After an exit to Nestlé last year, Essentia founder Ken Uptain and its former CEO Scott Miller are jumping back in the water with Yesly, a new brand of canned enhanced waters launching early next year.
The new venture, financially backed by Uptain with Miller serving as CEO, is targeting a white space for a zero calorie, better-for-you still beverage with functional benefits, the founders told BevNET this week. Billed on the 16 oz. cans as an “Enhanced Still Water Beverage,” Yesly contains vitamins B6, B12 and C and electrolytes and is sweetened with stevia. The drinks will be available in four flavors: Pomegranate Acai Blueberry, Lemon, Black Cherry and Kiwi Strawberry. Pricing for the line is still being finalized.
As canned water brands like Liquid Death have fed demand for more options in the packaged water category, Yesly aims to provide a similar point of differentiation in the enhanced water set as its tall cans look to stand out on shelf from plastic-packaged national brands like Vitaminwater and Bai.
“After having successfully had the opportunity to transition the [Essentia] business to Nestlé, we sat down and chatted about what’s next,” Miller said. “We really thought that the water category had just continued to have such great growth with multiple consumption [occasions] throughout the day that Ken and I decided to start a new brand, which is really in the area of what I’ll call the ‘On-the-go lifestyle brand.’ Whether you’re taking a walk, whether you’re hiking or just on-the-go throughout the day.”
Uptain founded Essentia in 1998, leading the brand over the course of two decades as it became a nationwide premium bottled water player. Miller, the former CEO of Tampico Beverages, joined the company as CEO in June 2020 overseeing its final leg of growth leading up to the exit – reported to be in the high nine-figures – in March 2021.
While Miller’s tenure with Essentia was relatively brief, leaving the company in February, he and Uptain said they became fast friends who shared a business philosophy, making the creation of a new beverage brand a natural next step. Much like their Essentia colleague, former chief strategy officer Neil Kimberley, who jumped back into the industry this year to help launch enhanced sparkling water brand Bossa Nova, the founders said they couldn’t stay idle and were eager to get back into startup mode.
“I think it’s in your blood,” Uptain said. “Especially after a success like Essentia.”
However, in this new act Uptain said he is looking to play a supporting role. He is the sole financier providing a set amount that will fuel Yesly for the first two years, and he is also tapping into his network of industry partners to establish a strong grounding for the brand. Meanwhile, Miller will take the lead on day-to-day operations.
“For me I don’t have it in this stage of my life to build another big brand like Essentia, but someone like Scott who’s younger and has the passion and the knowledge and the skill makes it easy for me to get involved and help build this brand,” he said.
“Ken’s entrepreneurial spirit and his background and his vision are very helpful to a guy like me,” Miller added. “I’ve run companies for many years, but Ken’s real true entrepreneur grit and persistence is that kind of corner coach you need as you’re running the business.”
Other Essentia alumni are joining them as well; Essentia head of finance Justin Connell has come on board as Yesly’s CFO. Miller said the company is now looking for a full time brand manager to lead marketing and will be hiring for sales positions closer to the Q1 launch.
Yesly has secured a distribution agreement with New York metro area DSD house Big Geyser to begin rolling out in January, Miller said, and the company will take a regional approach to retail to start, also targeting the California, Florida and Seattle markets.
Jerry Reda, president and COO of Big Geyser, said he was excited for the chance to work with Uptain and Miller again, having worked with them while distributing both Essentia and Tampico. Reda called Yesly itself “clean, fresh and exciting,” suggesting the combination of packaging, formulation and brand positioning made it a unique opportunity that doesn’t compete with any other brands in the distributor’s portfolio.
“I have an endless amount of respect for both Scott Miller and Ken Uptain for their achievements in the business,” Reda said. “Ken was able to stay the course and be patient with Essentia and that paid off for him and many other people around him, so I applaud him for that. And, I look at Scott as being one of the top 5% of best operators and CEOs of this business, and I don’t say that lightly.”
As the brand establishes a national DSD network, Miller said ecommerce is also in the works and Yesly will likely begin selling on Amazon shortly after the brick-and-mortar launch, but direct-to-consumer will not be a priority as the company aims to be “efficient and effective.”
The Yesly branding and packaging was created in partnership with consultancy firm Retail Voodoo and Miller said messaging will focus around positivity, ideally serving as a broad net that can appeal across demographics.
“The name Yesly is this kind of positive expression of what we want to do to the consumer, we want to give them a great tasting product that’s better-for-you but also it’s fun and exciting for them,” Miller said. “We’ll say things like, ‘Say yes to what’s next’ and really it’s about a brand with inclusivity where everyone’s welcome. We want to serve every consumer with a mouth. That’s the goal.”