Vistar has taken a minority ownership stake in ready-to-drink yerba mate maker Yerbae, the beverage brand told BevNET, opening a partnership which will give the brand access to over 12,000 food service accounts nationwide.
Vistar, a national distribution subsidiary of Performance Food Group which services food service, office, vending, specialty retail and university accounts, will gain a seat on the company’s Board of Directors. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Speaking with BevNET, Yerbae CEO Todd Gibson said the investment comes as the brand prepares to roughly triple its retail distribution footprint by the end of this year. The Arizona-based brand was available in approximately 8,500 retail accounts at the end of 2019 and anticipates it will expand to about 24,000 stores this year, not including the food service accounts which will be serviced by Vistar.
“Vistar will put us in micro-markets, pantries, at-work locations, company kitchens, cafeterias, service programs, health and wellness outlets,” Gibson said. “And with all of these outlets, virtually none of them are serviced by our current DSD footprint, so this is all added value from this organization and should have virtually no impact whatsoever on our DSD network.”
According to Gibson, much of the investment will fund manufacturing expansions to allow the brand to scale rapidly. As well, the company is looking to expand its sales team and is currently hiring area sales manager positions in Austin, Boston, New York and San Francisco, as well as regional managers for food service accounts on the East and West Coasts.
Earlier this year, Yerbae widened its presence within existing retailer partners including WaWa (which Gibson said is the brand’s top retailer in terms of sales and velocity), Circle K, Kum N Go and WinCo. The brand has also added TA Truck Stops, Speedway SuperAmerica and Safeway accounts. In the coming weeks, Yerbae will expand from 600 to 1,500 CVS stores nationwide and will add Stop & Shop stores in the Northeast.
On the West Coast, Yerbae has partnered with Classic Distributing Company in Southern California, Gibson said. As well, the brand has begun manufacturing products at PepsiCo bottlers in New York.
According to Gibson, Yerbae currently has 17 full time employees with an emphasis on sales. The company outsources all marketing efforts.
“We’ve got a strong bench in our organization,” Gibson said of the four-year old brand’s growth. “We have a handful of key leaders who have been in the industry for awhile and a lot of people who are emerging next generation leaders. I couldn’t be prouder of our field sales organization as well as our internal operations organization.”
The investment comes as Yerbae launches a rebranded product line featuring new flavors, packaging and formulation. Next month, the company will roll out its revamped 16 oz. can line, to be followed by rebranded versions of the company’s 12 oz. slim can line in April. The 16 oz. products feature new Iced Triple Berry, Black Cherry Pineapple, Strawberry Blonde and Gourmet Grape flavors. The brand’s Coconut Raspberry flavor has been discontinued.
As well, the products have been reformulated to be sugar-free and zero calorie. Gibson said Yerbae is using a proprietary stevia blend as a sweetener. The previous version of the products contained 5 grams of sugar and 30 calories per can.
“Zero is our new hero,” Gibson said. “Even though the brand has done exceptionally well, is growing and we’re being rewarded for the growth, we’ve heard our consumers loud and clear that if there’s an alternative to sugar they’d be more likely to purchase the product. So we have a custom blend of stevia that doesn’t taste like a stevia-sweetened product … and doesn’t leave lingering aftertaste behind. We started working in May of last year and took us until now to produce it.”