Kitu Life Super Coffee announced today its first steps into the rising plant-based beverage space with a coffee and a creamer, both made with pea protein, launching nationwide this month.
The new flavors include Coconut Mocha Super Coffee, which contains 200 mg of caffeine, 10 grams of protein and 90 calories per 11 oz. can, and French Vanilla Super Creamer, which is available in 25.4 oz. multiserve containers. Both products contain MCT oil and have no added sugars.
According to founder and president Jordan DeCicco, the flavors were based on Super Coffee’s top selling SKUs of its existing dairy-based product lines (mocha on coffee and vanilla for creamers). Chief revenue officer Jake DeCicco added that retailers had frequently requested plant-based offerings and that the strong performance for Super Coffee’s dairy-free black coffee products helped drive this new innovation. With the plant-based launch, Jake added, the company will monitor sales data before expanding its plant-based offerings with additional flavors next year.
Jake said that Coconut Mocha has the potential to become the brand’s top selling product in certain markets, and plant-based innovation will be a key focus for the brand going forward.
“Most plant-based products, especially coffee, compromise on taste and also health in the sense that they’re adding sugars or artificial flavors,” said Jordan DeCicco. “We didn’t want to compromise at all, we want our plant-based products to taste like our regular Super Coffee line and have the same nutritional values.”
The line also gives Super Coffee an additional opportunity to seize more shelf space in the coffee category, CEO Jim DeCicco said. As both cold brew coffee and plant-based dairy alternatives have continued to grow, many retailers have begun refusing to accept new brands into these sets. However, the new plant-based products allow Super Coffee to expand on shelf within its existing customers.
The products will rollout nationwide in Sprouts and Target this month, as well as regional retailers including Wegmans, Publix, H-E-B and Albertsons/Safeway. They are also now available in Super Coffee’s DSD network, including Big Geyser in the New York metro area, said Jake DeCicco.
The launch also continues Super Coffee’s transition from 12 oz. plastic bottles to 11 oz. cans as its standard packaging format, with plans to eventually shift all coffee products to recyclable aluminum.
“We love our 12 oz. bottles, those products make up a majority of our sales, but it’s as simple as having conversations with our customers and retail partners,” Jordan DeCicco said. “A lot of them are saying ‘We want to see you guys using more cans.’ Especially now with the vegan audience, who is more focused on the environment.”
The plant-based launch comes as Super Coffee reports a roughly 300% increase in year-over-year sales, Jim DeCicco said, but due to COVID-19 the company is “about 25% behind” its 2020 projections. The slowdown has led to a hiring freeze, he said, however the brand has made a point to maintain all of its current staff during the pandemic.
With the launch of plant-based, Jim noted that many consumers with plant-based diets had “written off” Super Coffee as a dairy-based product, and the company is now tasked with “re-convincing” them to trust the brand and drive trial. But with sampling efforts still offline due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he said Super Coffee will look to use influencer marketing campaigns to promote the line. The company has scaled down its initial summer brand ambassador budget from $150,000 to $50,000, with the funds instead going towards signing celebrities to promote the brand online while much of the existing field marketing team has pivoted to merchandising efforts in stores.
Super Coffee has made one recent hire, however, bringing on former Soylent ecommerce director Ben Knox as VP of ecommerce. Knox will begin on July 1 and has also previously held ecommerce management positions with Red Bull and Juice Served Here. According to Jim DeCicco, the brand’s online sales currently comprise about 20% of all sales. While the channel continues to grow, he said he did not anticipate it eclipsing retail as brick-and-mortar sales rise in tandem.
Jim added that the brand has also continued expansion, adding 800 Walmart stores and launched chainwide in Publix with nine SKUs. The company is also finalizing a distribution partnership with a national strategic, he noted, which will be announced in the coming weeks.
“I would say, in the last couple months in lockdown, it’s been a pretty productive time for us,” he said.