Adding to the Brand Family Strengthening Wholesaler Partnerships, Decoding the Consumer

Leaders guiding three of the beer category’s top brands -- Firestone Walker’s 805, Constellation Brands’ Modelo and Sierra Nevada’s Little Thing -- shared insights on building those brand families.

Firestone Walker has found success beyond its core brand with 805 blonde ale, the brewery’s best-selling offering in off-premise retailers. Despite not having nationwide distribution, 805 is the No. 12 best-selling craft brand in IRI tracked channels.

Since its 2012 launch, 805 has maintained a brand identity that is distinct from the Firestone Walker portfolio. The company launched a sister brand, Mexican-inspired lager 805 Cerveza, and while both 805s look and feel similar, they target different consumers.

“If you’re creating an incremental product, the idea is incremental customers,” Hinz said. “The last thing that we want to do is trade a Cerveza drinker into an 805 drinker.”

Meanwhile, Sierra Nevada’s Hazy Little Thing, which launched in 2018, has eclipsed flagship Sierra Nevada Pale Ale to become the third best-selling craft brand in IRI-tracked off-premise retailers. However, Hazy Little Thing proved to be “highly divisive,” even internally, Ingram said.

“It was not popular with a lot of folks inside our walls, because they felt like we were maybe chasing a fad or it wasn’t congruent with the traditional Sierra Nevada mold,” he said. “So, we felt like that was all the more reason to give it its own identity and pull it apart from what people have come to expect from Sierra Nevada. And I think that a large part of its success, frankly, is that it did stand out, it did stand alone.”

For the Modelo brand family, incremental growth has come from its Modelo Chelada line extension, which launched nearly 10 years ago and now includes several fruit-forward offerings in addition to its original traditional tomatobased offering.

“We really felt like we could come into that segment with a strong brand that brought really strong authentically Mexican credentials, deliver a really high-quality product in a new segment that was valuable and at the same time, strengthened back to our master brand,” Gallagher said.

Forming a healthy relationship with a distributor is one of the most beneficial things a brewer can do to ensure long-term success, Scout Distribution CEO and co-founder Jeff Hansson and Reyes Beer Division VP of craft and innovation Jessica Muskey shared.

High on their list of things brewers can do? Get to know the distributor sales staff who will be in the market representing the brands.

“It’s great to have a relationship with me, but you need to have a relationship at the local level with our folks who are out there talking to our customers on a daily basis and selling – that’s where you need to get that focus,” Muskey said.

Hansson echoed the sentiment and encouraged suppliers to be “engaged with the team.”

“Go out and deck our drivers out with merchandise,” he said. “Anything to get share of mind with our people, first and foremost, especially mid-level management and down is so important, because it’s true; brands will call me and I’m like ‘Look, you can talk to me all day, but it’s the people that are gonna go get the wins for you and the placements in the trade, those are the people you got to talk to.’”

Nevertheless, understanding the modern consumer remains tricky. Mary Guiver, global principal category merchant for beer at Whole Foods, and Jamie Carawan, Buffalo Wild Wings’ VP of brand menu and culinary, noted the dichotomy between consumers seeking no- and low-alcohol options and those wanting higher ABV products.

Guiver noted that consumers are looking for sale tags, even as others are dropping $25 for 4-packs of local craft beer. Nevertheless, she cautioned bev-alc brands not to push price in 2023.

Carawan added that some Buffalo Wild Wings consumers are pulling back on the number of visits -- making a decision between filling their gas tanks and dining out.

“If they were coming twice, they’re coming once a week,” he said. “If they were coming four times a month, they’re coming twice a month. And they’re really managing check right now. So we’re looking at how do we deliver value?”

Sunboy Wins 2022 Pitch Slam Competition

Hard coconut water maker Sunboy won the 14th edition of Brewbound’s Pitch Slam competition, presented by Ollie, a Next Glass company.

New York City-based Sunboy bested five other finalists -- including High Seas Mead, Primary Colors Brewing, RationAle Brewing, Rincon Reservation Road Brewery and Shoal Draft Cider -- to claim the top spot.

In a four-minute pitch, co-founder Yair Tygiel shared the story of his brand’s founding, which began with a custom method to brand coconuts for beverage companies for experiential marketing events in New York City prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Sunboy hits on all of the biggest trends: ready-to-drink, better-for-you, lower sugar and lower alcohol,” Tygiel said. “We’re not allowed to make any explicit health claims, but we really don’t have to. Consumers understand that coconut water is hydrating, it’s healthy. It’s what they reach for in the morning when they’re feeling hungover.”

Sunboy, launched in 2021, is in more than 100 retail accounts in New York, including Whole Foods Market. Its products (5% ABV, 130 calories and 3 grams of sugar per 12 oz. can) are available in three flavors: passion fruit, tangerine, and pineapple.

“Choosing retail targets is easy for us,” Tygiel said. “One of our off-premise cheats is to target accounts that already sell a lot of coconut water. We know our customers are there, and it’s easy for us to sell a 4-pack of Sunboy for $10.99 when consumers are used to paying $6 for a single bottle of coconut water in the same store.”

Who

More than 300 beverage brands and approximately 60,000 attendees

BevNET Staff

BevNET, NOSH and Taste Radio will be interviewing, broadcasting and filming throughout the event. If you’re attending or exhibiting, let’s connect! Reach out at news@bevnet.com, news@nosh.com, or ask@tasteradio.com

Each year, BevNET’s annual Best Of awards honors companies, brands, individuals, products, ideas and trends from across the dynamic and ever-changing beverage landscape.

At the beginning of this year, there was a sense that perhaps the worst effects of the pandemic were beginning to wane. Yet after a year spent navigating supply chain gridlock and labor shortages, 2022 saw a new wrench thrown into the recovery machine with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February. Global inflation suddenly kicked into overdrive, and shoppers felt its impact every time they stepped into grocery stores across the country. Even against that deeply challenging backdrop, food and beverage entrepreneurs remained ambitious, optimistic and resilient, staying true to their core principles while displaying an admirable ability to cope with rapidly changing conditions.

Brand Of The Year

Liquid Death

Liquid Death never had to spend much time in the darkness. When the canned water maker launched in 2019 it hit the market like a bat out of hell, ushering in a reign of terror against PET packaging and staid branding. Over the past three years, Liquid Death has dominated the conversation in the water category thanks to its humorous, heavy metal tinged marketing that continues to push the boundaries of where mainstream beverage advertising can tread; whether it’s having Tony Hawk mix his blood into the ink of a limited edition skateboard or Tasering its haters, the company knows how to get people talking. Much of the unique voice and vision for the brand has stemmed from cofounder and CEO Mike Cessario, and its quick success is already serving as a case study for other CPG brands. After all, how many three-year-old brands can say they regularly hear from consumers who have tattooed the logo on their bodies?

But Liquid Death’s success is not just some big show; the brand has put its ax to the grindstone to execute a serious sales strategy that has it on track to clear $130 million in sales this year, with over $195 million in investment to date and a $700 million valuation. The sustainably packaged water now has 94% national distribution coverage through DSD and broad- line partners with a reach of up to 346,000 doors, in addition to over 400,000 on-premise and foodservice accounts, plus an exclusive deal with concert venue owner Live Nation. As it prepares to move production to the U.S. next year and expands its portfolio into new categories with an iced tea line, it’s clear Liquid Death is as serious as they come. The journey to the top of the mountain may still be a long and treacherous one, but this brand very much seems to enjoy the battle.

The examples aren’t lacking, whether it’s Seth Goldman rising to help farmers (and tea drinkers) recover after Honest Tea’s closure; or Liquid Death seizing its opportunity to become a large scale beverage brand platform; or how innovation is happening on either side of the alcohol divide with products from Ghia and Togronis; or the way brands like Bawi, Sanzo, Ghost Town and others have helped inject fresh ideas and voices into popular drink categories. If anyone ever questioned the ingenuity and fighting spirit found within CPG, this year provided the industry’s emphatic and defiant response.

The winners of BevNET’s Best of 2022 Awards embody that spirit and drive, combining inspiration with effort, style, dynamism and personality. Even amid a period of global upheaval, when the world reaches for a drink, these brands and leaders are there to serve that demand.

Person Of The Year

Seth Goldman, Co-Founder, Eat the Change

Seth Goldman picked up the pieces of his former brand’s broken luck this year and super glued them back together into something that could end up even stronger the second time around.

The celebrated “good guy” entrepreneur could have sat back and played the skeptic when the Coca-Cola Co. announced it was going to kill off Honest Tea, the signature product of the organic beverage brand that Goldman cofounded and later sold to Coke back in 2011. But rather than simply express his discontent and continue to count his millions – and keep his energy directed toward other enterprises, including vegan restaurant chain PLNT Burger and emerging snack platform Eat the Change – Goldman stood back up.

Goldman recognized that the stakeholders in Honest Tea – most prominently the multiple certified organic and Fair Trade suppliers of tea and other ingredients – were poised to lose business along with the consumers who had been crestfallen by Coke’s announcement. Moreover, in discontinuing Honest Tea, Coke had created a hole in the market for a product very much like Honest Tea, with the same conscious bona fides, addressing the very same loyal consumers.

Best Marketing

Liquid Death Election Hydration Kit

Our Brand of the Year winner may be best known for screaming skulls, melting faces and collecting human souls, but that doesn’t mean they’re not patriots.

Last year, the state of Georgia passed a controversial election bill – SB 202 – that criminalized handing out food or water to people within 150 feet of a polling station, potentially leaving voters stuck in lengthy lines longing for a way to quench their thirst. Working with nonpartisan voter turnout org HeadCount, Liquid Death sought to circumvent the legislation and provide Georgians a convenient way to bring water with them to the polls. The brand sold Election Hydration Kits consisting of a fanny pack and a can of Liquid Death, available online for just $1 to any consumer living in Georgia.

Political marketing is always a big risk for a brand, but seeing as Georgia reported record-breaking early voting turnout for a midterm this year, we have to call this one a win for democracy and yet another win for Liquid Death.

No, it wouldn’t be Honest – that brand is still Coke property and is deployed for a successful kids drink line. But in the space of just a couple of months, Goldman – alongside old partner Barry Nalebuff, new compadre Spike Mendelsohn, and a host of his old sales team under the Eat the Change platform – have launched Just Ice Tea.

We can’t predict whether there’s another life-altering business in Just Ice Tea for Goldman, but what we can say is that the fast work to fi ll the gap is totally consistent with his nature, which is to use business forces to make the world better. He’s Person of the Year because he’s answered the call once again, swift ly, forcefully, and with a smile.

RISING STARS Congo Brands

Kentucky-based Congo Brands is a somewhat unusual choice for a Rising Star award, as the company has built a portfolio of multiple independent brands – mostly created in partnership with celebrities and influencers – which are swiftly scaled through a robust sales and marketing program that allows these new products to get on shelf with experienced merchandising support. The strength of Congo’s portfolio made it difficult to choose just one brand to single out. Their breakout star, no doubt, is energy and protein line Alani Nu, which has quickly emerged as one of the fastest growing brands in the performance energy subset while breaking new ground in the category with female consumers. But also catching our eye is their new sports drink brand PRIME, launched this year with YouTubers Logan Paul and KSI, and which is well on its way to reach high-eight-digit sales in its first year on the market. Next up for launch: sweet tea line Down South. Only time will tell if it will be a three-peat success, but with Alani Nu and PRIME as models Congo has more than proven they know how to build brand equity and consumer loyalty with speed and precision.

Ghost

From a distance, GHOST may not appear all that unique. Similar to fast-growing players like Bang, C4, ZOA and Celsius, the company has emerged as part of a new class of energy drinks that balance strong fitness credentials with a modern, lifestyle oriented approach to branding. But while those names have taken a splashy approach to marketing, GHOST’s massive growth thus far — nearly $188 million in sales last year — has come with hardly any traditional advertising, which only hints at the company’s scary potential and cements its status as a leader in the set. While its powdered products keep turning over, the brand’s flagship RTDs, now in around 60,000 doors nationwide, are poised to outperform its supplements business for the first time ever this year, thanks to the success of licensing deals with iconic candy brands including Sour Patch Kids and Warheads. Fueled by a fervent online following, deep roots in the gaming community, a robust apparel business and minority investment from AnheuserBusch, GHOST has proved to be a potent vehicle for selling beverages, supplements and clothes alike.

Lemon Perfect

With over $42.2 million in financing and 40,000 doors nationwide, it’s hard to believe Lemon Perfect has barely even begun to turn on its marketing machine. The Atlanta-based enhanced water brand, founded by CEO Yanni Hufnagel, instead has been as sales-focused as can be with a team of industry sales vets hailing from The Coca-Cola Company and Celsius. The result is a projected $60 million in sales revenue this year, while new investments in its marketing department should supercharge awareness in 2023. That expert execution – which has placed Lemon Perfect nationwide in Costco, CVS, Walmart and Target among other major accounts – certainly helped to bring pop star Beyoncé Knowles-Carter to the cap table, and it’s what makes this company one to watch.

Milo’s

Milo’s doesn’t fit the typical profile of a Rising Star award winner. For one, the brand — an offshoot of an Alabama-based food chain — has been around for decades, slowly growing and grinding away from the Coasts in a relatively quiet category, iced tea. Yet the family owned company’s commitment to executing at retail and thoughtful expansion has put it into a commanding position within the category: this year, Milo’s became the fourth-largest iced tea maker in the U.S. with sales surpassing $400 million. Even more impressive, those turns have come from refrigerated coolers, where its numbers dwarf those of major brands like Starbucks and GT’s Living Foods. The company hasn’t ignored innovation - see Nana B’s, its three-SKU line of zero-calorie flavored teas — or expansion — as in spending $60 million on a secondary production facility, with millions more earmarked for further infrastructure growth — but its sharp management and shrewd strategy proves you don’t have to be a revolutionary products to make a big impact.

Sanzo

In all possible ways, Sanzo has taken a refreshing approach. At its heart, the New York-based sparkling water brand is a celebration of long-overlooked Asian fruit flavors like yuzu, lychee, calamansi and alphonso mango. In a category where flavor innovation has at times been relatively weak, Sanzo offers a welcome injection of fresh energy, and has been rewarded for its efforts with rapid expansion across channels (DSD, foodservice and online) and critical growth capital ($10 million from CircleUp in February). But founder Sandro Roco’s vision for the company is clearly bigger: thanks in part to the support of investor Gold House Partners, an AAPI advocacy group with deep ties to artists and athletes, Sanzo has emerged as one of the bold leaders of a new generation of Asian-American CPG entrepreneurs, working with notable names like Pixar, Panda Express and former NBA star Jeremy Lin on various partnerships that both promote the brand and highlight the influence and impact of Asian culture. “Our ability to partner with creatives I think helps educate maybe the buyers, retailers, distribution partners that this is what’s happening in American culture and hopefully, as a beverage, we’re able to operate as that bridge,” Roco told BevNET earlier this year. We have a feeling that traffic is going to be steady.

Best Packaging

Bawi Agua Fresca

Bawi impressed us with its flavor, but the sparkling agua fresca brand’s packaging was just as special as its liquid. Capturing a street-poster vibe, the bold typography, clean lines and focus on big flavor reflect the drink’s authentic roots while teasing its better-for-you credentials.

De Soi

Modern adult non-alcoholic beverages, take note: this is how you put a complex drink into an approachable package. With a kiss of color, some sparse illustration and a few well-placed pieces of copy, De Soi visually communicates its elegantly simple approach with minimal fuss and style to spare.

Ghost Town Oats

Specialty coffee experts Michelle Johnson, Ezra Baker and Eric J. Grimm created Ghost Town Oats earlier this year with the goal of making the plant-based milk space more inclusive. They’ve also managed to make it more exciting, thanks in part to the eye-catching packaging of its premium oat milk. The graffiti-style black text, splashed against a flamingo-pink backdrop, stands out from the typical glut of blues and whites in the category, while the trio of ghosts that make the logo adds the perfect playful touch.

Motto

Matcha soda Motto certainly made an impression when it debuted in green glass bottles back in 2012. But even in ditching bottles for cans for its comeback this year, the brand still leaves a lasting impression. The deep, rich green looks gorgeous on the shelf, while the delicate placement of text and logo gives the appropriate feeling of something simultaneously both modern and steeped in craft and traditions.

Sarilla

Sarilla’s line of sparkling teas received a visual upgrade this year that marks a significant step forward. Each of the four varieties has its own bright, bold color scheme, but it’s the small touches — like the differently accented sun rays emerging from the bottom of the label, or the clean and inviting logo — that make the difference and feel likely to push Sarilla towards new and bigger audiences.

Best New Products

Bawi Agua Fresca

Bawi is one of several new brands attempting to build a viable RTD agua fresca category in U.S. retail, and we like their chances. Available in three flavors – El Limón, La Piña and Maracuyá – the lightly carbonated beverages are formulated with a list of clean ingredients including water, fruit juices and sugar, resulting in some of the best-tasting fruit drinks we’ve had in a while. We especially love La Piña’s high juice content which, at 48% from pineapple and lime juice, has a fresh and accurate fruit flavor. Meanwhile, Límon is a classic limeade style beverage and Maracuyá, made with passionfruit and lime juices, transports your tastebuds to a tropical oasis.

Brooklyn Cannery

Amid this year’s wave of betterfor-you functional soda releases, Brooklyn Cannery made a noteworthy splash with its 5-SKU lineup. In addition to its retro-inspired packaging and on-trend incorporation of probiotics, Brooklyn Cannery has differentiated itself through bold, multidimensional flavor profiles such as Key Lime with Jalapeño and Cola Amaretto. All five flavors are standouts (especially for low calorie sodas), and the level of sweetness comes pretty close to a full calorie soft drink.

Dr. Perfy

Mood-boosting functional soda startup Perfy introduced some very tasty fruit flavors when it launched last year, but this fourth SKU – a twist on a nostalgic classic soda flavor – takes their innovation to a new level. The blend of low sugar fruit ingredients like blueberry, marion blackberry and pear juice, mixed with zero calorie sweeteners, hits a perfect balance, while the NFT-branded can displays a sharp and consumer friendly means of furthering the brand’s online ambitions.

Ghia Le Spritz Lime & Salt

Last year in this category, we recognized the debut flavor of Ghia’s RTD Le Spritz line of RTD, non-alcoholic aperitifs. This year, the brand has followed up with a powerful punch in its latest Mediterranean-inspired variety, Lime & Salt. Best described by the company itself as tasting like “a dip in the sea,” Lime & Salt is certainly similar to a margarita, but with a flavor profile bearing notes of olive and anchovies, it’s something far more than a zero proof alternative. Ghia has once again delivered a complex and delicious product.

Hoplark 0.0

Since launching in 2018, Boulder, Colorado-based Hoplark Water has made a name for itself by deliberately blurring category lines with its non-alcoholic hopped teas that simultaneously play into the beer and standard beverage sets. The company’s fi rst attempt to take on beer head-on reflects its eagerness to experiment and consistently innovate: Really Really Hoppy, Hoplark’s take on the West Coast IPA, is double dry hopped with Simcoe and Citra hops, while Citra offers a bright and juicy flavor bomb that stands up to the best of what you’d fi nd from a craft brewer. Hoplark continues to reimagine the possibilities for what modern, adult non-alc can be, with style and flair to spare.

Loftiwater

When Todd Charmichael left his post as CEO of La Colombe, the visionary entrepreneur promised his next project would be an entirely original, innovative beverage format, developed with experimental formulation techniques to produce something unlike anything that had come before. With that product making its debut this year, we can confi rm that it meets those loft y expectations. Billed as a “shimmering water,” Loft iwater is bubbly, sweet – but without sweetener – and refreshing, with a texture and mouthfeel all its own.

Nguyen Coffee Supply

The phrase “Vietnamese coffee” typically conjures up the image of a particularly potent, sweetened and indulgent drink. But for Nguyen Coffee Supply’s first steps into the RTD sector, they’ve gone for a zero sugar, clean Classic Black cold brew that brings out the complex, delectable flavor of Vietnamese robusta coffee beans. While the company has said new flavors are in the works, the strength of this coffee, packaged in a 7.5 oz. can, is award-worthy on its own.

Parch

Non-alcoholic agave spirits brand Parch has delivered an impressive and original take on classic cocktail flavors with its debut varieties, Spiced Piñarata and Prickly Paloma. Containing 70 calories and 17 grams of sugar per 8.4 ounce can, Parch’s alcohol alternative line also provides a sober-friendly functional lift from its a blend of adaptogens and botanical extracts – including GABA, ginseng, L-theanine, and ashwagandha. Whether it’s sweet or spicy, Parch’s drinks are refreshing and crushable, with beautiful packaging to boot.

Rishi Sparkling Botanicals Bergamot Oolong

Premium tea maker Rishi’s Sparkling Botanicals line impressed us when it launched in 2020 with its categoryblurring, low calorie and delicious canned teas. Their latest line extension, Bergamot Oolong, follows in suit with its blend of citrus and teaforward flavor profi le. Unsweetened, with 30 mg of caffeine per 12 oz. can, it’s also a great better-for-you midday pick-me-up.

Sanzo Yuzu With Ginger

Asian-inspired sparkling water maker Sanzo has built its brand around disrupting the crowded traditional sparkling water category, and this year it forged further ahead with a captivating new flavor, Yuzu With Ginger. Bursting with the bright, tart citrus bite of fresh yuzu, the drink strikes a perfect balance of simplicity and flavor with pleasantly bitter tasting notes and a bright floral aroma.

TWRL Milk Tea

As awareness of boba and milk tea continues to rise in the U.S., standing out in the increasingly saturated category can create a challenge for CPG brands. However, Twrl M!lk Tea has been doing just that, thanks to its vibrant branding, light sweetness, plant-based ingredients (pea milk in place of traditional dairy) and overall fun and innovative design from liquid to package. Available in three flavors – Hojicha Roasted Green, Original Black and Supreme Jasmine– the nitro-infused plant-based milk teas have just 40-50 calories per 7.5 oz. can and are sweetened with agave syrup. Between its non-traditional incorporation of plantbased dairy and great taste, this milk tea is one of the best we have tried in 2022.