Reed’s, Inc. recently announced that it will spend up to $1.5 million to triple the speed of production and install new manufacturing equipment at its facility. The investment will help the company compensate for the growing demand and distribution of its range of products.
Reed’s Extra Ginger Brew, the company’s flagship, grew by 43 percent in the second quarter, according to founder and CEO Chris Reed. Meanwhile, Culture Club Kombucha continues to land new shelf placements (Kroger, Hy-Vee, Lowes Foods, etc.).
“Our kombucha is the fastest growing thing,” Reed said, “so we needed more capacity to be able to bottle that up faster.”
In the video above, Reed explains that the company has just about maximized the capabilities of its plant at the current speed of production. Reed figures that tripling the speed of the production will help the company move forward with less labor and, naturally, roll out more product to absorb the facility’s inherent overhead figures.
He also discusses the company’s private label business, which Reed said has helped him form lasting partnerships with major retailers. In 2009, when the economy plummeted to its lowest point, several private label companies went out of business, he said. At the time, Reed reached out to the retailers, but didn’t ask them to take on his products. Instead, he said: what do you need done?
After creating 80 or 90 private label offerings, polishing its new product development skills along the way, Reed took a look at his own company as the economy improved. Then he at last developed his own line of kombucha, which he referred to as low-hanging fruit.
He said that when launching a new product, the main worry is whether or not the product will stick. But he doesn’t harbor that concern with Culture Club Kombucha. While the category is packed with “a lot of little players,” he believes that Culture Club Kombucha has established itself as the No. 2 brand behind GT’s Kombucha.