When Anushka Purohit was just 10 years old, she was appalled by the sight of a Starbucks barista throwing leftover cakes and sandwiches into the garbage.
A decade later, the memory helped inspire her to launch a startup that turns surplus bread into craft beer.
“When you go to a hotel breakfast buffet, they have a bread spread. On a plane, everybody gets a slice of bread and a bottle of water. Bread is so common and in all the meals that we have, which is why so much of it gets thrown out,” Purohit, now 23 years old, told CNBC last week on the sidelines of the Forbes 30 Under 30 Summit Asia in Singapore.
Purohit and three university classmates came up with the idea while they were stuck studying online during the Hong Kong protests and the city’s subsequent pandemic lockdown.
“All our friends were drinking alcohol. So we decided to make alcohol instead and become the cool kids on the block,” Purohit said candidly.
They bought a 1,218 Hong Kong dollar ($156) beer brewing kit on Amazon and experimented for three weeks before making a pot of beer from leftover bread.
“The beer wasn’t good when we tried it for the first time, but it made us realize this idea can work,” she said.
It took the team about six months to nail down the taste before launching Breer in 2020.
Apart from a pale ale and hibiscus sour, the company also sells beers that feature flavors like egg tart and bolo bao, or pineapple bun — an homage to Hong Kong’s vibrant food scene.
The company said it made HK$2.5 million in revenue in the last two years. Breer said it has already hit HK$1.8 million in sales this year and expects HK$1.2 million in profits.
The startup hasn’t raised any funding, but has won about HK$6 million through startup and entrepreneur competitions without giving away equity.
Overseas expansion is not in the cards just yet, and Purohit said it would only happen if it can be done sustainably.
“We won’t ship outside of Hong Kong, but would rather work with local bakeries and…
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