CPG services provider Advantage Solutions Inc. and innovator platform L.A. Libations (LAL) are forming a joint venture, dubbed Relentless Advantage, to help LAL-affiliated brands to expand nationwide more readily outside of the company’s SoCal backyard.
Relentless Advantage is aiming to achieve a ‘best of both worlds’ approach to merchandising and scaling initiatives for both companies’ portfolios through LAL’s Relentless Trade Services merchandising subsidiary, combining coverage of many of its West Coast retail accounts with Advantage’s retailer arm to expand its services nationwide. LAL, meanwhile, will “provide Advantage with a pipeline of innovative, new growth-stage brands,” the companies said in a release.
Speaking to BevNET, LAL CEO Danny Stepper said the collaboration arrives as emerging brands face difficulties getting products properly placed on shelves amid a crowded marketplace, which he said has become “a real pain point.”
“There are really not a lot of barriers to get to the back room of a Walmart or Kroger or an Albertsons, but getting from the back room to the shelf has proven to be a really big problem for the retailers, for the brands, for everybody,” Stepper said.
LAL launched Relentless Trade Solutions in 2019 primarily to service its own portfolio of aligned brands in the SoCal region focused on natural channel accounts like Bristol Farms and regional grocers such as Ralphs. However, Stepper said that as many brands it works with start launching into mass channel retailers like Walmart earlier in their lifecycle (such as the Emma Chamberlain-founded Chamberlain Coffee, for example) there’s been increasing requests to expand its services nationwide.
“Now as creators are joining brands and creators have huge microphones and give you the ability to drive trial and awareness nationally, retailers see that and they want brands nationally quicker and earlier,” Stepper added.
“We provide services across a broad spectrum of consumer products companies, and with retailers as well, so we’ve got the connectivity to both at a national level, so we can help get these great products to consumers more quickly and do it together,” said Dave Peacock, CEO of Advantage Solutions.
According to Peacock, the companies have signed a letter of intent and are now looking to connect with brands in their collective networks to bring them on board with the extended program. Among the participating brands, Stepper mentioned, are rising prebiotic soda maker Poppi, sports nutrition line Don’t Quit!, and the Michelle Obama-founded kids drink line PLEZi Nutrition.