Lemon Perfect Names Jim Brennan as President and CRO
Enhanced water producer Lemon Perfect announced today it has named former Coca-Cola Company executive Jim Brennan as its President and Chief Revenue Officer. Brennan, a board member for the brand, had previously served as interim Chief Customer Officer at the company helping oversee sales.
Prior to joining Lemon Perfect, Brennan spent over 31 years with Coke from 1989 until his retirement in 2020, ultimately serving as EVP of national retail sales for the U.S. According to Brennan, he hadn’t planned to return to full time work after retiring and discovered Lemon Perfect while searching for companies where he could serve as a board member and advisor, and was impressed by the product and founder and CEO Yanni Hufnagel.
Having had a variety of general management roles within the Coke system, Brennan said his new role as President and CRO gives him wide beverage industry experience ranging from bottling operations to supply chain to finance. He believes his strengths are complementary to Hufnagel – a first time beverage entrepreneur who founded the brand after working as an assistant coach in college basketball – and he intends to take a “divide and conquer” approach to building the business with the CEO.
“We are growing rapidly, but there’s still a tremendous opportunity,” he said. “We’re being strategic as far as how we go to market. So whether that’s from a DSD distributor standpoint, or a hybrid situation in the markets where we’re going direct, we’ve concentrated primarily in large format segments up to this point and in 2023 and beyond we’ll be focusing more on convenience retail and foodservice channels, and that will lead to additional diversity on packaging and on the geographic [footprint] and distributor network.”
Brennan’s appointment comes three months after the company closed a $31 million Series A funding round that included investment from pop star Beyoncé Knowles-Carter. At the time, Hufnagel told BevNET the brand was expecting to be in 40,000 doors this year. Today, Brennan said that the brand is now at around 65% ACV in grocery and multi-outlet accounts, up from about 15% in spring 2021.
The team has also expanded to 72 employees, he added, with plans to bring on additional staff in the near future as well as intent to promote from within for additional leadership roles.
“We’ve made tremendous progress in a relatively short period of time, and we still have opportunity,” he said. “We’ve been able to work with some of the larger U.S. retailers and really grow distribution, whether that’s in the majority of the Kroger banners or Safeway/Albertsons nationally.”
After three decades at one of the largest beverage producers in the world, Brennan said he’s enjoying the ability to work with a small brand, noting the ability to be nimble and make decisions quickly has been refreshing, adding that “you wind up learning things that you never really had to deal with before.”
“Even when I was with Coke all the time, I always in the back of my mind wanted to do something with a smaller brand and see if we can really make it grow and build it, like we’re doing now,” he said.
Rowdy Mermaid Names New COO and CFO, Expands Sales Team
Colorado-based kombucha and tonic brand Rowdy Mermaid has made several new additions to its executive and sales teams, including the appointment of Matt Opperman as COO and CFO.
Opperman has worked under the dual role before, most recently at functional beverage brand SkinTe and previously at “I and Love and You” Pet Care. Prior to that, he spent time at Caveman Foods, Hint and Jamba Juice.
Additionally, the company also named food industry veterans Dan Olson as VP of Sales and Robyn Kinstle as Director of Sales, West.
Olson comes to the brand from Living Green Farm, Inc. and has previously held the same role at Enjoy Life Foods. He also served as VP of Sales for the natural channel at Sovos Brands and Noosa Yoghurt. Kinstle, meanwhile, comes to Rowdy Mermaid from Sovos Brands where she was senior customer business sales manager for natural and specialty for the western U.S.
Rowdy Mermaid founder and CEO Jamba Dunn said he specifically sought to bring new perspectives to the team by recruiting leaders from outside of the beverage space – or who at least had a diversity of CPG brand experience. In the case of Olson, Dunn said he urged the new sales lead to recruit additional talent and build out the rest of the team under him.
“We decided to look outside of beverage and pull in people who have cold chain experience, but who maybe have a very different take on beverage since that wasn’t where they started their careers,” Dunn said. “I’d say that Matt and Dan and Robyn really bring a team building approach to the sales and operational side. Because it’s going to be critical for us as we navigate through inflation and any other challenges we have forward to have a solid team first and foremost.”
Opperman told BevNET that he aims to help open up new channels and growth opportunities for Rowdy Mermaid, which is continuing to innovate on both its core kombucha line as well as its sparkling Adaptonic products. He noted that food service presents a large opportunity for the company.
“We’ve been seeing some significant growth in our distribution in some major retailers nationwide, to the extent that over 50% of our growth was in the last half of this year, which we are thrilled about.”
Beyond the team expansion, Rowdy Mermaid has also partnered with national sales and marketing agency Impact Group to serve as a broker. As well, Dunn said the company is preparing to roll out new innovations including a Ginger Yuzu kombucha flavor scheduled for a September launch, new flavors on the Adaptonic line, and an additional functional product line next year.
Kevin Rutherford Reaches Finish Line at Nuun
Longtime Nuun Hydration CEO Kevin Rutherford announced last week that he has stepped down from the chief executive role after a nine-year tenure, during which he steered the hydration tablet brand from an early stage startup through to its sale to Nestlé Health Science last year.
“It’s close to 9 years, almost a decade, since I had the privilege to join the team at nuun,” Rutherford wrote on LinkedIn. “As I cross the finish line today on my last official day as the Chief Eternal Optimist for nuun, I’m filled with gratitude, pride, hope, and mixed with a little bit of loss. Let me first build on why the sense of loss. A significant part of my identity over this period of time has been attached to my role, our team, our community, and our beloved brand that we created. In the spirit of being transparent, now no longer being the CEO, it makes me feel a sense of loss. The funny thing is, it’s my choice to enter into a new chapter.”
Launched in 2004, Rutherford joined Nuun as CEO in 2013, having most recently served as president and CEO of cleaning products brand Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day. In addition to scaling Nuun to a national brand, with sales growing double digits at the time of acquisition, Rutherford was also known for instilling an enthusiastic work ethic and encouraging a fitness focused company culture.
In the post, Rutherford offered gratitude to the Nuun team, investor, TSG Consumer Partners, Nestlé Health Science, the brand’s partners, consumers and its “raving fans and fellow sweat enthusiasts.”
Rutherford said he intends to travel and “MUUV more” and is open to taking speaking engagements. He will also continue to serve on multiple corporate boards, including plans to take a seat on Nuun’s board of directors.
Breakthru Beverage Group Brings on Stephanie J. Soto as EVP, Chief Human Resources Officer
Illinois-based beverage distributor Breakthru Beverage Group announced this week that it has brought on Stephanie J. Soto as Executive Vice President, Chief Human Resources Officer, effective August 1. According to the press release, the new hire comes as the company works to foster employee growth and expand its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion capability that “ensures inclusion and equity across all areas of the business.”
Soto boasts over 25 years of experience in human resources and labor management for global companies, most recently serving as senior vice president human resources at Rhode Island-based food wholesaler UNFI. At Breakthru, she will succeed predecessor Ann Giambusso following her retirement.
“Stephanie is a proven leader with an impressive track record of designing and executing talent management talent management strategies that drive organizational excellence,” said Tom Bené, Breakthru President & CEO, in the release. “Our associates are our biggest asset and having a strong Human Resources leader is essential to our continued growth, both as professionals and as a company.”
Breakthru Beverage Group launched in 2016 when Charmer Sunbelt Group and Wertz Beverage Group joined forces, according to the company’s LinkedIn page. The family-owned company currently has operations across the U.S. and Canada. The distributor has been a champion of CBD-infused beverages in recent years through partnerships with brands like DRAM, Sprig and Cloud Water.
As a member of Breakthru’s executive leadership team, Soto will oversee all human resources aspects, including the development of a “diverse and multifunctional capital strategy,” end-to-end talent management and labor and employee relations.
“I am excited to join a forward-thinking company like Breakthru – a company rooted in putting its people first. As a fourth generation family-owned business, that people-first mentality resonates today more than ever. From their open company culture to diverse Associate Resource Groups, I look forward to stepping into the role and further building upon this incredible talent foundation,” said Soto in the release.
Iconic Brands Announces Intention to Change Corporate Name, Appoints Tom Martin as Interim CEO
Beverage company Iconic Brands this month announced that, subject to receipt of stockholder and FINRA approval, intends to change its corporate name to “TopPop Innovative Brands, Inc.”
Additionally, the company has appointed 40-year industry veteran Tom Martin as interim CEO. Martin is the co-founder of TopPop packaging, which was built on alcohol-infused ice pops and single-use food and beverage products.
The news comes on the heels of the construction of a new 65,000 sq. ft. facility that achieved full-scale production capability in March 2022 and the launch of Bellissima Zero, a line of zero-sugar still wines. Founded in 2005, Iconic Brands, Inc. operates with its wholly owned subsidiary TopPop and offers wine, spirits, ready-to-drink cocktails, alcohol-infused ice pops and mixers.
“I want to express my deep appreciation to the Iconic team members and Iconic investors for making our progress to this point possible. I believe TopPop is on a solid growth trajectory,” said Martin in a press release. “The sustainable flexible packaging business and prepare the Company to align more closely with its core innovative packaging business to list on a national exchange.”
Martin has served as President and COO of TopPop and has been with Iconic since TopPop was acquired in July 2021, according to the release. The new changes come as the company focuses on its core growth markets and its leadership in sustainable flexible packaging solutions for the food and beverage industry.
“The demand for our ready-to-go drinks and our ready-to-freeze and ready-to-drink products has been impressive. We expect to manufacture approximately 80 million units in 2022, up from eight million units in 2020,” said Martin. “I believe the shift in consumer demand for flexible packaging solutions in the food, beverage and health categories is key to our success. We also intend to utilize Iconic’s Bellissima line of products and other assets in new ways and continue to grow those brands.”