As Natural Products Expo West kicks off today, the BevNET edit team is on the ground in Anaheim gathering the latest news and updates from the biggest four days in CPG this year.
MALK Seeks to Fill in ‘Deserts’
MALK (#N335) is making a move for the masses.
After closing a $7 million funding round last week, the dairy-free milk alternative maker – which is exhibiting at Expo West this week (Booth #N335) –is now turning to innovation and distribution to expand its presence in conventional grocery.
Speaking to BevNET, MALK CEO Jason Bronstad said natural channel ACV has risen from the mid-40s to upwards of 90% over the past three years. Now, the brand is making more headway in the mainstream conventional grocery channel, following its expansion into Publix stores last year and the addition of new Kroger and Albertsons banners this winter, shifting a low single digit ACV (around 2-3%) to the “mid-teens” today.
“As we’ve worked and earned the shelf space, then we’ve proven to consumers that this is a brand that is here for the long run, this is a brand that you can trust, and this is a brand that will listen to you, partner with you and innovate with you,” Bronstad said.
Founded in 2015, MALK produces a variety of plant-based milks made without oils or other additives. While the category has grown significantly over the past decade with the emergence and rise of formats like almond and oat milk, Bronstad said he believes there’s still room to innovate and bring more options to the set.
At Expo West, the brand will be sampling three new varieties – Cashew MALK and two shelf-stable flavors, Unsweetened Almond MALK and Original Oat MALK. While Cashew MALK is a relaunch of a previously discontinued line, the shelf-stable varieties are the first time the brand has moved beyond the refrigerated set.
Bronstad noted the ability to compete on the dry shelf is significant for the brand, as he said that there’s little overlap between refrigerated plant-based milk consumers and shelf-stable consumers, presenting an opportunity to drive incremental growth. However, shelf-stable will also be marketed to existing consumers, some of whom will travel longer distances to get the product in areas where MALK’s ACV is lower, Bronstad suggested.
“We wanted to bring news to our consumers and give them the opportunity to pantry load,” he said. “We know that consumers are using this day in and day out, and sometimes especially if they live some distance from a store, it’s hard for them to dedicate the refrigerator space.”
As well, shelf-stable will allow for the brand to open up its DTC business online, he added.
MALK is still a smaller competitor in the plant-based milk set, but it’s among the fastest growing. According to Circana, MALK’s refrigerated almond milks reported retail dollar sales growth of 238.1% to around $12.7 million in the 52-week period ending December 31 for MULO and c-store. Its refrigerated oat milks were up 282.8% to around $4.6 million. That data does not reflect all of MALK’s business.
Bronstad said the main goal now is to close gaps in the market and end what he called “MALK deserts.” In retail, MALK is now adding new Smith’s and Mariano’s stores, Stop & Shop and Hannaford’s stores and is expanding its assortment in existing King Soopers, Ralph’s, Publix and H-E-B accounts. In June, the brand will expand to New York and Los Angeles area Target stores.
“As we’ve expanded our ACV in the natural channel, specifically, there are still voids across the entire natural channel that we’ve got a sales team focused on closing,” he said. “So we’ve been closing those distribution gaps.”
SOURCE Global Launches Hydropanel-Sourced SKY WTR
Last year at Expo West 2023, water technology company SOURCE Global announced it was making the leap into CPG with the acquisition of aluminum-packaged water brand Proud Source Water. One year later, SOURCE (#N1303) is now launching its first in-house canned water brand, SKY WTR, made using water from its non-extractive hydropanel technology.
Launching in 16 oz. cans retailing for $1.49 each, or $11.99 per 8-pack, SKY WTR will debut this week at Expo West. An additional line of 1 Liter bottles in aluminum packaging is expected to launch later this year.
According to Ashley Hower, VP of Marketing for SOURCE Global, the company is preparing for regional launches in Sprouts, Albertsons, Walgreens and Walmart stores with rollout expected around spring and summer resets.
The brand is positioned around sustainability, only using water pulled from the atmosphere via SOURCE’s hydropanels (hence the ‘Sky’ name).
Hower suggested that the hydropanels are “infinitely scalable,” noting that the company has “thousands” installed in a Marianna, Florida facility adjacent to the Proud Source Water bottling site to produce the SKY WTR brand.
“From a scalability standpoint, that can be replicated nearly anywhere, so it can be scaled out and put more and more panels in one location,” Hower said. “But it also gives us the optionality over time to look at regional water farms, regional implementations, and keeping those water sources hyperlocal to make sure that we don’t just have sustainability in the ingredients and the packaging, but also in the infrastructure.”
While SOURCE Global previously experimented with launching a CPG water brand prior to purchasing Proud Source Water, the acquisition allowed the company to fully integrate the brand’s operations, providing it with the ability to create an in-house brand that could be brought to market more readily alongside the Proud Source line.
Looking ahead, Hower said the company intends to focus on marketing and consumer education efforts, as well as quickly seeding SKY WTR’s presence in retail nationwide.
“We continue to look for meaningful partnerships,” she said. “We’ve had some really great inquiries already from key partners looking for private label to bring their own SKY WTR to market. So we’re really looking forward to driving category transformation with some of those partnerships across the industry.”
Suja Partners With Treasure8 To Make B2B Upcycled Powders
Organic juice and shot brand Suja (#5639) is planning to put its organic fruit and vegetable waste streams to better use after announcing a new partnership today with upcycled food tech platform Treasure8. The Bay Area-based ingredient and food platform was founded in 2012 and has entered into a “multi-pronged” five-year collaboration with the organic juice maker.
“We evaluated our options of how to best upcycle our high-quality sidestreams and found not only was Treasure8’s advanced technology superior and commercially ready but their passion and approach to looking at how we can create shared sustainable value deeply resonated,” said Bryan Riblett, Suja’s chief innovation officer.
Treasure8 uses a patented technology, known as USDA SAUNA, to transform sidestream and organic produce waste into premium, upcycled powders. The products created through this partnership will be available B2B during the first half of the year, Riblett said.
According to Treasure8, its upcycling technology results in higher nutrition retention and reduces production time, cost as well as energy and carbon output. The partnership will utilize waste streams from both Suja and subsidiary Vive Organics. Over time, the partners plan to explore vertical tech integrations to help Suja’s growing partners adopt more regenerative practices, infield processing waste diversion and other inefficiencies.
“By partnering with industry leaders like Suja Life, we are creating a circular value loop by producing more nutritious ingredients through upcycled material that reduces CO2 emissions, cuts costs, and, eventually, creates valuable outputs to improve soil health for farmers,” said Timothy Childs, Founder and co-CEO Treasure8.
Riblett noted that future innovation and distribution plans will be announced in 2024.
Mingle Mocktails Teams With RNDC To Spread Sober Social Bevs
While “mocktails” aren’t as rare a concept as they might have been a few years ago, there’s still a lot of work to be done to build out the burgeoning non-alcoholic beverage space, according to Mingle Mocktails (#7302) founder and CEO Laura Taylor.
“They say mocktails is a bad word – I’m kind of over it,” she said in a call with BevNET last week. “We are leaning into that.”
The brand has future category growth in mind at Expo West this week, announcing both a new flavor – Sparkling Raspberry Rose – and a distribution partnership with Republic National Distributing Company, plus the launch of a variety 6-pack of its best selling flavors.
For the new SKU, Taylor said she followed a similar strategy to last year’s launch of Key Lime Margarita last year in looking for innovation within alcohol trends.
“I always wanted to do something in the sparkling wine category, and something that is evergreen,” Taylor said. “The Sparkling Raspberry Rose is probably the most sophisticated and alcohol-like beverage that we will have. So I personally believe it will continue to elevate the brand and also add a little more sophistication to what we’re doing because the flavor is nuanced, it’s subtle and it’s refreshing.”
Teaming with RNDC, meanwhile, gives the brand national distribution coverage heading into the spring and summer months. Mingle is also set to enter Target (which is expanding its non-alcoholic set) to complement existing placements in Total Wine and growth in Walmart. There’s also momentum in on-premise at venues like the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia and New York’s Madison Square Garden.
The brand’s growth has also coincided with Taylor stepping into a bigger advocacy role within the zero-proof space. At Expo West, the brand is participating in the Adult Non-Alcoholic Beverage Association (ANBA)-sponsored Mindful Beverages pavilion on Level 3 of the convention center.
“The fully vulnerable side of me says I’m scared of losing our edge. I’m powered by fear,” Taylor admitted. “But the business side of me says that I truly consider myself as a thought leader in this category. I spent hours creating content to educate and enable anybody who would listen whether it be the press, a retail buyer, a category manager, or a distributor on what this category is and why you should care and how Mingle fits into it.”
Note: A previous version of this story incorrectly identified Mingle’s new flavor as Strawberry Raspberry Rose; the article has been corrected.