Nixie is hoping to carve out new terrain in better-for-you beverages by offering an organic version of sugar-free soda positioned for the natural channel shopper.
The new line first teased at Expo West is the organic flavored sparkling water brand’s first portfolio expansion since it was founded in 2019. The three, classic flavors — Classic Cola, Root Beer and Ginger Ale — will be rolling out into 415 Sprouts Farmers Market locations this summer as well as regionally at Good Eggs, Erewhon, New Season’s, Cub, Raley’s, MOM’s Organic Market, PCC and Fresh Thyme.
Initially, Nixie Zero Sugar Soda is available in singles only at retail locations for $2.49 per 12 oz. can.
“When you walk in the beverage aisle, it’s still stuck in the past. It’s filled with sugar, filled with plastic, which is just an incredibly disappointing thing to see in this day and age,” said Nixie founder and CEO Nicole Bernard Dawes.
Nixie’s new soft drink line is taking a similar approach to the sparkling water line in highlighting its use of organic ingredients, along with stevia for sweetness.
“I’ve spent my entire career developing organic products,” Dawes said, who previously founded Late July Snacks in 2003. “Products that really bring sustainability and organic ingredients to the forefront, but developing them in a way that rivals the taste of conventional products.”
As diet soda consumers have been drawn towards next-gen options like Olipop and Poppi, many still don’t tick the boxes that natural shoppers are looking for: zero sugar and using organic ingredients, Dawes said.
Stevia-sweetened Zevia, one of the more established zero-sugar carbonated soft drink (CSD) brands to go after category leaders Coca-Cola and Pepsi, is not certified organic and has struggled to establish sustained growth among its target market.
Yet, the CSD category as a whole has not slowed down. Dollar sales were up 4.6% in the last two-week period, according to a NielsenIQ scanner data report by Goldman Sachs Equity Research from June 11.
From Dawes’ perspective, owning the natural channel is about offering something that aligns with that consumers’ core values of better-for-you and better for the environment. The brand is hoping it will quickly be able to marry its 11,000-store footprint in sparkling water with the new CSDs.
That’s not to say that Nixie is taking its “eye off of the ball” with its sparkling water. It has new flavors to launch after the soda varieties get established in the market, Dawes said.
“In most natural food categories, you can expect the organic brands to be at least 10% of the conventional and that’s not happening in healthy sodas right now,” she said. “The reason I think it’s not happening is because the products aren’t delivering on taste.”
Bringing an “upgraded” diet option to the category has not come without its own challenges. Nixie went from using “just a couple of ingredients” in its sparkling water to around 20 in the new line, “complicating” its supply chain, Dawes said.
But in the end Nixie was able to do all its R&D itself and was able to utilize its existing co-packing partners to create the sodas.
Nixie’s move into CSDs is another step on Dawes journey to making healthier options of food and drinks, a mission inspired in part by a mother who owned a health food store in the 1970s and her father, Steve Bernard, who founded Cape Cod Potato Chips in the 1980s.
“I think I’ll never recover from being forced to eat carob-covered rice cakes as a child and trying to be convinced that they taste good,” she said with a chuckle. “I care about sustainability on the Earth and making sure everything comes from a good place, but that doesn’t mean it has to taste bad.”