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True acquires majority stake in clean energy drink business Sneak

The investment and innovation business True has acquired a majority stake in D2C zero sugar, energy drink business, Sneak to help with international expansion, and build out its distribution channels through a creative approach to marketing and ecommerce.

Sneak, which was founded in 2018 by experienced consumer entrepreneurs Will Peirce and Jonny Teeling, is the product of many years of working together, having founded a number of successful direct-to-consumer brands within the health and wellbeing space. In Sneak the pair have developed a strong brand identity, featuring an instantly recognisable rabbit logo, and built an engaged customer base who are fully invested in Sneak’s business model, buying into market ‘drops’, with Sneak’s limited-edition boxes often selling at five times their original sale cost on secondary markets. The result of this creative approach to commerce is that the business has grown over 200 per cent annually in the last three years and is expected to generate GBP30 million in sales next year.
 
Manchester-based Sneak has created an alternative to many of the legacy energy drinks on the market by producing a clean, powdered energy formula in tubs and sachets, as well as pre-mixed cans. Its range of exciting flavours, which are sugarfree and made entirely with natural colours and flavours are more suited to the next generation of consumers that care about the ingredients in their products. Notably in tandem, Sneak’s strong and vibrant brand identity resonates with its core customer-base of new-media creatives and gamers and features across its range of merchandise and lifestyle apparel.
 
The deal, which represents the first investment by True from its recently announced Fund III, will support co-founders Peirce and Teeling to explore retail options and build out Sneak’s distribution channels, from the strong digitally-led foundation it has today, as well as accelerate international expansion. Currently over half of Sneak’s customers are in the UK with a third in the US and growing.
 
Sneak Co-founder Teeling says: “Will and I are delighted to have found an investment partner that slots in so naturally to our company. The team at True seemed to get us and the Sneak brand straight away. They place people and culture at the top of the priority list, which was highly important to us and overall, they seem very different, and more human, to how we’d imagined private equity investors to be. We’re really excited to have True alongside us for this next phase of our journey.”
 
True Co-founder and Sneak board member, Cocker says: “Jonny and Will have done a fantastic job of bringing a clean, differentiated energy drink to market and creating a brand that truly resonates with Sneak’s core customer base of next generation gamers and creatives. They’ve also built a fantastic team and a culture that’s very aligned with our own – they’ve been deliberate in trying to find a partner that can help them with the next stage of their growth and we are looking forward to utilising both our digital expertise and our international network across grocery and retail.”

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