With a little more tinkering of liquid, packaging and positioning, Roar Organic electrolyte-infused brand is driving hard this summer to more than triple its retail presence across US, while readying first comprehensive marketing campaign in coming weeks. 

Recall that brand pivoted from being male-oriented clean sports drink to targeting female millennial achievers, all while putting into place new sales and finance teams and building out operations crew under new prexy Bart Silvestro, a Chef’s Cut vet (BBI, Jan 30).  Also joining c-suite was Vitaminwater and Core vet Eric “Bernie” Berniker, in as cmo in Feb (BBI, Feb 28).  As of Jan, when we last looked in on brand, it was available in 2-3K retail doors, but aim is to hit 10K doors this summer, Bart and Bernie said in discussion yesterday.  Taking heart from strong performance in Wegmans, where Silvestro said Roar accounts for 55% of total growth in “advanced hydration” set dominated by coconut water entries, brand is expanding its presence in Safeway/Albertsons from 200 doors in single div to 2K doors spread across 13 divs, winning secondary displays.  Meanwhile, test in cutting-edge “With Love” sections of 125 7-Eleven stores in LA metro (BBI, May 17) has justified addition of 400+ doors in retailer’s North Atlantic div.  Brand continues to grow in influencer accounts worked by DSD partner LA Distribution, including Erewhon, Gelson’s and Bristol Farms.  In NY it’s working with Dora’s Naturals to similarly crack leading-edge retailers.  Encouragingly, Berniker noted, velocities are continuing to increase even as retail doors are added.  At in-store demos, trial-to-purchase ration runs 60-70%.

So far, the new cmo has focused on fundamentals: dialing up athleisurewear-like graphic cues on package, adding custom teal-blue cap to further up the premium identity and improving on-pack messaging about low sugar and fortification with antioxidants and B-vitamins.   Co enlisted R&D specialist who was able to enhance color and flavor of liquid without compromising on its organic cred, meaning colors don’t fade on shelf any more.  Website has been revamped and social media relaunched, mainly on Instagram.  And field marketing efforts have been initiated in LA, SF and NY to do demos, activate events and undertake guerrilla sampling efforts.  In NY, team is working such meccas for millennial women as Gurney’s Montauk Resort & Seawater Spa at east end of Long Island, along with Tues night workouts in city’s trendy Meatpacking District and entrepreneurship-oriented activities put on by likes of HelloWellness and Create & Cultivate.  Formal digitally driven marketing campaign debuts in a month or so under brand’s rubric, “Make Moves, Be Heard and Roar.”

Strategy calls for co to lead with 4 of its 6 flavors: Cucumber Watermelon, Mango Clementine, Georgia Peach and Blueberry Acai (the others are Strawberry Coconut and Pineapple Mint).  Tho SRP of $2.19-2.49 might have been a stretch in sports drink segment, where brand is positioned now it seems to work, with target consumers recognizing that organic recipe deserves a premium, Bart professed. 

Sweet Reason Beverage, a rare CBD play that mainly targets women (BBI, Apr 5), said it’s completed $2.5 mil seed investment round led by Lerer Hippeau, whose prior investments include Warby Parker, Allbirds and bev marketer Soylent. Also participating in round were Spindrift investor RiverPark Ventures, Boxed investor Max Ventures and endemic cannabis play Subversive Capital, which is allied with Privateer Holdings, per co’s announcement. As reported, co founded by Hilary McCain has so far taken deliberate approach with sugar-free, glass-bottle line, entering just 200 NY-area accounts so far, including likes of Westside Market and Dean & Deluca. It’s offered in spa-like flavors Grapefruit, Cucumber Mint, and Strawberry Lavender at $5.99. Hilary will use proceeds in part to build out sales team. Subversive general partner Michael Auerbach cited brand’s appeal as “high quality, delicious, precisely dosed, and made from safe, tested, federally legal hemp-derived CBD.”

Living Apothecary has entered Vitamin Cottage’s Natural Grocers banner in Rocky Mountain and Southwest region, while also placing 6-count club size of its Hibiscus Apricot flavor in some Costco stores in Northern Calif and Texas. Also newly aboard for refrigerated elixirs are Down to Earth Organic & Natural in Hawaii and Fairway Market in Northeast.

Looks like Rocky Mountain High Brands may have gotten a little ahead of itself in announcing deal to distribute CBD chocolates devised in collab with confectioner How Sweet It Is via Lipari Foods (BBI, Jun 25). That would be breakthrough considering how major distributors remain skittish about CBD segment on account of murky status of laws. But it doesn’t look like Lipari is ready to take that step after all. Now RMHB is quoting Lipari prexy/owner Lenny Cusenza emphasizing that “Lipari does not currently distribute foods containing hemp-derived CBD. Instead, Lipari’s current policy regarding hemp is to distribute foods only containing hemp seed-derived ingredients.” So Dallas-based RMHB will get started with Lipari with line of Sweet Rock confections infused with hemp seed oil, with CBD emerging later as FDA clarifies status, indicated Rocky Mountain High prexy/ceo Michael Welch, who sits on standards-setting US Hemp Roundtable.

Tired by now of reading about the Oatly oatmilk supply squeeze? Turn your attention, then, to organic celery. Recent NY Times story draws deft line between health guru Andrew William’s new book, Medical Medium Celery Juice: The Most Powerful Medicine of Our Time Healing Millions Worldwide, and a run on natural grocers by health-seekers chasing increasingly hard-to-find and hard-to-afford ingredient. At Perelandra natural foods grocer & juice bar in Brooklyn, that prompted spike in sales to 1,245 lbs in May, the month the book came out, vs 698 lbs a year earlier. Price has jumped from $2.11 to $3.67 per lb. “Produce crazes often occur in the wake of medical reports that extol a certain vegetable’s health benefits,” Times explains. “Sometimes the cause is something more scientifically nebulous, such as a citation in Goop or an appearance on ‘The Dr Oz Show.’ This year, people are crazy for celery.” Spike resulted not just from new book, which recs people drink 16 oz of the juice on empty stomach every morning, but from buzz emanating from Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop site and from Kim Kardashian West. Tho medical evidence to support book’s claims are described as slight, those endorsing regimen include Paltrow, Sylvester Stallone, Pharrell Williams, Robert DeNiro and Novak Djokovic. At Juice Press chain, ceo Michael Karsch skeptically launched 12-oz celery juice at $7 in response and was astonished to see it walk out the door. “Within a few days, it was our third best selling beverage, which is astonishing for a one-ingredient beverage,” he marveled. At big grower Duda, which has been wrestling with poor weather conditions, svp Sammy Duda said, “We’re familiar with all the celebrities who have endorsed celery juice. It’s difficult to put a number on it, but it certainly exacerbated the supply issue. This is uncharted territory.” Story can be read here.

There was one key admission at BevNet Live from Oatly’s Mike Messersmith:  the past year’s extensive out-of-stocks were not a diabolical plot to stoke demand.  So joked the brand’s N Amer gm, as he outlined puts & takes of dealing with explosively popular ingredient that’s spawned self-feeding frenzy of news stories featuring latte laments of oatmilk-deprived Brooklyn hipsters.  All of which helped to further build demand, of course, effort that’s now being further stoked with outdoor ad campaign in NY and 3 other markets (BBI, May 21).  “Scarcity was not a strategy – our team is not that smart,” Mike insisted to his audience in NY a coupla weeks ago.  Execs “did not maniacally laugh behind closed doors, Look what we’ve done!”  Tho only in US market a coupla years, Swedish co already has carved out distinctive marketing voice, often carved out in all-caps white letters in unique font against black background, deployed in service of ridiculing the notion of advertising while coaxing eyeballs into gazing on its gabletop carton. 

In BevNet presentation, Messersmith made argument that brands need to be out there standing for something, even if inevitably that requires some course corrections along the way.  So if one consumer wrote in, “This tastes like sh*t! Blah!” then why not put it on the package, as badge of brand’s transparency?  “What brand would say that about its own product?” Mike asked.  “So many brands struggle to be loved by everyone that they are afraid to offend anyone.”  In this case offense was duly taken, and a recall was initiated.  “It doesn’t even say ‘shit!’” Messersmith marveled.  “I guess we’re taking back hundreds of thousands of packages because we put ‘sh*t’ on the package.”  While that was an expensive miscalculation, the lesson is that “you can’t operate an organization out of fear.”  Rather, take a risk profile that allows you to be aggressive, he urged.  Of course, in retelling incident, Mike was continuing to milk it for value in highlighting edgy, fearless corporate ethos.

Tho Oatly buildout’s outlines are familiar by now, thanks in part to exhaustive media coverage, Messersmith offered behind-the-scenes view of riding that rocket.  When brand launched in US, Mike had never heard of oatmilk himself, even tho he played in dairy space at Chobani.  How, then, to get to people to try it?  The co settled on coffee shops, launching a single sku in summer 2017 in San Francisco.  Outdoor ads adopted brand’s distinctive meta-advertising persona:  “You might want to ask your local barista for a coffee made with this.  Or not. Whatever.”  Soon, 10-15 cafes became 30, then 50, and Oatly team could see trend building on Instagram.

So the effort seemed to be working.  Problem is, Mike observed, there’s a fine line between “It’s working” and “Oh shit, it’s working.”  That was what brought home to him in his own Upper West Side nabe, when the Irving Farms Roasters café nearby posted printed sign on door heralding that it was out of Oatly.  A hand-written sign would have been one thing, but this one’s printed nature spooked Messersmith.  That suggested “the problem must be worse than I thought, because they think they may use it again.”  (BBI editor frequents same chain, and he’s seen signs heralding both that Oatly is out of stock and that it’s back in stock.  At East Side store Fri, barista said chain hedges its reliance on brand with use of Califia Farms entry as alternative.)  During a corporate retreat about that time, the team noted theme trending on Twitter that “Brooklyn is ‘running out of oat milk.’”  Messersmith remembers thinking, “This is amazing and terrible all at the same time.”

Terrible because there was no easy remedy to solve squeeze, given co’s use of special process and equipment.  So there’s a real tension between scale and quality.  Only answer was “to take your lumps and deal with it and try to dig your way out.”  That meant first setting accurate expectations.  “The natural inclination is to tell them what will make the pain go away: It will be solved in 3 weeks!  The minute you do that you erode your trust and credibility . . . The minute you fall into that trap it’s going to be a self-repeating cycle.”  So Oatly tried to accurately convey how much was available and assure customers it was building major plant in NJ.  Meanwhile, crisis offered “opportunity to knit people together and forge a common sense of purpose.”  It helps that Oatly’s team in Sweden has been thru this issue in other markets.

That said, you “can’t waste a good crisis internally,” Messersmith argued, saying the crisis proved beneficial in revealing flaws in Oatly’s internal processes.  “We had no inventory for 18 months, it was like draining water from a lake and revealing all the rocks, what we had to get better at,” he said.  So rather than shipping what inventory they had, then calling it a day, Oatly team upgraded areas that were “too loose and underdeveloped.”

And as uncomfortable as its discussions with trade partners might have been, Oatly was able to use crisis to reinforce its commitment to following intricate production process without compromising quality.  “Consumers have horror stories about brands they love that got bigger, but it doesn’t taste the same, has other ingredients in there, it’s not the same.”  All the interest from media and consumers “gave us a chance to tell the story in different ways.”

Of course, Oatly’s popularity, along with its inability to come close to fulfilling demand, has spawned a broad array of rival entries.  Since Messersmith only worries about the things he can control, he tries not to lose sleep over all the new competitors.  “You dream of creating enough category momentum that other people would want to enter,” he reasons.  “If I’m the only one doing this, how big of an idea can it be?” Meanwhile, co loses no chance to remind its customers that for 25 years it’s been fixated on producing oatmilk and only oatmilk, rather than being a dairy or almondmilk producer that added a few oatmilk sku’s to ride the wave.  “The biggest threat is not that they launch a great product but rather a lousy or inferior product,” since category is still early in its adoption curve, Messersmith worries.

As for parent in Sweden, it offered moral support (and funding to build plants) if not liquid support.  “There’s an empathy there that’s really helpful,” even if parent wasn’t in a position to be able to divert production from other markets to US.  (He did make request.)  “The biggest support I needed was to build the factory,” and that just opened in Millville, NJ, in Apr and word recently emerged that it’s building another one in Utah at $40 mil cost (BBI, Apr 3).  Of course, that ability to put spades in the ground was another advantage of being a unit of an established international co.  “On our own, even with great outside investors, it would have taken a 6-12 month period to raise the money, then we could get started on building.”  As reported here, Oatly has raft of oat-based products in additional categories, from ice cream to kids’ snacks, that it’s aiming to bring over once capacity squeeze is behind it.

The Brooklyn-based co behind Bruce Cost Ginger Ale continued diversification push under its Brooklyn Crafted brand, offering flock of Asian herbal teas called Liang Cha as well as calamansi-based juices and sugar-free cinnamon elixirs.  But it also did some winnowing, dropping mixer-oriented 8.4-oz cans after copacker exited that format as well as Bruce Cost Ginger Beer that wasn’t differentiated enough vs core Bruce Cost Ginger Ale.  And it now sports its own bottling line installed at its ginger factory in Bushwick neighborhood, vastly facilitating experimental approach with glass-bottle entries now that co no longer has to worry about meeting copackers’ minimum run requirements. 

Liang Cha, whose name literally means “herbal tea” in Chinese, is shelf-stable line that draws on traditional teas served in bowls in China, using modicum of cane sugar to offset herbs’ bitterness, said BCGA exec Kevin Li.  Calorie count is in range of 70.  It’s launching in NY metro in Hawthorn Berry, Hibiscus Flower, detoxifying Prunella (Xia Ku Cao), Ten Herb and Brown Sugar Ginger flavors, at SRP of $1.99 per 10-oz bottle.  Chrysanthemum Flower flavor is in works.  The Calamansi-Ade line is going out in 10-oz bottles similarly priced at $1.99 in range of 5 flavors: Original, stevia-sweetened Lite, Mango, Pomegranate and Ginger, carrying a heavy kick.  And the cinnamon line, seeking to ride ingredient’s association with reducing inflammation and lowering cholesterol, goes out in Cinnamon (with no added sugar) as well as Cinnamon & Apple, both using Vietnamese-sourced cinnamon.  All 3 lines are heralded on front label as “brewed in Brooklyn, NY,” thanks to new bottling line.  Recall that Bushwick plant has boasted extensive ginger processing capability, but until now had to send all items out for copacking. 

Meanwhile, with Bruce Cost-branded ginger beer having been discontinued as insufficiently different from core ginger ales, those entries now all go under Brooklyn Crafted umbrella, which by now encompasses ginger beers in 12-oz bottles, mixer-oriented 7-oz bottles and 12-oz cans.  The Brooklyn Crafted line was launched after falling out with cofounder Bruce Cost, the Asian-cooking authority, who wouldn’t countenance stevia in items bearing his name, but by now is far more extensive in its offerings than Bruce Cost line.  Also in mix of co that’s updated its name from BCGA Concept to Brooklyn Food & Beverage is ReTreat line of tropical juices that wasn’t getting as much emphasis at Fancy Food booth.

Count music superstar Shakira as latest to sign up as High Brew Coffee investor/endorser. Shakira argued that brand positioned as being “for those who do” and uses coffee beans from De Los Andes co-op in her native Colombia, cold-brewed coffee brand is good fit. “I am always trying new convenient foods and drinks that will give me energy and keep me focused but don’t sacrifice quality ingredients or taste,” she said in statement issued by Austin-based co. “After discovering High Brew and then meeting with the founder, I knew this was a brand I aligned with.