Hydration beverage maker Roar Organic has named beverage industry veteran Bill Lange as president, responsible for overseeing the brand as it seeks to expand its retail presence nationwide, the company announced this week.
Lange comes to Roar from Swedish plant milk brand Sproud, where he had served as general manager for North America since March 2021.
Prior to Sproud, Lange has held a variety of sales and marketing positions in startup beverage brands, including tenures at Zico, KeVita and Pressed Juicery. He also served as VP of marketing for Campbell’s C-Fresh division from 2016 to 2019 and as CMO of enhanced water brand Oxigen from 2019 to 2020.
“I’ve spent time in coconut water, I’ve spent time in cold-pressed juice, I’ve spent time in function with kombucha; and so I feel like, really, what Roar possesses is kind of an interesting intersection for me, selfishly, of all of those other experiences that I’ve had,” Lange said.
Originally positioned as a sports drink, Roar was founded in 2014 by former CEO Roly Nesi. In 2020, investment group Factory acquired an equity stake in the brand, naming former RUNA chief executive Alex Galindez as CEO. Under her leadership, the company announced a brand refresh in 2021, introducing updated packaging and repositioning the product as a better-for-you enhanced water with a focus on female consumers.
In February, Galindez unexpectedly resigned from Roar, announcing her intent to return to consulting. As of last month, Galindez joined functional beverage brand Confidence as its CEO, according to LinkedIn.
According to Lange – who as president is tasked with the same responsibilities as the company’s former CEO – after Galindez’s departure Roar continued to operate with a tight team of about 20 full time employees while Factory leadership oversaw operations.
Lange joined Roar part time in July, working two jobs through the end of August as he wound down his role at Sproud, which he said has slowed down its North American expansion plans as the cost of doing business in the U.S. has increased significantly. But with his tenure at Sproud complete, Lange said he is now fully dedicated to Roar and is aiming to keep the brand’s momentum going.
This month, Roar is rolling out three SKUs to over 2,000 Kroger stores nationwide. As well, the drinks are expanding into cold cases in select Albertsons/Safeway stores and launching 12-packs into Wegmans, with additional multipack and variety pack offerings expected in the near future. In May, the brand launched nationally in Whole Foods stores. Citing SPINS data, the company said retail sales are up 87% year-to-date.
While natural and grocery will be the key focus for expansion in the near future, Lange sees potential for Roar to gain ground in new channels like food service, as well as online where the products are sold direct-to-consumer and on Amazon. Roar recently hired two new field sales team members and Lange said the company is beginning an “aggressive” hiring plan that will ideally expand the team by 50% by the end of 2023. Much of the growth will be in sales and marketing, he added.
“I would expect that as we’re continuing to expand our retail footprint you’ll see sales and marketing hires to support that growth,” he said. “So that’s really at the grassroots, most basic level, which is critical to establishing that brand engagement. As we start to build that out, obviously, we’re going to develop more senior positions as well. But the starting point is just supporting the business growth that we have today.”
Lange said he believes last year’s brand refresh has played a significant role in driving Roar’s recent growth, particularly noting the updated packaging and positioning as an enhanced water have been highly beneficial. However, he said that he is continuing to explore “subtle nuances” in brand strategy “that will allow us to perform even better.”
“That team put in a bunch of work and it’s helped contribute to the momentum that we’ve gotten now,” he said. “So now it’s how do we define Roar even further and take it to the next level? How do we support it with the right type of marketing? Tactics? How do we support it with the right type of consumer outreach? How do we support it with an innovation pipeline going forward? Those are all the things that I think can take us from good to great. And I’m excited to work on that with the team.”