Will Holsworth, who joined açaí beverage and snacks company Sambazon as its chief growth officer in October 2014, has been promoted to president of the company’s North America division. Formerly the chief customer officer and executive vice president of global strategy at Cytosport (makers of Muscle Milk), Holsworth will also bring eight years of experience at PepsiCo to his new role at Sambazon.
Meanwhile, Ryan Therriault, Sambazon’s vice president of marketing and innovation, has left the company for the same position at organic superfoods brand Amazing Grass. Therriault’s LinkedIn page lists him as having joined Amazing Grass in March, after serving just under three years at Sambazon.
Joining the company as Sr. Vice President of Marketing is Renee Junge, previously of Jamba Juice and The Coca-Cola Company. Also coming aboard in April as Chief Customer Officer is Jason Lee, whose resume includes 20 years at PepsiCo. Sambazon co-founder Ryan Black confirmed the new hires in a call to BevNET.
In March, the company unveiled its new “Sambazon 100 Juices” line at the Natural Products Expo West trade show in Anaheim, California. Branded as “the first 100 percent juice line with 100 calories or less per bottle and 70 percent less sugar than other premium juices,” the new lineup arrived as a revamp of its “Reduced Sugar” line previously introduced at Expo East in 2014.
“As we came down to the wire, we’d been racking our brains on a better way to communicate the proposition to the consumer,” said Sambazon co-founder Jeremy Black at the time. “It’s really difficult with all of the rules around low-sugar type of products. We wanted to call it something in the realm of ‘low sugar,’ but you can’t say that unless it has a specific amount of calories.