Northern California regional brands Go Girl Energy and Silk Road Soda Co. announced this week they have merged to form Go Roads, LLC The company will seek to expand both product lines outside of the Golden State with rebranded and reformulated offerings.
Former Del Monte Meat Company president and CEO John DeBenedetti will serve as President of Go Roads and Silk Road founder Payam Fardanesh will serve as VP of sales and innovation. Former PackageOne CEO Tom Kandris helped facilitate the deal and is a partner in the company along with DeBenedetti, Silk Road and Nor-Cal Beverage Co., which initially launched Go Girl. Financial details were not disclosed.
According to Fardanesh, the merger was an 18 month process that began when Silk Road was seeking outside investment. Founded in 2013, Silk Road Soda produces a line of organic apple cider vinegar drinks available in Cucumber, Ginger, Pear and Pomegranate flavors. Fardanesh said the brand at its height was available in about 1,000 stores in Northern California, but he experienced setbacks over the past several years due to attempts at expanding too quickly and the brand is currently off the market. The new partnership, he said, will provide the brand the necessary infrastructure to scale nationwide.
Launched in 2005, Go Girl is an energy drink owned by Nor-Cal Beverage and sold in Sugar Free original and Peach Tea varieties. According to VP of business development and marketing Ingrid Foster, the line has seen relatively little evolution since its launch and will be the first product reformulated under the Go Roads brand. The drink is scheduled to relaunch in new packaging in September.
“There was an opportunity to bring these two brands together and combine forces so they can both achieve a greater visibility and position the healthy beverage space,” Foster said. “We’re going to start with Northern California again and really build within our local hometown. [On Go Girl] we have 78% brand recognition within Northern California and we will continue to build from there.”
Fardanesh, who is leading the reformulations on both lines, said the goal for both relaunched products will be to reduce sugar with clean label ingredients in addition to updating packaging. Go Girl will remove taurine to use natural caffeine sourced from green coffee beans and green tea. The drink will also feature a lighter flavor that Fardanesh compared to sparkling water.
“We see an opportunity not only with the partiers drinking Red Bull and vodka at night, but we think this will take the place of coffee and tea for women in the morning, or a quick caffeine boost before yoga class,” Fardanesh said.
Silk Road, he added, will introduce additional flavors and all products will see sugar content cut by a third. As well, the line will move from glass bottles to 12 oz. slim cans. The new products will be available later this year.
“Our distribution partnerships are dictating [the rebrand] but I think it’s what the consumer wants now,” Fardanesh said. “We’re starting in California and the Pacific Northwest, but we’d love an expansion across the country and cans is how you do that.”