Beverage School Summer 2025: How The Beverage Industry Really Works

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Bill Sipper of Cascadia Managing Brands presents a blunt roadmap for beverage startups, explaining why 93% fail. Success requires mastering the distribution system, retail authorization, pricing margins, and avoiding common pitfalls. Distributors demand volume and exclusivity but won’t build your brand. Retail chains have long review cycles and won’t authorize new products quickly. Profit margins shrink fast with retailer and distributor cuts. Launching smartly, focusing on velocity, and budgeting for promotions are key. Bottom line: this is a logistics game disguised as branding—know the system or get knocked off the shelf.