Breaking: Jarritos Shipping through DPSG in the West

BevNET has confirmed sightings of Jarritos moving through the DPSG system in Southern California, part of a strategy that the company will make public in the near future.

The brightly-hued, sugar-sweetened 11-flavor Mexican CSD line has suffered from wide-ranging but fractured distribution via a DSD and broker network that includes licensing partner Novamex. The brand has a strong national following — 1.1 million Facebook “Likes” if you count that kind of stuff. Last year  it began a reported $3 million campaign to revamp its image with outsider art and a web presence declaring “We’re not from here.”

DPSG initially ran tests on the product in Mexico but moved it to Southern Cal this week. No word yet from key LA-area distributor Tony Haralambos, who carries Jarritos as well.

The New York Times reported in September that Beverage Marketing Corp. had estimated Jarritos’ sales at between $150 and $200 million in 2010, numbers that would put it well ahead of the field of craft CSDs like Jones and Boylan’s.