Atom Group unveils new NPD arm Atom Labs

Atom Group, the company behind Atom Brands, Maverick Drinks and Master of Malt, has unveiled a new innovation arm to its business with the aim of creating a unique range of 'disruptive' spirits.

Created by a small team of spirits experts, Atom Labs will seed projects through online retailer Master of Malt, initially in small batches to gauge interest, viability and positioning.

The hope is that this seeding method, alongside Atom Group's well-established operations, will allow for the rapid up-scaling of ideas deemed to be successful and popular with consumers.

Rosie Milsom, head of new product development at Atom Labs, said: "We adopted a 'Skunkworks' model, which allows us to focus on the minimum viable product for launch, and then we iterate, iterate, iterate! Making small changes, quickly in an agile way to constantly improve the product and customer experience. The thing I find the most exciting is the speed at which we can move. A product is generally ideated and up for sale within a six-week period."

By analysing customer data from Master of Malt, Atom Labs says it can identify gaps in the market, anticipate future trends and position its new products to best meet customer demand. Its standout product so far has been Jaffa Cake Gin, which launched in April and  has outperformed all other orange gins combined on Master of Malt by more than 650 per cent to date.

Atom Labs has since seen success with a number of other products including Seawood & Aeons & Digging & Fire, an undisclosed 10-year-old Islay whisky, Central Galactic Rum, a spiced rum inspired by astronomical research, and Burnt Ends, a whisky designed to complement the flavours of American barbecue.

The latest additions to its range are the Black & Gold 11 Years Old Bourbon and Project #173, a range of naturally flavoured rums.

Laura Carl, marketing product owner at Atom Labs said: "The whole concept behind seeding on Master of Malt is so we can really listen to the people purchasing. Our goal is to locate gaps in the market and produce high-quality, unique and intruiging spirits. We want to be the leaders of the newest trend - not following the curve, but creating it ourselves.

"I'm confident what we've seen in 2020 will be replicated, if not surpassed, in 2021. We have a huge backlog of exciting spirits (and potential line extensions) to come from the amazing imagination of our super-talented NPD team."

All products from Atom Labs will be available to purchase from Master of Malt, with selected products also being distributed in the UK by Maverick Drinks.

8 December 2020 - Bethany Whymark