OLIPOP Adds Rainforest Distribution, Expands Whole Foods
Tonic maker OLIPOP announced it has partnered with East Coast DSD house Rainforest Distribution to service the New York tri-state area. The partnership comes as the brand expands its footprint nationwide, including at Sprouts, four new regions of Whole Foods and chainwide in The Fresh Market.
Co-founders Ben Goodwin said David Lester said the expansion comes as the brand reports a roughly 600% increase in sales year-over-year. Initially launched in the California market, where the company is based, the expansion sees OLIPOP improve its presence across the country. In Whole Foods, the brand added the Northeast, North Atlantic, Pacific Northwest and Southwest locations while The Fresh Market, which will go online in June, will add 159 locations across the East Coast.
“We are very focused in [how we approach] our distribution build,” Lester said. “Velocity continues to be the primary consideration for us, but we’re feeling ready now to start to expand out and test and stretch around a bit further as well.”
Goodwin noted that Rainforest will help the brand gain placements in cold boxes and premium accounts, in addition to up and down the street in New York. OLIPOP will also look to hire new East Coast sales team members to support the expansion.
The launches come as OLIPOP launches its latest flavor, Cherry Vanilla, which debuted this month online and in retail this month as an exclusive in Sprouts until July 1. Goodwin noted the company has aimed to avoid the “cough syrup” taste associated with many artificial cherry flavored drinks and uses real tart cherry juice, which provides anti-inflammatory properties.
“We’ve got a really robust activation plan with Sprouts, which obviously it’s been a little bit wobbly with the coronavirus, but there’s a lot of really good stuff in the mix to really get them cranking,” Goodwin said.
So Good So You Adds Sprouts Chainwide
Juice maker So Good So You has expanded its line of wellness juice shots to Sprouts stores nationwide, the company announced last week, bringing its total retail footprint to over 4,000 doors across 47 states. The retailer will carry three SKUs — Immunity, Detox and an exclusive Double Energy variety created for the rollout.
According to So Good So You co-founder and chairperson Rita Katona, the shots will be positioned in Sprouts’ grab and go coolers and cold cases in the produce and beverage sets. Though grab and go purchases in retail have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, Katona said the expansion comes as So Good So You reports an approximately 300% year-over-year increase in sales for its Immunity SKU, as well as softer increases on its entire shots line, as consumers seek out immunity boosting products.
“Our entire line is immune supporting, so with consumer heightened awareness and focus for healthy lifestyle and healthy diet and products to support their immune system, we are seeing an increase in demand for our entire product line,” Katona said. “It’s not just the immunity shot, though certainly that shot in particular is seeing an exponentially larger lift.”
Katona said the company had initially planned to double its store count this year, but several expected rollouts have been delayed due to the pandemic. However, So Good So You is still in conversation with several retailers, she added, and is on track to hit its sales projections despite the setback in distribution expansion.
Ugly Drinks Enters Kroger
Sparkling water maker Ugly has added over 100 Kroger stores in Tennessee, co-founder Joe Benn announced on LinkedIn last week. The retail expansion includes multipacks of the brand’s core line of sparkling waters and single serve cans of its Energized line, which launched last year.
In October, the London-based company told BevNET that it had closed a multi-million dollar funding round intended to support the brand’s U.S. expansion and the rollout of the Energized line. At the time, Ugly had recently signed with Tennessee-based distributor Ajax Turner Co., which according to Benn will service the company’s Kroger accounts in the region.
NOCCO Adds GNC
Zero-carb fitness beverage maker NOCCO announced last week that it has added GNC stores and is available online through the retailer. The rollout includes five SKUs; Apple, Caribbean, Miami Strawberry, Peach and Tropical. Each SKU contains between 3,000 to 5,000 branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) per 12 oz can.
The expansion comes as the brand, which was founded in Sweden in 2014, focuses on building out a presence in the U.S. fitness and specialty channels with a focus on the California, Arizona, Florida and New York markets.