How Verdant Is Growing Direct Sales Across the UK with Sellar Distribution

For breweries based a long way from their biggest customer markets, growing direct sales nationally isn't always straightforward.

Verdant Brewing is based in Cornwall, where it operates its own local dray service. But hundreds of miles away, many customers wanted to buy direct without committing to pallet quantities or receiving expensive individual keg courier deliveries.

For Billy, Head of Sales at Verdant Brewing, the challenge wasn't generating demand. It was finding a better way to fulfil it.

Sellar Distribution provided the answer.

Each week, Verdant sends stock into Sellar Distribution depots in Manchester and Edinburgh. From there, Sellar completes the final-mile delivery, allowing customers to buy direct from Verdant while receiving a dependable regional dray service.

"We're using Sellar Distribution for national distribution. The hope is that we can offer a similar, if not identical, logistics and distribution set up to what we offer locally with our own dray service."

Making national direct sales commercially viable

Being based in Cornwall presents unique opportunities for Verdant, but it also creates logistical challenges when supplying customers elsewhere in the UK.

Billy explains that many direct customers simply don't want, or need, pallet quantities.

"Due to our location we are heavily reliant on pallets out for direct customers, and we find that there aren't that many accounts keen on taking a pallet."

The alternative wasn't much better.

"The costs for individual keg shipping are largely prohibitive."

Rather than asking customers to choose between a full pallet or expensive courier deliveries, Sellar Distribution gave Verdant another route to market.

By sending stock into our regional depots each week, Verdant can continue selling directly to customers while offering smaller order quantities through a dedicated drinks distribution network.

As Billy puts it:

"Having a dray we can utilise to reach customers looking for smaller orders is ideal."

Direct from the brewery. Delivered like a local brewery.

One of the biggest advantages of Sellar Distribution is that customers don't have to compromise.

They still buy directly from Verdant, but instead of receiving courier deliveries, they receive beer through Sellar Distribution's regional dray service.

That means a more reliable delivery experience, smaller minimum order quantities and a service built specifically for the drinks industry.

For customers outside Cornwall, buying direct from Verdant now feels much closer to buying from a local brewery.

Winning more business by lowering the barrier to order

Making it easier to buy has had a direct impact on customer behaviour.

Verdant has seen customers who previously struggled with pallet quantities return to ordering more regularly.

"We've seen a few customers who had previously ordered direct but struggled with pallet quantities come back to ordering more regularly."

Removing the need to commit to a pallet has also made it much easier for new customers to trial the brewery's beers.

"Being able to order smaller quantities means it's a much lower commitment to try us out."

For Billy and the sales team, that has become a powerful commercial advantage.

"It's also given our field sales guys another tool to go and win business that would have otherwise been harder to win."

Better visibility of where the beer goes

Unlike some routes to market, Sellar Distribution allows Verdant to retain visibility over where its beer is being sold.

Billy sees that as a major advantage.

"Another key thing is visibility. We know where our beer is going and we can track accounts much better than we could if it were being fulfilled by other means."

Having that visibility helps the team build stronger customer relationships, better understand regional demand and support customers more effectively.

From occasional stockist to permanent line

For Billy, one customer perfectly demonstrates what happens when buying direct becomes easier.

A venue in Manchester had previously stocked Verdant occasionally through a local wholesaler.

Once direct access became simpler, that relationship changed.

"A customer in Manchester went from being a sporadic stockist via a local wholesaler to a rotating perm line just by opening up access and giving them the information."

The demand was already there.

Sellar Distribution simply removed the logistical barriers that had prevented that customer buying direct more consistently.

Billy's advice to other breweries

Billy believes Sellar Distribution is one of the best ways for breweries to grow direct sales beyond their local area, provided they're prepared to actively sell into those markets.

"Certainly worth investing in if you're looking to grow national direct business, but you will need to go out and bang the drum."

Sellar Distribution creates the infrastructure, but breweries still need to build the relationships.

As Billy says:

"It's a fantastic tool for reaching hard to win customers out of your local area but it's not going to do it for you, nor should it."

The result

For Verdant Brewing, Sellar Distribution has created a scalable way to grow direct sales far beyond Cornwall.

By sending stock into Sellar Distribution depots each week, the brewery can continue selling directly to customers across the North of England and Scotland while offering a delivery experience that's much closer to a local dray service than a traditional courier.

Customers benefit from smaller minimum order quantities, reliable regional deliveries and direct access to one of the UK's leading independent breweries.

Verdant benefits from stronger customer relationships, greater visibility of where its beer is going and a more effective platform for winning new business nationally.

Interested in Sellar Distribution?

Whether you're looking to grow direct sales outside your local area, reduce the cost of shipping smaller orders or give customers a better alternative to courier deliveries, Sellar Distribution can help.

We'd love to show you how it could work for your brewery. Get in touch at distribution@sellar.io