The story
History
Fever-Tree was founded by gin industry expert Charles Rolls and advertising executive Tim Warrillow in 2004. The duo shared a desire to create the perfect all-natural tonic water mixer, producing a premium option to standard mixers available on the market without high quantities of preservatives and artificial sweeteners. Following an excursion to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and several months of development and experimentation with different botanicals, the first product, Fever-Tree Indian Tonic Water, was launched in 2005; their products listed in Selfridges and Waitrose stores.
In 2006, the company received investment from London & Lochside, a venture capitalist.
In 2007, Fever-Tree launched in the United States and Spain. In 2008, the company had listed products with the Sainsbury's and Tesco U.K. supermarkets.
By 2011, Fever-Tree became recognised as one of the fastest growing UK drinks companies by being included in the Sunday Times Fast Track 100 list. Their distribution range had expanded to 25 countries in the same year. This led to growth in foreign sales, with an increase of 94% annually between 2008 and 2010, from £1.1 million to £4.4 million.
In March 2013, the founders sold 25% of the company to Lloyds Development Capital, and London & Lochside exited its holding with the business. In November 2014, the company floated on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol LSE:FEVR; the IPO valued Fever-Tree at £154.4m. As of 2019, its market value had increased elevenfold since its 2014 listing.
Since its initial offering, the company has expanded its product line to include a wider range of mixers including ginger ale, ginger beer, lemonade and flavoured tonic and soda water.
In January 2022, the company launched its product range in South Korea. In September, as part of its expansion in the US, Fever-Tree announced its acquisition of Powell & Mahoney mixers for $5.9 million. Within the same year, Rolls retired from his position as non-executive deputy chairman of Fever-Tree.
In July 2024, Fever-Tree was reported to have sponsored the Republican Party Convention in Wisconsin, United States. However, the company later clarified that it had only supplied free products to the venue, along with many other venues that were existing customers, and that it was not a sponsor of the convention.
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Name origin
The company's name comes from its initial product, a tonic water. The tonic is flavoured with quinine, a chemical extracted from the bark of the South American cinchona tree. When introduced to India as a pharmaceutical to aid in reducing the fever associated with malaria, quinine was blended with soda water and sugar to make it more palatable, producing the earliest tonic water. The cinchona tree has been referred to in India as the fever tree.
From Wikipedia’s article on Fever-Tree, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5