Generous Brands, the independent beverage producer behind Bolthouse Farms and Evolution Fresh, has entered an integrated partnership with Sambazon to make the brand’s bottled açaí juices and smoothies, and to sell and distribute the brand across the U.S. and Canada.
According to the company, Generous Brands began manufacturing several Sambazon products around 15 months prior to its announced spinoff from Bolthouse Farms in May as a division to focus solely on beverage and salad dressing products. This marks Generous’ first partnership with an independent brand, but Chief Revenue Officer Phil Kooy said it’s only the beginning as the company seeks to forge similar deals with other beverage players.
“Integrated partnerships is a hybrid model where we are working really closely with these new partners that we’re bringing on board,” Kooy said. “There’s a lot of different things that we can bring to some of these emerging brands, and that stretches anywhere from co-manufacturing, which is where we really started with Sambazon 15 months ago, but now, really living into the rest of the distribution and selling system.”
Founded in 2000, Sambazon has been credited with helping to pioneer açaí products in the U.S. and in addition to CPG is a top importer of açaí for foodservice accounts nationwide. According to Circana, retail dollar sales of Sambazon’s refrigerated juices in MULO and c-store accounts were up 9.8% to over $6.3 million in the 52-weeks ending April 21, 2024, although that data does not cover all of the brand’s product lines – which also includes frozen kits, energy drinks, smoothie bowls and frozen desserts – and does not track on-premise sales.
Comparatively, Generous’s Bolthouse Farms line of refrigerated smoothie line alone in the tracked channels generated over $199.4 million in dollar sales (-13.6% year-over-year) and its refrigerated vegetable juices were worth $68.9 million (-8.9%), in addition to numerous other fruit juice products under both the Bolthouse and Evolution Fresh brands, as well as salad dressings.
Beginning July 1, Generous will manufacture Sambazon’s juices and smoothies at its 500,000 square foot Bakersfield, Calif. Facility, putting the açaí brand on a “high speed rail” for fast growth, according to Kooy.
Bolthouse Farms’ top SKUs, Kooy said, have upwards of 90% ACV in retail nationwide as well as an estimated 65% market share in Canada, with over 56,000 retail locations, providing Sambazon access to a large number of new accounts that Generous Brands can potentially tap into. He noted that Sambazon has “a ton of white space in grocery, mass and drug” while Generous hopes to grow its own business beyond MULO into foodservice and c-stores.
Since its foundation as an independent business this Spring, separate from Bolthouse Farms’ carrot operation, Generous Brands has quickly sought to expand its portfolio through these kinds of integrated partnership, Sambazon being the first of what will likely be many similar deals, as Kooy said the company is in discussions with around “three or four” other companies for similar deals.
As well, the company is interested in M&A opportunities in the beverage space. However, Kooy was cautious to note that Sambazon is an unlikely acquisition target for Generous, as its position as a top U.S. açaí importer and its food division would extend too far out of Generous’ wheelhouse.
“We’re going to be active, looking at different opportunities in higher growth segments that we don’t currently play in,” he said.
Generous is also extending its platform through in-house innovation. Earlier this month, it announced a new line of better-for-you fruit sodas under the Evolution Fresh brand acquired from Starbucks in 2022.
“Evolution is a super stretchy brand,” Kooy said. “[Soda is] one example of where we’ve taken Evolution; there’s a bunch of other places that we’re looking at. Consumers are giving us permission, that makes sense for them to be looking for an organic smoothie or something along those lines under the Evolution brand. So that’s all on the table.”
For Bolthouse Farms, Kooy said the company has “stabilized” the business after some pandemic-era disruption and is now looking to grow its smoothie business, with fruit-based smoothies “on-trend, on-point” with the current interest in functional beverages.
“In the last number of months or years, there’s been hydration, or energy, or [anti]inflammation or immunity – those are all areas that consumers are exploring,” he added. “Gut health is having a great run. What’s next beyond that? That’s what we’re really looking at when we’re concentrating on our next rounds of innovation.”