Sponsored Workshop: Kerry’s Blueprint for Co-Creation Innovation

Speaker 1 [00:11] So welcome everyone uh to Kerry's Blueprint for co-creation and innovation. Today is gonna be a little different than a normal session. So, we're gonna take you through the co-creation process of Kerry and working with emerging brands, but we're probably gonna take about 30 minutes as far as presentation and then we want you to have time. In lieu of Q&A to actually come up to each of the areas and so we'll have the RDNA team back here in the far section, so you can ask any formulation questions, we'll have some sampling, we'll have Bowen team here, um, we'll have commercial here, so talking about the co-creation session and, and how you can be engaged with Kerry and so we're trying to make it more of an interactive session, um, as this comes in, but if you have questions, feel free to ask, but just know you'll have time with each of the experts. So, uh, for anybody who's not familiar with KAI, uh, we are one of the the world's leader in taste and nutrition across food, beverage, and pharmaceutical markets. Uh, our broad portfolio ingredients gives us a reach to over a billion consumers. Um, 18,000 products, 147 different manufacturing locations, and 15,000 customers, and this is across both emerging and developed markets. Um, we have over 23,000 employees from 112 different nationalities, 70 RDNA centers with over 1100 RDNA scientists, and this is critical because it allows us to stay at the forefront of innovation from a global scale, um. In addition to that, when you look at where our purpose is from a carry perspective, it's around inspiring food and nourishing life, and inspiring food is really about innovation and how do we create food that is sustainable from a nutritional standpoint as well, so. Within that scope, you've got an $8 billion company within CARI, um, but for our team, we're the new Beverage Ventures team and we've created a specific niche within CARI that utilizes those, those, uh, technologies and such that we have from a global perspective, but in a co-creation process that we can work with small brands, and so we work with emerging brands anywhere from ideation into final commercialization. Um, and within that scope, so from an ideation process, the team's gonna take you through today, um, from a marketing when it comes to sensory and analytics, uh, certification assistance, uh, marketing consumer insights, when we get into the formulation and taste optimization. Edmon and team are gonna take you through is how do we work with those specific flavors and maskers and functional ingredients and specific on the bow. Um, then we're gonna get into the commercialization aspect. So how do we work with our partners within the co-mining side um and, and the services that we provide within that scope and at the end what you'll find is we'll talk about Bow Bow 3.0 specifically. A day and a hydration product, but whether it's refreshing, whether it's coffee functional, um, we're able to provide solutions across the board. So really the purpose of, of, of our team is to create, uh, get rid of the stress, right, when it comes to you creating a new brand and so that you can help grow and scale, uh, and do it in a fast manner. So with that, I will turn over to Aunt Amanda. Thanks, Sean. Um, so, looking at the category, so, um, a lot of times when we're talking beverage ideation, we first start with kind of what is the opportunity. Sometimes a brand might come to us and they already have kind of an idea, um, and maybe we kind of help them figure out where they, how they position or where they kind of fit in the shelf space since it is such a premium to, to fit in and you want to be differentiated. Um, so, probably most everyone in this room knows what the beverage category looks like. It has been kind of flatter declining over the last like, Um, you know, year or so. It's not all sad though. I mean, there's key factors, of course at play here. There's inflation, there's consumers buying fewer products, um, in some cases, in some categories, you have consumers trading for private label, uh, maybe to save some money. You've also got category blurring. So how Nielsen and other point of sales data sources classify things is getting harder and harder. It's harder to classify a beverage as just a single category anymore. You know, you've got energy into juice. You've got hydration plus, which we're talking about today, and, and everything in between. So it's just getting harder to kind of classify where things are going and to that point. You also have emerging brands that are really disrupting the market. So while soft drinks is flat, we know that poppy and lollipop, Culture pop, all those better for you, more premium options are seeing exponential growth in the category. Same with Prime in both energy and hydration. Even Starbucks is impacting the juice market with their growth with, you know, canning the refreshers and having those unpack as well, so. Um, highlighting the B 3.0, we knew we wanted to go for a hydration product. Um, performance nutrition, hydration supplements are, are big categories growing, and, and we knew we didn't want to be just another product in a sea of sameness. So, um, we, we sought to really differentiate. Sure. This is the US market. It is a good question. Growth is shown year over year in units sold, so good question. And this deck will be available through Bevnet so that you guys have all of the insights so don't feel like you have to feverishly take notes. Oh yeah, go ahead. So we do have from a global perspective, obviously we've had the similar insights we have the right. Yeah, thanks for that interjection, Sean. So, yeah, we are a global company. We, we partner globally, um, with all of our counterparts across the region, so we have insights that are available um to represent. OK, so as we've heard a lot in the showdown today and as all of you know, you have to have a target consumer and ideally your product is going to be something that is unique, differentiated, and fits a particular consumer need. Um, we were seeking again, that hydration supplement and the performance nutrition. So, everything from someone who's just looking to hydrate and have overall health and well-being, maybe some immune support, um, to someone who's maybe a runner or just living a, a relatively active lifestyle all the way to your hardcore athletes. And so that's who we were really trying to target with this particular product. Um, at CARI, we really pride ourselves on doing a lot of our own proprietary research. Of course, we subscribe to multiple sources as we already alluded to, but, um, we also do our own research to help kind of figure out, um, the latest in consumer trends and insights and what's happening in the market, um, to help brands that we support be successful. Um, so these are actually a sneak peek of our 2025 taste trends that were identified. Um, so these are actually both food and beverage, and they were aligned on as global trends, um, by all of our, our insights folks around the globe. Um, but I just wanted to point out like that fun with functional, that better for you trend, um, what else can my beverage do for me? Um, that whole idea is not going away, of course, and, and that's really kind of where we were playing, um, when we were developing this product. Furthermore, this is very hard to see, and apologies. Um, but again, you'll, you'll get it afterward. But we also chart, um, all of the flavors. So our taste charts is one of my personal favorite pieces of research that we do every year. This is 2024, but 2025 will be launching, um, I think mid-January. And so we chart everything on the left there from mainstream. So those are your top 10 selling flavors in beverage, water, and cold, which is like your more refreshing profiles as well as alcohol. Um, for the past 5 years. Key is the next 15, so together you've got the top 25, and then up and coming are your fastest-growing flavors for the past 3 years, and emerging are your fastest-growing flavors for the past year and the most trendy. Um, I highlighted, the flavors that are in the BO 3.0 product. Please stop up to try it. It is delicious if we do say so ourselves. Um, and all, all six of the flavor combinations that we have, well, there's 3 flavor combinations, 6 flavors total, um, are featured. So we, we definitely look to these a lot when we're In the ideation space, um, and then, of course, work with our R&D counterparts to make sure that whatever the beverage is, the, the flavor is going to complement both the need state from kind of that mental perspective. I mean, you'd never want probably a lavender flavored energy drink for the most part, um, since lavender is so associated with relaxation, um, but also complements any taste implications if you're using functional ingredients. So bringing this all together with the B 3.0 product again at that consumer needs box, so we were looking at the hydration and performance nutrition category. We wanted something that could be really consumed any time of day, ideally probably morning, afternoon, especially since we're targeting that active lifestyle. So maybe, you know, Morning workout or afternoon workout, however, or even just an afternoon pick me up. So, we also um chose the ready to mix stick pack, so it's easy and convenient to just throw in your work bag, throw in your gym bag, and, and have that on the go. Um, and then, uh, we also, again, really wanted to be differentiated, right? You don't wanna be just another hydration product on the shelf, um, and really, you know, speak to our target audience of athletes. Um, so with that, we looked to support, um, some additional claims to help support performance, and I'm gonna turn it over to Doctor Anthony Thomas to talk through those ingredients.

Speaker 2 [09:40] Well, good afternoon, everybody. Nutrition scientist, health and fitness enthusiast, and actually I'm coming to you as an experienced formulator from the dietary supplement industry. It's a little new to functional beverage space, and if you take a look at this product here, you'll notice it does carry a supplement facts panel. That's intentional. It contains some very functional ingredients that are used in dietary supplements. Now look, I'm looking at lots of products in the functional beverage space, and what I know, it's very different to stick an ingredient in a capsule than it is to put it in a beverage. Particularly botanicals, they don't always taste very good, right? So it's one thing to encapsulate it. It's another thing to get a great tasting product that has functional ingredients. Now what you can do is just put a little bit in in a proprietary blend, right, and hope it's doing something good, but we really don't know that in the dietary supplement space we're afforded something called structure function claims, but that needs to be anchored to. A clinical dose of an ingredient shown to convey therapeutic potential in a double-blind study, right? So if you look in this ingredient, we say it supports joint health, heart health, right? Well, if you're going to support your performance and recovery, right, you need things that support healthy vascular function, the comfort, the mobility of your joints so you can perform and recover. And contrary to popular belief, you don't need a lot of sugar to be hydrated, nor do you need large boluss of sodium. So it's a very thoughtful consideration we take when Designing a product to support healthy and active lifestyles across the lifespan. And so two of the branded ingredients, we have branded clinically backed ingredients are Capros omelet superfruit, sown in multiple clinical studies to support healthy blood flow and circulation, as well as cardiovascular health overall, and our IUFlex. A haratake fruit extract, and both of these fruits are adaptogens highly revered in traditional eastern medicinal systems, but these are modern day nutraceuticals with clinical research showing that they support the function reducing pain from knee exercises, these types of functionality, and they're at doses that are used in the clinical studies shown to be efficacious. No proprietary blends here. We're showing you the full dose, and when you look that up, you could find the research and the dose and use for it. But of course, like I said before, Putting this type of dosing of botans because they don't taste very good, into a beverage where taste of course reigns king, and Amanda said it, those products taste awesome, and you do need to taste them because no sugar, no bolus dose of sodium, and these functional botanicals, and this man right here and his team, he's the one that makes the magic happen and makes this thing taste good, not just like, eh, I can drink this, like I want to drink more of this. What's up. Yeah, thanks, Anthony. Um, so yeah, look, as, uh, as Anthony mentioned here, And we want to have a product that has efficacious dosages of functional ingredients so that we are true to what we're saying, that we're offering a functional claim, a functional benefit to our consumer. As you mentioned, these ingredients don't taste great typically and so the real benefit here comes in with our application team where we partner and pair our functional ingredients with our flavors and our modulation technology to really make a great tasting product. As we all know, taste is king. It's easy enough or maybe straightforward enough to make one product, but the repeat purchase is really what we're all after. And so we know these functional ingredients as well as our own, as well as other products that are in the market. We analyze them, we understand specifically what the off notes are, and then we build modulation technology really to dampen down the off notes of these functional ingredients, which enables us to make better tasting products and we do then put in. Uh, specific flavor profiles, in this case, say blackberry, blueberry, uh, blood orange, lemon, etc. that we, that we chose for these products. Um, just to bring this back to our co-creation model, where this actually comes into play for all of you guys as, um, as companies and then startup beverage brands, the, the value that we're offering here is that we were, we do this creation work, this development work, side by side, shoulder to shoulder with you guys as As product and brand owners in this case with Boe and team came into our facility and worked shoulder to shoulder with our scientists and our flavor creation experts to go through, say 3456 different iterations of each of these flavor profiles over the course of a day, which really enables us to To shorten down the development time from multiple weeks or multiple months, down to 1 or 2 days of development work where you can get through those iterations, and come out the other side with the perfect product, in this case 3 different flavor profiles. Um, but look, that's, that's the formulation part, that's not where we end our input to this engagement or to this relationship. We also support through, through coal-mining, through scale up, through regulatory, through sensory, etc. and I'm going to hand over to Jennifer who's going to talk you through some of those details now.

Speaker 3 [14:33] Thank you, Emmett. So one of the benefits of working with us is we have an extensive contract manufacturer network, so brands can tap into them and we can kind of help make the best introduction based on what's most important for your brand. For Bo, for example, he wanted a supplement facts panel on it, so we were able to pair him with something, you know, somebody who focuses there, but it doesn't have to just be that. We can look at things like even just geography or other capabilities. Um, and then. As Emmett mentioned, once that formula has been finalized, you'll be able to take that to the contract manufacturer, and we have R&D folks on site to support that entire process. They bring control samples. They're able to walk through and just make sure that everything you've tried and approved on the R&D level translates and scales up really well, and you end up with a perfect product. So then after that you're able to Take your, your formula and tap into some of these other resources that the comments have, so things like printing, package design, and things like that, and you just end up with a really wonderful complete product and you have a lot of support along the way. Um, so yeah, you don't have to listen to us. We wanted Bo to tell you himself about his experience walking through it, and I'll hand it over.

Speaker 4 [15:47] One thing that they did, that they failed to tell you about Carrie and all the people, all of the smart people that work there, which is everybody, is that um Larry and I, who is my partner, we got in touch with them, was it 2020, 2019 or 202,020? We got in touch with them in 2020, hey, we want to come up and talk to you to see if you would assist us in a nutritional beverage. And the reason for that is that everybody knows about my past. Sports wise. And I'm Educated on sports drinks, hydration drinks, and so forth and so on. When I was in college and high school, they had contracts with a certain company and that's what we drank. That's all we had. And you got to college, same thing. Left there you get to do whatever you want and Up until this, and not just because it's mine or I have my name on it. But the 3.0. is by far. The best tasting, the most logical sports hydration drink on the market, and it's not because of Bo Jackson. It's because of these people. It's because of food scientists, because of the doctors and everybody, Sean and everybody, making people come to the office in the middle of COVID when the rest of the country is shut down. And we're in that big office in Beloit, 3 to 4 people, and uh, how big is it? 300,000 square feet? 300,000 square feet building, only 5 people, 4 or 5 people, and we're arguing about taste. Too much salt. Way too much sugar and things like that, that, so that's how we spent our COVID up and down the highway because I'm a resident of Chicago and the burbs and the Lord is 2 hours, 2 hours from us. So we spent a lot of time going up the interstate. Now, once we got to a point to where we had something to, to where we all agreed. This took a year and a half or two. So this product has been in the making for almost 5 years. And the reason we are just coming out with it is because within the past year or so we finally hit the nail on the head with taste. Aftertaste, low sugar, low sodium. Uh, all of the good things that you need to have in it. Joint flex, we have joint. Mobility, heart health. Everything that you need in a good sports drink, good hydration drink, and we are going to continue to do what we're doing as far as trying to put something out on the market that everybody else that's in this field seems like they've forgotten to do. It's easy for me to go put my name on something and make a buck. Very easy. But If you buy this or purchase this or even taste it because of me, and that's what I say in every speech I give about this. If you do that because of me. Then there's something wrong with you. That's not, that's the clean version of what I say. At this product, for first of all, Everybody that shops, especially all the women, you are attracted to a product with your eyes. Then you're curious about what's in it. Maybe I'll buy one. Get it home, try it, let your kids try it or whatever, and you like it, and I'm betting the farm that once you try this, your taste buds are going to tell you that it's something that you want to take on. Period. I wouldn't put my name on it. I wouldn't associate it. I wouldn't associate my name and my brand with anything that I don't believe in. And because of my business partner here, we think. We've hit a home run with this. And We want you all to experience it, taste it, challenge it. Any questions, come back to us. Yeah, if I can't answer it. I got the smart people here to answer for me. Or my business partner, Larry. And I don't know if Larry got anything to say, but I'm gonna turn it over to him because I know you all don't want to be here all day.

Speaker 5 [20:49] Thanks, Bo. I think you said it all and said it well. Bo jumped in the food business, I think back in the 90s. He loves food. He loves to cook. And uh you know, I, I joined his board some years back and got to meet the folks at Ky. And so the first thing I want to say is this product would not have happened. With it starts, you know, the, the, the food thinks from the top. So Oliver Kelly and Sean and this team, um, they not only helped us conceive the product, but they were there every step of the way because he and I, you know, hadn't done this before. I was a college athlete. He was pretty good, and we decided, crap, you know, um, all the products out there, the ones we learned 3 out of 4 people in America are dehydrated, but there's one with too much. Sugar and there's one with too much sodium, and what would be a better mousetrap, a healthier one, a better tasting one that maybe had some other multi benefits. So it did take several years in the middle of COVID to work with the various challenges in supply chains all the way through packaging when they didn't just sell us the ingredients and leave me because we did not know how to get this packaged. We did not know how to find our, you know, our coman, the 3PL. And we still have weekly meetings as we have gone to market direct to consumer this year. We're on Amazon. We have our own website and we're doing daily marketing 7 days a week just to get consumer efficacy, to get the feedback that we that supports what we believe. And now we think we've gotten it, we've started to get it. And so now we're at that next phase to where, you know, we, we really need to get awareness, right? And it becomes a marketing. Game at some point and I can just tell you you would think their job was done with us, but it isn't and we talk about, you know, consumers right all the way outside in every day. So although in essence you know We're, we're co-founders or co-founders, call it what you want. This, this team has stayed together, and now the team is getting bigger with consumer feedback and efficacy. So I don't know, Bo, are you going to mix them up and you pass it out or I don't know what else we have for the. The rest of the presentation, but

Speaker 1 [23:02] yeah, so, so at this point, um, we're gonna have break, break out into stations. So in the far back we'll have Emmett and Danielle from our RDNA to answer any questions on formulation, and we have some samples from a carry perspective, non-bow that you can try. And consumer insights will be back there as well for Amanda, so taste charts and any information up here will be myself and Jennifer from a commercialization. So to be part of the co-creation process, we also will be giving away a Yeti cooler. So if you scan the barcode and put in, I think the ask is what Amanda, your biggest challenge with your current product? and then at 3 o'clock we will be 3:30, we'll be doing the drawing and sending some lucky winner. Uh, the, the Yeti, and then lastly, Bo, if you'd like to come up and try, which you all need to, the Bo 3.0. Bo and later I'll be up here, uh, serving that up as well. So with that, it's, it's kind of unique, but everybody can get up and just go to the station that you want to have communication with. So thanks everyone.

Speaker 2 [23:59] Appreciate your time.