that was actually where we were going to start. We were going to put everything into tap and just be solely launching with tap.

“Thankfully we didn’t kind of progress more with that before COVID hit, because we would have put all of our stock into kegs and not been able to sell it for a year and a half.

“I think because of the sheer volume of how many retail accounts there are, that is a bigger channel for us, but on-premise — we see that dollar per spend in venues is higher in on-premise.”

““It’s pretty iconic to be in the stadium.”“

FELLR has partnered with businesses including ALH Group, Solotel and Merivale to be sold in venues around the country such as the SCG.

“It was amazing when we first got that,” Skora said. “It’s pretty iconic to be in the stadium.”

“I think it’s a testament to the liquid (and) the demand for this type of product in the tap space that it’s been able to secure so many, and keep so many, taps over the last four years,” Morgan said.

“Some of the biggest accounts we’ve got, they’ve had it for three years and it’s doing, you know, number one or two tap of that venue ‘s total volume.

“I’s been a huge channel for us. And again, we always say brands are built in the on-premise because it’s a really good way for people to experience and drive trial of your brand in a really kind of awesome location and occasion.”

Other partnerships, such as the recent Gelato Messina collaboration, came about “organically”, Morgan said.

“We’ve always loved that brand.”

The FELLR team “jumped” at the chance to work with another local brand, Morgan said.

“We were put in touch by a common friend and we got chatting about the opportunities.

“Collaborations in this space are huge at the moment and really drives a new kind of interest in the category, drives new product propositions, really taps into that kind of Gen Z piece as well.

“You know, Messina have one of the best social media strategies we’ve seen that really taps into that Gen Z market really well.

“So, for us, it was just a really good proposition to come together and do something unique and fresh, something that hadn’t been done before, and work with someone who’s a quality brand and makes great products.

“It was a really fun experience and we were really happy with the outcome from the products as well.”

After four years in business, FELLR now offers five flavours of seltzer, four flavours of double seltzer, two collaboration flavours with Gelato Messina and the brand-new ginger beer.

The new ginger beer is the brand’s first foray into the beer category and was a “strategic move to diversify its portfolio”, the company said at the time.

Made from Queensland ginger, the product was designed not to be too sweet after recieving feedback from consumers about this.

The brand was started as an alternative to beer — specifically a lower calories, lower sugar alternative that is still high in flavour — and continues to keep this at the heart of their mission.

“FELLR is here to meet that demand,” Morgan said.