Yerba mate brand Guayaki has named former Red Bull CEO Stefan Kozak as its new chief executive officer.
Why Kozak?
In Stefan Kozak, Guayaki is getting an experienced beverage industry veteran — and more specifically, someone with a track record of growing one of the world’s biggest energy drink brands. Trained as an engineer, Kozak was involved in various projects — including teaming with local Sherpas to bring electricity to a remote area of the Himalayas in Nepal — before joining Coca-Cola as the General Manager of a bottling operation in São Paulo, Brazil. He next joined Red Bull, starting as general manager for the company’s Brazilian division before ascending to CEO of Red Bull North America in January 2010, taking the reins from Selim Chidiac.
During Kozak’s time at the helm, Red Bull continued to put up major growth numbers: according to Nielsen data, the company has reported $5.3 billion in sales over the 52-week period ended March 27, a 17.9% year-over-year increase. According to Statista, the brand’s value reached over $12 billion as of last year, and it is currently the global energy drink leader (it trails Monster in the U.S.).
“Stefan brings with him a tremendous amount of experience in growing beverage brands in addition to his steadfast commitment toward social good,” said Guayaki co-founder Chris Mann in a press release. “His vision for the future of Guayakí is directly in line with our mission to create a positive global impact. His background speaks for itself as someone who is willing to put it all on the line to do the right thing and we couldn’t be more excited to have that kind of spirit leading our path forward.”
However, Kozak’s tenure at Red Bull ended abruptly last summer, after he and CMO/president Amy Taylor were both dismissed in the wake of controversy over the company’s response to the Black Lives Matter movement and the outcry for racial justice in the wake of the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. In a note to Kozak and Taylor in July, 300 Red Bull employees signed a letter criticizing company leadership for its “public silence” regarding the contemporaneous events at a time in which corporations (including Coke and others) had issued comments. That letter was leaked to the media, as later was a slide image from an internal presentation which trafficked in offensive racial stereotypes. Several weeks after the initial leak, in late July, Kozak and Taylor were fired in what some employees claim was an act of retaliation for the leaks. Both executives were reportedly working (and receiving some pushback from the company’s Austria-based global leadership team) on a diversity initiative at the time of their dismissal.
“I am thrilled to be joining Guayakí Yerba Mate, a product I love and a company that aligns with my experience, skills, and most importantly, values,” Kozak said in a press release. “Given the state of the planet and Guayakí’s longstanding commitment to sustainability and social good, I can’t imagine a better and more meaningful place to work.”.
He continued: “I look forward to building on the great work the founders and their teams have established over the past 25 years, and lead Guayakí Yerba Mate – its business, ideas, and ideals – into the future. ‘Come to Life’ is not only Guayakí’s mantra, it perfectly describes my feelings while embarking on this new journey.”
Why now?
For Guayaki, the past two decades have been a long-winding but clear confirmation that RTD yerba mate is a real thing. According to IRI data, the brand’s canned and bottled teas have generated over $64 million in MULO plus-convenience sales over the last 52 weeks through March 12, a 28% year-over-year increase. Meanwhile, its canned and bottled Yerba mate drinks are up 26.9% ($36 million) during that same time frame. That of course does not include its various packaged teas and non-RTD products.
Beyond selling more products, Guayaki, a founding member of the B Corporation network, also has ambitious goals for its social impact program. Speaking on stage at BevNET Live Winter 2018, co-founder David Karr outlined his target over the next decade: to bring its products to over 200 countries and 23,000 colleges and universities, and to hire 10,000 employees from the “legion of the system affected” — a term the company uses to describe formerly incarcerated individuals — to distribute its products across the U.S. and Canada via a fleet of 100% electric vehicles.
To realize that growth, the company turned to outside funding for the first time in 2018, with CPG venture capital firm Sonoma Brands investing. At the time, Karr told BevNET the finances would go towards tightening production quality control, expanding distribution and investing in its vertically aligned supply chain by building drying facilities for harvested crops in South America. The brand subsequently picked up another significant backer in Los Angeles-based VC group CAVU, whose CPG interests range from Oatly and Beyond Meat to Vital Proteins and online retailer Thrive Market.
Reached by phone this afternoon, Guayaki co-founder David Karr said that Kozak’s appointment comes at a time at which the company is profitable and growing, and adding a leader with his qualifications will help the company further drive its social impact by optimizing its Market Driven Regeneration business model. He said that he and Mann recognized that they could better serve the company by focusing on the company’s social mission as board members.
While Guayaki might have been an early pioneer to the RTD yerba mate category when it launched in 1996, that’s not the case anymore. In 2021, the company finds itself facing down a raft of (admittedly mostly earlier stage) competitors, including fast-growing, mission-driven startups like Steaz, Yerbae and CLEAN, which recruited former Red Bull executive Chad Peffer as its president and chief commercial officer last October. But the medicinal herb is also finding is place as source of natural caffeine within existing product types: see both line extensions from traditional energy brands (Guru, Rockstar) to functional ‘energy’ kombuchas from the likes of Revive and Brew Dr., but also Perrier’s new family of caffeinated sparkling waters. While the plant is unique in many ways, it’s fair to place the rising interest in RTD yerba mate within the context of energy drinks’ getting bigger and more diverse: as traditionally defined, U.S. energy drink sales have grown 12% over the past year, according to data from Nielsen, but the proliferation of energy-adjacent categories — caffeinated zero-calorie seltzers being one of the hottest — has opened the conversation to further innovation.
“We are excited for what the future holds for Guayakí and we also understand the great responsibility that comes with growing a global business,” Mann said. “Stefan is the right person at the right time to step in and give Guayakí the boost it needs to expand its reach into more markets. Stefan will work closely with the founders and other board members to ensure we continue to grow sales and market share while staying true to our mission and building upon the strong foundations we created 25 years ago.”