Andrew Guard Founds New Beverage Incubator Right Coast Brands
Veteran CPG consultant Andrew Guard is building a new venture called Right Coast Brands, which he described as an incubator-like business aimed at filling a “vast white space” by providing a cost-effective pre-launch, single-source platform for “full retail ready finished products.”
The company will offer a comprehensive suite of services for startup beverage brands, including ideation, building cost structures, advising on formatting specifications for a production run and completing small-scale manufacturing runs. Rather than charging fees or taking an equity stake in its clients, Right Coast will focus on “project-based manufacturing,” Guard noted.
“I’m creating a business that is essentially a nanoscale-focused, retail-ready finished goods creator,” he said. “You could walk into a buyer meeting with full, retail-ready products to pitch them and/or produce a pallet or two of finished goods and learn about product market fit without having to take a ton of cash to do a larger production run.”
Guard is shifting gears after founding his consulting business, The Guard Agency, in 2018 where he launched at least seven beverage brands. Before that, Guard held executive roles at Biena Foods and Purity Organic. Most recently, Guard was a founding partner of Culture Pop Soda.
Guard said he is hoping to draw on his years in the industry and his supplier network to help bring in new clients. The company currently has two other employees, with the aim of adding three additional hires by January.
“Flavor houses that I work with, suppliers, co-packing partners – they’re the ones who are getting a lot of cold calls from people looking to launch beverage brands and don’t know where to start,” he said. “On the supplier side of things, they’re thrilled that I’m doing this [because] I’m giving them an outlet to point people to which then in turn, they turn into buying accounts. It’s incentivized all around.”
Wyley Owens Moves Into Manufacturing With Wildpack
Salud Refrescos co-founder Wyley Owens has taken on an account executive role at Vancouver-based beverage co-packer Wildpack.
Speaking to BevNET, Owens said that his recent experience as an entrepreneur, “attempted founder” and distributor with his family business Associated Buyers has allowed him to develop a broad knowledge base of the pain points in the beverage industry. Working with Wildpack allows him to utilize that expertise on the manufacturing side and work with more emerging brands.
Owens was introduced to Wildpack through his association with co-packer CraftPac, which Wildpack acquired in 2021. Owens said he was impressed with how the publicly traded company has positioned itself to support small to midsize beverage brands via a national network of manufacturing hubs.
“You want to be able to have a place [where] you can be confident that you’re getting not just the best per-can price, but that it’s set up for early entry as well as longevity. You can come in at 2,000 gallons per SKU and we can take you up to as far as you can go,” Owens said. “It’s the company that I wish was around when I started a beverage company.”
Due to his family connection to, Owens will continue to work with Associated Buyers when he can. He also will continue in an advisory role with Bottleneck Labs which is developing a software platform to streamline supply chain issues in food and beverage.
Despite rising sales and a new contract with can manufacturer Ball, Wildpack has endured a tumultuous summer which saw the departure of former Coca-Cola executive Chuck Zadlo as COO in July, as well as widening losses in Q2.
Confidence Beverage Brings In Alexandra Galindez As New CEO
Former RUNA and Roar Organic CEO Alex Galindez has taken over the helm at SoCal-based functional beverage startup Confidence Beverage, as of August.
Confidence Beverage is a non-carbonated drink formulated with a blend of six functional ingredients (ginseng, gaba, rhodiola, 5-HTP, magnesium and B vitamins) designed to give consumers natural focus and confidence and “to counter the harmful effects of physical and emotional stress on the body,” according to the brand’s website.
The beverage is available in four varieties (Berry Hibiscus, Peach Ginger, Lemon Lime and Mango) in 25 fl oz. cans priced at $3.50 each. According to the website, it is currently located in c-stores and natural food retailers throughout the Los Angeles area.