Food & Drink
How Prano Drinks found a fragile-goods specialist 3PL
£25 bottles
safely stored and fulfilled
5/5
rating of fulfilment.com
About
Prano Drinks had the product to grow, but what it didn't have was the fulfilment to match. Founder Suresh Reddy was scaling from a London startup kitchen to larger production in Devon, with his premium 0% ABV ginger drink gaining traction across D2C, independent retail and the on-trade. But fulfilling orders himself was holding him back, and most 3PLs he found had minimum volumes or spends that didn't fit; plus his £25 glass bottles needed a partner experienced with fragile goods, not just a warehouse. fulfilment.com matched Prano with a specialist 3PL: no minimums, fragile-product expertise and transparent pricing. The result is time and headspace for Suresh to focus on what's next: growing distribution and landing bigger retail deals.
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Food & Drink
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“When I filled in the form, a member of the fulfilment.com team got in touch with me, and tried to understand exactly what I was trying to do: I'm a really small start-up, but the expectation is it's going to grow.”
Suresh Reddy
,
Founder
Highlights
Prano moved from 100-bottle batches to a growing production operation
£25 glass bottles required a 3PL with proven fragile-goods experience
fulfilment.com found a 3PL that suited Prano’s size, without minimum volumes or spend
Transparent pricing gave founder Suresh the confidence to outsource fulfilment
The new 3PL enabled a deeper focus on sales, distribution and growth
Prano rated fulfilment.com's search, support and overall experience 5/5
From start-up to scaling brand
When Suresh first launched the brand, production was small. He was making batches of around 100 bottles in a London-based kitchen, selling online, attending markets, supplying independent stores and personally delivering to London on-trade customers.
At that stage, fulfilling orders himself was manageable, but as Prano grew, production moved to a larger facility in Devon. Larger production runs meant more stock to store, more orders to dispatch and more deliveries to organise.
The product itself also added another layer of complexity. Prano's drink comes in £25 glass bottles, making careful storage and packing essential.
To ensure his products arrived with customers in good condition, Suresh needed a 3PL that could handle:
Fragile glass bottles
Finished products and raw materials, including empty bottles and closures
Both D2C and trade orders
A growing business without imposing enterprise-level minimums
Clear, predictable fulfilment costs
The challenge, however, was finding all of that in one place…
Finding a 3PL that understood the product
fulfilment.com introduced Prano to a specialist 3PL that ticked the key boxes: experience handling fragile products, no minimum spend or volume, and the flexibility to work with a growing business. That meant Prano could put professional fulfilment in place without committing to capacity it didn't yet need.
The 3PL also took the time to understand the product itself. Suresh sent over a bottle so the team could assess the packaging and get a better feel for what they would be storing and shipping. For a product made from glass, that practical understanding was important.
For Suresh, the right 3PL was never going to come down to purely price or capacity. They needed to understand the product and what it takes to fulfil it properly.
Understanding the true cost of fulfilment
Finding a 3PL that could safely handle Prano's bottles was only part of the decision. Suresh also needed to understand what fulfilment would actually cost as the business grew.
Storage, picking, packing and handling charges can quickly add up, particularly when volumes are still changing. A competitive headline rate means little if the final monthly bill is difficult to predict. For Suresh and Prano, transparent pricing was a key factor in choosing the right partner.
“The reason I went with them is because their pricing was very, very transparent, and that was useful.”
That clarity meant Suresh could make a more informed decision and understand how costs would change as order volumes increased. His advice to other growing brands is to create a realistic hypothetical month and ask potential 3PLs to price the full scenario. It's a simple way to get a clearer picture of the real cost of outsourcing before signing a contract.
“Liquid in glass is tricky to ship, so it’s important that they’ve dealt with the product before. Handling boxes of plastic products is very different from handling glass or something fragile.”
Suresh Reddy
,
Founder
Focusing on growth and not logistics
The biggest impact of moving to a 3PL hasn't just been operational. It's been Suresh's time. With storage, packing and dispatch handled externally, he no longer needs to spend as much of his day organising the logistics of getting orders out.
“It frees up a lot of my time for organising the whole logistics of delivery. There is also the added benefit that I don't need to store stock and can continue operations while on holiday.”
That time can now go towards developing trade relationships, building distribution and winning new accounts.
And the timing matters. Prano recently signed a new distributor partnership, creating an opportunity to increase volumes and expand the brand's reach. With a 3PL already in place, Suresh doesn't have to solve fulfilment at the same time as pursuing that growth.
He's already thinking about the next step too: approaching major retailers.
“I have the reassurance and confidence that if I do try and approach big retailers, I know that there is the capability of delivering from the 3PL.”
For a growing brand, that's a significant shift. Fulfilment is no longer something holding the business back, and instead, it's now part of the infrastructure supporting its next stage.
Why smaller brands should work with a 3PL
Prano's experience challenged one of Suresh's initial assumptions: that a business needs to be doing significant volume before a 3PL becomes viable. The right provider doesn't necessarily need to be the biggest either, it just needs to be the right fit for the product, current volumes and growth plans.
“If you're a small start-up, don't be afraid to be persistent about finding the service that's right for you.”
For Prano, that meant looking beyond the large providers dominating Google and finding a specialist partner willing to work with the business at its current stage.
“There's always somebody else also willing to provide that service, and that's also how you’d build a relationship when you do grow and you become bigger.”
That's where access to a wider, vetted network can make a difference. Instead of assuming the first few providers you find are your only options, fulfilment.com helped Prano find a partner that matched the business it is today, and the business it wants to become.
A fulfilment partner designed for growth
Prano didn't need the ‘biggest’ or ‘best’ 3PL, it needed one that understood glass bottles, offered transparent pricing and was prepared to support the business before it reached high-volume scale.
fulfilment.com helped Suresh move from a frustrating Google search to a specialist fulfilment partner that fits where Prano is today, without limiting where the brand can go next.
With fulfilment taken care of, Suresh now spends less time thinking about orders and deliveries, and more time building the brand, expanding distribution and pursuing the larger retail opportunities ahead.
“I'd use your platform again because of the human element: someone's trying to understand your requirements, before chasing up a network of 3PL providers. It’s really helpful to have someone recommend a provider they trust, as that gives you much more reassurance.”
Suresh Reddy
,
Founder
How Prano rated fulfilment.com
Prano rated fulfilment.com 5/5 across the board: ease of finding the right 3PL, support throughout the process, and overall experience. Suresh said he'd use the platform again, and pointed to the human element as one of the biggest advantages, the extra assurance that comes from knowing the 3PLs being introduced are both credible and genuinely relevant to his business.
How we can help
If you're a growing brand stuck between minimum-spend 3PLs you're not ready for and a Google search that's throwing up providers who don't understand your product, you're not alone. That's exactly the position Suresh found himself in with Prano.
Our team took the time to understand his product, his current volumes and where the brand was heading, and then we used our network to match him with a specialist 3PL that had genuine fragile-goods experience, no minimum commitments, and transparent pricing he could plan around.
Whatever you're shipping, the same approach applies. We find a partner built for where your brand is today, not just where the big providers assume you should be.
