Pickle sparkling water has come Planet Organic's best-selling soft drink within a week, including bottled water. Having tried every flavour of YEW, we had to sit down with the Francesca to talk through the rebrand, the bet on pickle flavour, and what's next.

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What is YEW and how did it all start?

"YEW makes super natural sparkling water with a splash of something good. It has zero sugar, zero sweetener, is calorie free, and contains only natural ingredients.

Jesse (Jenkins), Angela (Stone) and I are all obsessive sparkling water drinkers. We have it with lunch, with dinner and honestly sometimes with breakfast too, so we all got excited by the idea of making our own.

We felt there was an opportunity to create sparkling waters that were interesting and a little unexpected, but that you'd still happily drink every day with lunch or dinner. We started experimenting with flavours that we couldn't find, creating sparkling waters with character and complexity that still felt incredibly drinkable.

Taste has always been the starting point for us. We want YEW to be the sparkling water brand that surprises you and that you can't get enough of."

Your cans have just been rebranded, smaller size and a new design. Why make that change now?

"Our original 440ml cans were designed with festivals, sports and outdoor occasions in mind. They were cool and different to what was out there, but one of our biggest learnings was that those occasions are actually quite niche. Most people drink sparkling water with food, at home, in cafés, at work, with dinner or grabbing lunch. Once we fully understood that, it changed how we thought about the business.

Moving to a 330ml can made YEW feel much more at home in cafés, restaurants, premium food to go and meal occasions, which is exactly where we believe it belongs. It also gave the brand a more premium feel that better reflected the product inside.

At the same time we worked with Julian Roberts and the team at Irving & Co to rethink the brand from the ground up. Julian stripped everything back with a cleaner design and colours that feel vibrant and appetising. Jesse was a fashion photographer before launching ADIP, so he shot all of our photography himself.

The product hasn't changed, but the way we communicate it has. The new branding feels much closer to our own taste and much more like the business we've always wanted to build."

How has the rebrand been received so far? Has retailer and consumer feedback matched what you expected, and has anything about the reaction surprised you?

"It's been amazing and has absolutely exceeded our own expectations. The relaunch has created a step change for the business - retailers seem to now immediately understand where the brand sits, and the new format has opened exciting new conversations.

A lovely surprise has probably been how much people are now photographing and sharing the brand on social media. When people choose to put your product on their Instagram without you asking them to, you know you've created something they want to be associated with which is such a nice compliment and makes us very happy!

The other exciting thing happening is hearing from retailers that customers are coming in specifically asking for our Pickle flavour. It is currently only available through Planet Organic and our own website, so it's been wicked to see people actively seeking it out before it's even widely available.

Commercially we've seen a significant uplift which is reassuring because we made some big slightly scary decisions. Rebranding was a leap of faith, but it feels like we've finally aligned the product, the packaging and the ambition of the business."

You've just launched a Pickle sparkling water, a bold bet on flavour. Why pickle and how has it been received so far?

"We've loved pickles for years, so it felt like a flavour we really understood. Jesse's best woman actually gave an entire speech at our wedding about his obsession with pickles, so when our partner and Head of NPD, Neil Hinchley, suggested turning it into a sparkling water, we practically shouted yes.

We've all noticed people's palates changing. Fermented foods have become much more mainstream and people are embracing more umami flavours. Pickle as a flavour has entered the mainstream, with pickle crisps and snacks, pickle martinis, picklebacks and athletes drinking pickle juice shots after endurance events. And, of course, there was Dua Lipa's famous Diet Coke recipe.

People were already comfortable with the flavour, so we just took the next step and put it into clean sparkling water.

What we loved about pickle was that it created a flavour profile that didn't exist in sparkling water anywhere, it is crisp, bright, savoury, incredibly refreshing, and fantastic with food.

The response has been extraordinary. Within the first week it became Planet Organic's best-selling soft drink, including bottled water. We've had some cool press coverage already, and we've got some really exciting retail partnerships coming later this year.

I think people probably buy it because they're curious, but they're coming back because they love drinking it."

Where does YEW go from here? What does the next 12 to 18 months look like?

"We want to build on this momentum!

We're stocked in Planet Organic, Holland & Barrett, Amazon and Selfridges, with Ocado launching in August and more partnerships on the horizon. The focus is making YEW much easier to find while continuing to grow the brand in food led environments where we think it belongs.

Alongside that we'll keep doing what we enjoy most: developing new flavours that feel interesting but approachable. We think there's a huge amount of untapped territory between traditional soft drinks and flavoured sparkling water and we are all very excited to explore more savoury ideas.

Longer term, we'd love YEW to become the brand people look to whenever they are thirsty!

We are right at the beginning. Pickle has given us confidence that consumers are more adventurous than we realised so hopefully, we're only just scratching the surface of what sparkling water can become."

Check out YEW: Website - LinkedIn - Instagram

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