article: This was back in 2003, and Mr Warrillow - at the time a 28-year-old advertising executive - was looking for a complete career change. He wanted to set up his own gin distillery. And so he contacted Mr Rolls, a veteran of the gin industry, and 18 years his senior, for advice. Mr Rolls, who had successfully grown Plymouth Gin, agreed to meet for a coffee in central London. Within an hour or two they had decided to become business partners. But instead of forming a new gin company, they resolved to set up a premium tonic water brand. Mr Rolls, 57, recalls their first meeting: "The conversation quickly turned from gin to tonic water, and the fact that while there had been a huge increase in the number of premium gins, when it came to the tonic water you added to them, you essentially only had two choices - the market leader [Schweppes], or supermarket own brands. "And these all contained artificial sweeteners. We decided there and then to launch a premium tonic water, with all natural ingredients." But was either of them concerned about going into business with someone they didn't really know? "Not really," says Mr Rolls. "I could see an energetic, but pretty mature and determined individual. Tim was exactly the right type of person." Mr Warrillow, 39, adds: "It was very apparent from our first few meetings that we seemed to understand each other." And so their business, Fever-Tree, was born. It is named after the colloquial term for the cinchona tree, from whose bark the natural anti-malarial drug and core tonic water ingredient, quinine is produced. But while it took Mr Rolls and Mr Warrillow just a few hours to decide to go into business together, it then took them 18 months to find a recipe they were happy with. As Mr Rolls had some money in the bank after selling his 25% share in Plymouth Gin, they were able to take their time. In their efforts to formulate their recipe, they flew to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to source pharmaceutical grade quinine from a plantation, and hired plant hunters to help them find other flavourings, such as a bitter orange grown in Tanzania. Securing some outside investors, they were finally able to start selling bottles of Fever-Tree tonic water in 2005. Mr Warrillow says: "The intention was to treat the launch like a premium spirit company would do - in the first instance try to get Fever-Tree stocked by the best hotel bars and restaurants. "This is a great way of building reputation, prestige and word of mouth. And it was all about the shoe leather - we walked to the most exclusive hotels and restaurants in central London, getting them to taste our tonic water against the competition." With such venues quick to get on board, the company then got what it says was its most important break - upmarket UK supermarket group Waitrose phoned to say it would like to start selling Fever-Tree. Mr Rolls says: "Tim thought this was a
summary: When Charles Rolls and Tim Warrillow decided to set up a business together it was the first time they had ever met.