Shirley White
Founder of OTC Beverages
Interview by: Emma Tucker
Three years ago at her dad’s 80th birthday party, Shirley White had the spark of an idea for a new business. “I looked around and realised that in our community we do a lot of homemade food and people bring their drinks in plastic reusable water bottles,” she says. “I thought, surely there’s a better way of presenting this? My and my children’s generation, are not going to do what my father’s generation and the generation before did, which is making the drinks at home.”
Shirley’s background was miles away from the drinks industry. After spending time working for local government, she spied an ad in the Evening Standard that caught her eye and went along to a wine and cheese evening – which landed her a customer services role in the world of Market Data and investment banking. After 30 years working in the City for companies including Telerate, Deutsche Bank and HSBC, she was ready for her next challenge – so OTC Beverages was born. OTC offers sorrel and non-alcoholic ginger beer in bottles and cans (a third flavour coming soon) that are stocked in take-aways and corner shops across London.
Although it’s a new industry for her, Shirley says there have been plenty of transferable skills from her former life in finance. “It’s the skills you get from project management and juggling a number of programs within large organisations,” she explains. “It’s also speaking to a lot of people, asking questions and ultimately doing your research. I used all those skills to look for the right people to work with, networking, and looking at how the packaging and bottle design was going to look. In the end it’s all about people, and how you get on with them.”
From the start, Shirley knew she didn’t want to be brewing up drinks in her own kitchen, but says it took some time to perfect the recipes in the factory. She adopted a less-is-more philosophy to their formulation - keeping the various components to a minimum and using only identifiable quality ingredients such as organic cane sugar instead of artificial sweetener. She emphasises the natural health benefits of ginger and sorrel, as well as their potential in an ever-growing market for no- and low-alcohol drinks. And her flavours are already proving popular, with OTC Beverages shortlisted for a number of accolades including the Great British Food Awards.
Shirley is now working to bring her products to more locations in London, and has plans for the rest of the world as well. There’s a few logistical wrinkles to iron out, but she’s hoping to bring her sorrel and ginger beer to other markets including America and Africa. “It’s at the age where you’re growing the brand, you want to take on momentum, and you want it to be an identifiable brand of choice when people go to a shop to buy a cold drink,” she says.
