Milo’s

Milo’s doesn’t fit the typical profile of a Rising Star award winner. For one, the brand — an offshoot of an Alabama-based food chain — has been around for decades, slowly growing and grinding away from the Coasts in a relatively quiet category, iced tea. Yet the family owned company’s commitment to executing at retail and thoughtful expansion has put it into a commanding position within the category: this year, Milo’s became the fourth-largest iced tea maker in the U.S. with sales surpassing $400 million. Even more impressive, those turns have come from refrigerated coolers, where its numbers dwarf those of major brands like Starbucks and GT’s Living Foods. The company hasn’t ignored innovation - see Nana B’s, its three-SKU line of zero-calorie flavored teas — or expansion — as in spending $60 million on a secondary production facility, with millions more earmarked for further infrastructure growth — but its sharp management and shrewd strategy proves you don’t have to be a revolutionary products to make a big impact.