Mum’s $50k gamble turns into $1.7m flourishing non-alcoholic beverage business

The mum was devastated when her employer cut her role. But what she did next has made her a fortune.

A mum who was made redundant turned her situation around by creating a booming business which now rakes in nearly $2 million a year.

Sam Manning, 36, from Geelong in Victoria, thought losing her job as an account manager was the worst thing that could happen to her. She had worked at the company less than six months so was not entitled to any kind of redundancy payout.

But it gave her the time to do what she really wanted to – start a loose leaf tea business.

She soon picked up another full-time job but devoted all her passion to the new company.

“After about 12 months, a bill would come. I’d put it in the credit card, try to pay it off with my full time job while trying to pay off the mortgage at the same time.”

Eventually she and her husband refinanced their home and managed to pull together $50,000 to invest in her tea business and she worked there in a full-time capacity.

But it was while working there that Ms Manning, a mum-of-two, came across a much more lucrative and sought after business idea.

“I wanted to move into the ready to drink space, my tea drinking was not that,” she admitted.

But with her knowledge of mixing botanicals and creating flavours, she went on to found Monday Distillery from a tin shed in Geelong.

The business serves non-alcoholic gin, tequila, whiskey, rum and cocktails.

She got the jump on Australia’s burgeoning non-alcoholic beverage movement which has since blown up and netted her company $1.7 million in the last financial year.

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Victorian mum’s non-alcoholic beverage business Monday Distillery makes $1.7m

Sam Manning jumped on-board the non-alcoholic beverage trend.

In 2019, she launched the Monday Distillery. As the business started to gain traction, her husband quit his job to join her – which turned out to be good timing.

“When my husband started working in the business I fell pregnant with my son,” Ms Manning said.

In its first year, Monday Distillery made just $300,000. But last year it generated $1.1 million in revenue. As of this June, the revenue jumped again, to $1.7 million.

The most recent Dry July was their most successful ever, Ms Manning said, and they are now stocked in more than 800 retailers.

They are forecast to make more than $24 million in sales in 2024 and in a fundraising round in September, raised $1 million.

According to the entrepreneur, Monday Distillery is so convincing that she gave all her friends the product while it was in its prototype phase.

“We had friends that drank the whole night, and then we told them they could drive home,” she said, adding that they were surprised.

Victorian mum’s non-alcoholic beverage business Monday Distillery makes $1.7m

Victorian mum’s non-alcoholic beverage business Monday Distillery makes $1.7m

In the last few months, Ms Manning has given birth to her second son, which has made her appreciate more than ever having a non-alcoholic option to drink.

“I’ve lived my target audience’s journey twice now with my past and current pregnancy,” she said while pregnant with her second child.

“When you’re going to a barbecue or family thing, you want to grab something that feels included.”

She says she receives messages from customers every day – she has sold more than a million bottles after all – and some have revealed they drink her products because they are pregnant or the designated driver for a night out.

Many, however, simply use her drinks to cut down their alcohol intake.

“Our (main) customer is definitely not a sober one, they’re just trying not to drink as much,” she explained.