Published: July 3, 2026 at 2:49 pm
There is a changing of the guard in the drinks industry – and Manchester brand Hip Pop is at the forefront of the trend.
Originally known as Booch & Brew, it all started back in 2019 in co-founder Emma Thackray’s kitchen.
“Kenny [Goodman], the other co-founder, has a real issue with IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome),” CEO Matt Bowler-Jones tells me for Founder Friday.
“Meanwhile Emma had discovered kombucha brewing – and its benefits for gut health – while living in the United States.
“They [and their partners] met when they were looking for childcare and started talking about this.”
Emma was the founder of Hello Pure, a nutritional supplements brand which was acquired in 2021, while Kenny is a serial entrepreneur.
“They said: Why don’t we do this?” continues Matt.
Emma began brewing small-batch kombucha recipes using real fruit and live cultures in jars in her kitchen in Altrincham.
Two years later the fermentation was moved to a farm in Cheshire and the business was renamed Hip Pop. By 2023, the microbrewery had taken up residence in the iconic railway arches on North Western Street in Manchester.
Today it has 10 canned drinks available: four sodas, four kombuchas and two kombuchas containing CBD.
So how did we get here?