Los Angeles, Calif. November 11th, 2014 – Kombucha Brewers International (KBI) is pleased to announce the second annual trade conference, KombuchaKon 2015, Saturday, February 7th, 2015 at Cross Campus in Santa Monica, CA. More than 50 member companies from across the United States and around the world are expected to convene to discuss and work together on the matters vital to the Kombucha industry.
The KBI Board of Directors is also very proud to announce that this year’s Keynote Speaker will be industry leader & pioneer GT Dave of GT’s Kombucha. His brands, first founded in 1995, hold a majority of market share and blazed a path that many in the industry have followed from health food and high end grocery now into traditional supermarkets and convenience stores.
As the industry turns 20 years old, sales numbers show it is poised for continued growth up to as much as $500 million or more for the coming year. While overall growth of 30% continues for the industry as a whole year over year, the conventional channel has seen 50% growth for the last few years as more new consumers add the bubbly beverage with bacterial benefits to their weekly shopping lists.
KBI was founded in 2014 to promote and protect the Kombucha industry through education, best practices recommendations and marketing initiatives. In just the first year, the KBI Board and Committees have identified and begun implementing projects designed to raise awareness, educate consumers and retailers, identify the best testing methods for Kombucha, provide safety and HACCP plan training and much more.
“The hard work of our membership to establish baseline safety and operating templates will help protect the whole industry by ensuring all member companies will have the tools to be compliant and up to code from day one. We work hard to continue to create a safe space for Kombucha brewers to come together and discuss the inner workings of the industry. As a young, growing industry, our membership has unique needs that KBI aims to support through the educational sessions and panels at KombuchaKon 2015,” say KBI co-founders, Hannah Crum and Alex LaGory.
KBI also serves as liaison to assist brewers dealing with Federal, State and local agencies. Future plans include national media outreach campaigns, establishment of standard of identity, as well as partnering with institutions to conduct research on brewing techniques, health benefits and DNA sequencing.