Expo West 2017 Video: An Interview With Matt Thomas of Brew Dr. Kombucha


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Oregon kombucha is taking the country by storm. Bend, Ore.-based Humm has a national footprint through Target and an approach built through conventional accounts. Meanwhile, instate rival Brew Dr. Kombucha has experienced powerful growth in the past two years, doubling its revenues in 2016, according to founder and CEO Matt Thomas.

BevNET’s Jeff Klineman interviewed Thomas at Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, Calif. and found a stirring profile of a company that is balancing growth across three divisions: its largest, a retail kombucha line, as well as on-premise gourmet tea houses and a new distilling operation that repurposes the alcohol generated from kombucha fermentation.

It’s a situation that could be a source of confusion but is instead moving into an organized company.

“A year ago, the sales team was myself and a few other people,” Thomas said. Now with a national director of sales and a CMO, the company is moving to increase awareness of kombucha as a soda alternative and the country’s largest teahouse based brand as a viable pursuit brand to category leader GT’s.

Hear how the company plans to bring more consumers into the fold, and its strategy for helping the industry ward off regulatory concerns by getting alcohol out of its products, by watching Klineman’s video interview with Thomas, posted above.

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