All is finally revealed... This is how it all began!
We're blessed to have so many thousands of loyal customers across the UK and overseas. You know us, you know the brand, you know the quality of our products, but now's the time you learned about early stages of our journey, which has been crazy, to say the least.
In April 2019 Vegan All Sorts was launched and became an immediate hit, especially amongst Marnie & Casey's followers and the business went on to have over 100,000 orders. In 2019, not only was Vegan All Sorts launched but it was exactly one week after one of the co-founders Dario Marini was released from prison after serving a 4-year sentence. So how did Marnie & Casey end up starting a business with someone who was being released from prison? Watch the video below as the team discusses the leap to start a business in difficult circumstances, the launch, pandemic sales boom, new challenges and their NFT project!
"Prison is where I realised I was good at business"
Longtime friends, Casey and Dario were eager to start a business together and lay the foundation for a successful brand, taking control of their own destinies. Casey wanted to get into the world of confectionary and Dario recognised a gap in the market for high-quality vegan sweets. The process of generating ideas wasn't the easiest, as Dario was serving the final year of his four-year prison sentence at the time, and Casey and Marnie were expecting the arrival of their firstborn Oax, but for all three, the hunger was in place to make this venture a success.
Becoming business owners and building success was never going to be easy, but even getting enough time on the phone together was tricky at the best of times.
As Dario puts it: "I might only have a limited amount of time on the phone at the prison. I remember talking to Casey, Marnie and her mum, but everyone in the circle was fully supportive. Marnie's mum actually thought of the name! I was in an open prison at the time, and I had served 3 years in closed conditions. I wanted to come out and be legit. I thought now is the time to go for it!"
"I remember the sales going mad – ping, ping, ping!"
When the team took the decision to launch, they were all blown away by the response.
"We launched on a Friday, but the sales went crazy. Ping, ping, ping, ping, ping, ping! We were packing the bags in Marnie and Casey's kitchen, staying up until 4am. I went to work the next day, and someone was talking down to me, so I looked at the Shopify sales – we'd done £2,000 – I told him thanks for the job but I think I'm going to leave. I've started my own business."
Investing (and cutting back) in the right areas of our business
With over 100,000 followers and over 100,000 orders, it's fair to say that the coronavirus pandemic was the perfect storm in terms of helping us grow sales in a short space of time. Online businesses were thriving, and people wanted to enjoy their evenings in with quality vegan sweets. People were also spending more of their time on social media, which was one of our strengths as a brand, especially with Marnie and Casey helping us extend our reach to huge numbers. Now, whilst the confectionery market's overall demand levels out, our business remains steady but we're in a much healthier position because we've scaled back in the right areas. We've also stayed true to our ethos and ensured our sweets remain competitive. You can learn more about our decision to reduce the price to our original here.
Entering the NFT space!
As you'll see when you watch the video, Vegan All Sorts remains on the front foot! By entering the NFT world, we've outlined our plans to help others who have come from less fortunate backgrounds or may have not had the best start in life. The Dropout Kidz sets out to do exactly that. As touched on by Casey:
"I feel like the system isn't designed for all the kids that are not doing well, putting energy into the wrong things, or going down the wrong path at school. Our NFT project is for those people who were told they weren't capable."
Our aim is to build our community based around quality over quantity and reward those who support others, connect and relate to the project! Whilst we're going to be raising money for charity, our main focus is to build a strong, organic community who are there to help each other, growing and developing together.
You can learn more by visiting:
https://twitter.com/Dropoutz_NFT
Thanks again for your support. We hope you enjoy watching the video about the Vegan All Sorts journey! Without you, we could never have created this successful business. You are all at the heart of everything we do!
Onward and upwards!
The Vegan All Sorts Team
