A new in-store cooler program launched this year by L.A. Libations is leading to national expansion for Saint James Iced Tea and Hawaii Volcanic Water.
The new merchandising initiative, dubbed Taste Tomorrow, began in July with a test run of tall, six-shelf coolers placed in 102 Albertsons, Vons and Pavilions stores throughout Southern California. Each cooler features five startup brands from different beverage categories placed in strategic locations throughout the stores; a new cohort of brands will be rotated in every four months.
The inaugural group included Saint James Iced Tea, Hawaii Volcanic Water, protein shake line Don’t Quit!, sports drink Coco 5 and energy drink brand Purps. The class was selected from brands already working with L.A. Libations through their SoCal Incubation Program (SIP), which works with early stage startups to procure early distribution and marketing support.
Some of the brands in the cohort do have deeper ties to L.A. Libations as well. In the case of Don’t Quit!, the brand was developed by L.A. Libations in partnership with Keurig Dr Pepper. The company also has an equity stake in Hawaii Volcanic.
The program was developed by two former Albertsons Companies team members: L.A. Libations Chief Growth Officer Chad Coester and director of national accounts Brian Lizzarago, both of whom joined the beverage accelerator this spring.
Coester previously spent eight years at Albertsons, most recently overseeing the retailer’s private label product line as SVP of Own Brands. The cooler program, he said, aims to drive consumer interaction with brands by leaning into the element of discovery with an eye towards those millennial and Gen Z shoppers who are keen on trying new products.
The program also provides L.A. Libations and the brands with more in depth data collection and tracking. Coester said the coolers allow for “instant info” from key performance indicators (KPIs) and the retailers share regular “report cards” about how consumers are interacting with the brands.
But most importantly for the brands, he added, it’s a quick path to prime in-store real estate.
“This is the closest to prime time these brands have gotten,” he said.
Early results have been strong, Coester said, and in September both Saint James and Hawaii Volcanic were selected for national expansion into Albertsons stores. Saint James is now rolling out to 1,800 stores across 11 divisions while Hawaii Volcanic is adding 700 locations across five divisions.
In the case of Hawaii Volcanic, the expansion dovetails nicely into the brand’s mainland U.S. expansion. In June, the brand closed a $10 million funding round and announced plans to double its store count to 8,000 accounts as it expands outside of its namesake state.
Meanwhile, Saint James, a Tetra Pak packaged iced tea brand created in part by AriZona co-founder John M. Ferolito, joined L.A. Libations’ SIP program last year in a move that helped it establish a presence in West Coast natural channel accounts through stores like Sprouts.
The first Taste Tomorrow cohort is set to end next month, although Coester and Lizzarago did not say which brands will be in the incoming class.
Beyond just placing coolers in grocery stores, Taste Tomorrow also reflects the growing ambitions for L.A. Libations to become a one-stop shop for beverage brands in the SoCal region, with distribution serviced exclusively through its DSD partner HiTouch Libations and merchandising handled by its “spinoff” business Relentless Trade Solutions.
One of the program’s key goals, Lizzarago said, is to “solidify [L.A. Libations’] reputation as the on-trend beverage purveyor in the Southern California market.”