Packaging Innovations & Empack - Pitch the Co-Packers Experience

In January, we got the excellent news that we were finalists of the Pitch the Co-Packers competition taking place at the Packaging Innovations & Empack event on February 25th 2026. The fast-paced, Dragons’ Den-style session, gives the opportunity to a hand-picked group of innovative start-ups and early-stage brands to take the stage and showcase their products, share their packaging challenges, and outline their growth ambitions to a panel of leading UK co-packing and manufacturing specialists. We were delighted to receive this news and immediately got planning our presentation. 

We were up against three other brands, Hangov; a supplement for curing the dreaded hangover, Naija Flavia, Nigerian-inspired cooking sauces and RED-Scue, a carbohydrate fuelling product helping to prevent REDS. 

For our pitch, we had five minutes to present our business to the dragons. This involved sharing who we are and the challenges that we are solving, our solution to those challenges, our upcoming goals and desire to increase our product range and finally, what help we need from a BCMPA supplier. It was followed up with some questions from the dragons around our goals for growth as well as an interest in the size of the market.

We shared these findings of how mild dehydration causes golfers to lose 93% of their accuracy and 12% of their distance and how our electrolyte product is supporting golfers to remain hydrated as well as reducing tiredness and fatigue, supporting mental performance, supporting cognitive performance and supporting recovery.

Although we unfortunately did not win the event, we found this experience invaluable and would highly recommend to any startup. We received great feedback for both our product, it's flavours, our niche of golf and our pitch which has given us a real determination to progress the Hydracaddie brand as we head into our first golf season.

You can now watch our pitch on Instagram.