Innovation & Regeneration: BevNET Live Winter 2018 in Review

Entrepreneurship is a journey, and one with a map that is constantly being redrawn and reconfigured. The speakers on stage at BevNET Live Winter 2018 shared their personal stories of traversing the wilds of the beverage industry, as industry leaders from emerging and established companies charted different paths towards the same goal of building a thriving modern beverage business.

Dyla Brands founder and CEO Neel Premkumar opened the first day’s program. Best known today for coffee shot brand FORTO, Premkumar spoke about how he recognized the use occasion for a coffee energy shot and leveraged the brand in entering strategic partnerships with industry giants like JAB Holdings Company and Keurig Dr Pepper.

Following Premkumar, GT’s Living Foods founder GT Dave took the stage to talk about building a brand with passion and mission, while he also announced the launch of Dream Catcher, a new line of sparkling wellness waters infused with cannabidiol (CBD).

“The way I run my company is very much like an overprotective parent and being an overprotective parent you see your products as your children and you see yourself in them,” Dave said. “So God forbid you go off track. We all need to treat it sacredly.”

Next, Walmart divisional merchandise manager of chilled packaged goods Sarah Alderson discussed how the nation’s largest brick-and-mortar retailer can serve as a launchpad for smaller brands. According to Alderson, about 800 of the company’s 4,500 stores function as “high emerging brand stores” that emphasize entrepreneurial companies and offer small brands shelf space to grow.

Jumping from small brands to large, Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Randy Ornstein took the stage to discuss the company’s increased focus on non-alcoholic drinks. Ornstein, the VP of sales for the company’s Beyond Beer Portfolio – which includes brands like Teavana and HiBall – went deep into the details of AB InBev’s segment strategy.

Following Ornstein, Spindrift founder and CEO Bill Creelman sat down to discuss premiumization within the sparkling water category and managing fast growth. He named team management and communication as one of the major challenges in scaling, as the environment changes and workload increases so quickly it can be like asking employees to do a different job every single year.

The opening speaking session closed with Elizabeth Stephenson, president of the Fiji Water Group at The Wonderful Company. She discussed the challenges, as well as the freedoms, that come with managing a major category leader, acknowledging that there were changes afoot as the brand moved from DSD to warehouse distribution.

“Winning for us is first and foremost extraordinary product delivered into the market with premium service and inspired branding,” Stephenson said. “When you get that part right, everything else comes.”

The second day of talks explored shifts in the modern beverage landscape by taking a deep dive into raw data, sharing personal insights from investors and entrepreneurs, and drawing lessons from case studies.

Andrew Henkel, senior Vice President of brand growth solutions at market research firm SPINS, began the day’s program with a look into data and analytics. He highlighted how natural positioned beverages, such as GT’s Kombucha and La Croix, have grown 9.6 percent over the past year to reach $12 billion in sales.

Following Henkel, Guayaki co-founder David Karr spoke about how the yerba mate brand has integrated a “regenerative mentality” across the company’s entire business. Karr and compatriot Pato – FKA Patrick Lee – detailed how the company’s self-distribution platform, the Yerba Mate Co., has evolved over the last 24 months. In that time, changes include moving to exclusively electric delivery vehicles and the commitment to creating what they called a “legion of the system affected” by setting the goal of hiring 10,000 formerly incarcerated people over the next decade.

Following a discussion that began at BevNET Live Summer 2018, the next panel examined the past and current beverage landscape from a female perspective in search of solutions to affect gradual change on entrenched, systemic problems. REBBL CEO Sheryl O’Laughlin emphasized the importance of not simply recruiting more women and minorities into the industry but actually changing the status quo by making women more comfortable to share their voice. Vanessa Walker, founder of Millennial Brands, echoed that sentiment and noted the importance of expanding the types of roles that women can play.

Next, Alicia LeBeouf, senior Vice President of marketing and communications for The Compass Group, the largest food service provider in the world, gave a virtual guided tour of the modern office break room. She noted that brands with a strong on-trend health and wellness appeal were enjoying strong traction, and encouraged brands to not be afraid to pitch the company by sending them product samples.

Marking a decade in business this year, L.A. Libations’ three co-founders – Pat Bolden, Danny Stepper and Dino Sarti – shared some of the lessons they’ve learned over the last ten years, as Bolden and Stepper noted that while capital is an important piece of the puzzle, the most critical component of a successful brand is the commitment required to stay true to its vision even as challenges arise.

Hop To It: Hop Tea Wins New Beverage Showdown

Hoplark HopTea claimed victory in New Beverage Showdown 16 at BevNET Live Winter 2018, as the non-alcoholic hop-infused tea earned bragging rights and a $10,000 prize package.

HopTea emerged as the winner from a field of candidates that included sparkling cold pressed juice Hubble, cannabidiol (CBD) beverage Joybird Wellness, matcha-based latte Mother Matcha, Riff Cold Brewed Coffee, and ready-to-drink energy tea Zest Tea. The five finalists moved on from a semifinal round that also included Eslena, Hope & Sesame, JoeFroyo, Kids Luv, Split Decision, and Truronia.

“I woke up at about 4:30 this morning and spent five hours walking the beach learning my pitch,” HopTea co-founder Dean Eberhardt told BevNET after his victory. “We’ve learned so much and we saw it as an opportunity really to position ourselves with great feedback from the industry.”

According to Eberhardt, though the product was created to fill a white space for beer alternatives, the company does not see the brand as a non-alcoholic beer but rather “a cool new kind of tea.” The brand launched in 16 oz. cans in Whole Foods Market stores in the Rocky Mountain region earlier this year.

Judges for the final round of the showdown included BevNET founder and CEO John Craven, VP of marketing and innovation for Coca-Cola’s Venturing and Emerging Brands (VEB) unit Kellam Mattie, Verlinvest senior beverage advisor Ken Sadowsky, and Millennial Brands founder Vanessa Walker.

“I thought HopTea was the most innovative thing that we saw,” Sadowsky told BevNET after the competition. “There are six criteria that the judges are supposed to judge by, and I think the market readiness of that one was definitely high. And I thought that using the whole six criteria evenly weighted they just had the best chance.”

On stage, Sadowsky said he didn’t believe any of the six finalists were “completely ready for prime time,” but noted most of the issues were easily solvable each brand had significant strengths. Speaking to BevNET, he said he believed HopTea should use consumer feedback to get a better grasp of product identity and whether the brand wants to be a part of the tea aisle in retail or if it better belongs with non-alcoholic beers.

Mattie told BevNET she believed HopTea had a unique brand proposition and that the flavor was “refreshing.”

“It’s a new opportunity and it came out of a need, the founder really had his own need and that’s what created the product,” Mattie said. “We think that the packaging can continue to be enhanced, and he really needs to get clear on where he wants to be in the store. But it’s something interesting and that was surprising to us.”

According to Eberhardt, the next steps for the brand will include refining the packaging, as well as opening a tap room in Boulder, Colo.

HopTea joins a group of past New Beverage Showdown champions, that includes Simply Soupreme, Health-Ade Kombucha, MALK, RISE Brewing Co., and Tio Gazpacho.