Kombucha producer Raw Culture has moved its operations to a new 1,200sqft site in Altens as demand continues to grow for its products.
Chris Geary and Ash Keenon, co-founders and co-owners of the evolving business, picked up the keys to the new unit located in Altens Industrial State at the start of July.
It has taken just one month to refurbish and upgrade the space, which is now where all Raw Culture kombucha is produced. The former location was in Dyce.
Chris, 41, said: “Our original location in Dyce was always temporary with a year-long lease.
“We started our search a few months ago to find a new headquarters and manufacturing hub, looking at premises across Aberdeenshire and the city until we found this site in Altens.”
Chris and Ash, who is 38, formerly worked in oil and gas.
Raw Culture HQ
Referred to as Raw Culture HQ, as well as acting as the company office, the new site has a production area with a large kettle and mixing vessels and a large fermentation room.
The business will not be taking on new staff in the short term. Although, new projects may mean they will be looking to expand the team.
Raw Culture launched in August 2021 as the city’s first commercial kombucha brewery, producing a range of hop-infused kombucha sparkling soft drinks.
The team produce kombucha in batches of 4,000 litres, equating to 12,000 units or 3,000 cans of each flavour.
“Our production runs are increasing as demand for our product grows,” added Chris, from Cove.
“However, our aim is to be running at capacity in the next 12 months.
“We’ve got some new flavours in the pipeline to join the original four. And there is also an exciting new Raw Culture product on the brewing board.
“Having the new premises to work on these will be invaluable, and an added bonus is that it’s so close to my home.”
More about the kombucha…
Raw Culture currently sells four kombucha – a sparkling tea-based soft drink – flavours.
They include The Original, Hopical Punch, Mangosaurus, and Lemondrop.
Its products are 100% natural, made from water kombucha culture that takes on flavours from the team’s own hand-selected varieties of hops.
You can purchase the range at outlets throughout the north-east – including Bare in Ellon, Contour Cafe in Aberdeen, Dreamy Goat Coffee Co. in Inverurie, and Park Shop in Banchory, to name a few – as well as order online on the Raw Culture website.
Raw Culture kombucha also supplies wholesalers throughout Scotland and a specialist wholesaler in London.
The business won a Best New Product award at the North East Scotland Food & Drink Awards this year – its first business award and comes just 11 months after its launch.
Chris said: “It’s great to be somewhere Raw Culture can call home.”
Conversation