Dash Drinks: The challenger brand scaling patiently

Dash Drinks: The challenger brand scaling patiently

From Business Leader by Business Leader

March 10, 2026 · 46 min

About this episode

Alex Wright discusses the growth strategy of Dash Water, a challenger drinks brand focused on sustainability and healthy options.

Dash Water is a UK-based, challenger drinks brand that was founded in 2017 by Alex Wright and Jack Scott. With a team of just 35 people, it sells more than 60 million cans of fruit-flavoured, sparkling water drinks a year. It focuses on a new category of mass market drinks which promise to be healthy and sustainable. In this Business Leader episode, Wright explains his growth strategy with Richard Harpin. He explains how Dash tackles food waste by using “wonky fruit”, which would otherwise go to waste – like 40% of the food globally that is made but never consumed. Wright also shares how they found investors to help them grow (with three rules for choosing them), how he’s built a healthy workplace culture while scaling and how to use a combination of coaching and mentoring to improve as a leader. Business Leader is a membership community for ambitious CEOs and founders of mid-sized UK companies, designed to help them grow with purpose through strategic support, peer-to-peer learning, expert coaching, and high-impact events. Join the Business Leader community here and sign up for our newsletter here . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

People in this episode

Host: Richard Harpin

Guest: Alex Wright

Topics covered

  • challenger brand
  • growth strategy
  • sustainable drinks
  • food waste
  • workplace culture
  • leadership coaching

Keywords

  • Dash Water
  • sparkling water
  • food waste
  • wonky fruit
  • investors
  • workplace culture
  • leadership

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Dash Water, Business Leader

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