Hello, dear friends, and thanks for tuning into Taste Radio, the number one podcast for anyone building a business in food or beverage. I'm Ray Latif, the editor and producer of Taste Radio, and I'm with my co-hosts, John Craven, Melissa Traverse, and Mike Schneider. In this episode, we talk about the rise of luxury and small format retail stores in urban markets, what they reveal about the opportunity for premium food and beverage brands.
We also weigh in on Olipop's newly announced refresh for its shelf-stable line, and sip and snack our way through a lineup of new launches, including a few high-profile collaborations. We also revisit a few standout conversations from Taste Radio's New York City meetup, including interviews with early-stage investor Mayur Aras, as well as Next Food CMO Lella Rafferty, and Wandering Bear co-founder Matt Bachmann, who share their perspectives on building brands, scaling businesses, and navigating today's consumer landscape So have you guys heard about this big industry event that's happening on June 10th and 11th?
Crunk and awesome, yeah. We haven't brought this up on the podcast yet, so I figured it'd be nice to talk about it 'cause it's only about two and a half weeks away. BevNET Live, New York City 2026, perhaps the biggest event in all of the beverage industry. I've heard so much about that event. Yeah. Are we doing that again this year?
Yeah, it's happening again. Yeah. So- We'll see her off the podcast. She's "I don't wanna talk about that." It's probably because we eat, dream, sleep, live BevNET Live like every day, and we look forward to it like a holiday. 24/7. I think other people feel the same way because we're expecting hundreds upon hundreds of people attending BevNET Live New York City 2026 once again on June 10th and 11th.
It is the premier event for the beverage industry, and BevNET Live touches all aspects of beverage, including retail, investment, distribution- Operations ... operations, formulations- Design ... you name it. Yeah, so if you- Retail, investment. Yeah I said those things. I'm just gonna say them again 'cause they're the most- Retail
important things. They're important. Hey, R- Ray, you forgot investment. Okay. Do you know there will be investors there, Ray? Did you know that there will be retail buyers from Whole Foods? Oh, really? From the Vitamin Shoppe. Specs? Specs. Will Specs be there? From several other retail chains that you want to be in.
Oh, I hope Top Tier is there. And if you are not there, you're gonna miss out on this opportunity. IRL, I always point this out. The best way- Please let GoPuff be there ... to make connections post-COVID. I think it's one of those things, once again, where I struggle when people are here in Boston, they're like, "Hey, can we do a quick phone call or a Zoom?"
I'm like, "Can we just meet for coffee or something, or a brew perhaps?" And if you're in New York City, planning to be in New York City, and I don't know why you wouldn't on June 10th and 11th, you will have a lot of those IRL conversations, and you will have deeper connections than you would otherwise.
And you will, and perhaps this is true, meet the people that will unlock the value that you've been seeking for a long time. I know that sounds commercially, but it's true. Again, we've pointed this out a number of times that when people come to BevNET Live They meet the investors they've been wanting to talk to.
They meet the retail buyers- ... they've been wanting to talk to. And don't worry if you're an introvert or you're worried about, oh, I don't know how to navigate the show or how to approach someone, that's what we're here for. We're here to support you as you make your way through BevNET Live.
Put your phone away, leave your laptop in your room, immerse yourself in the event, be present. The people that you're talking to, whoever's in front of you at that time is who you're meant to talk to at that moment. You're gonna learn so much. You're gonna jumpstart your network. You're gonna get your hardest questions answered.
You're gonna answer questions for other people, too. This is a great opportunity to, give your advice to people and to get the best advice for how to move forward. And they want to talk to you. Again, this isn't Expo West. You're not standing behind a table waiting for a buyer, investor to stop and talk to you.
We're all in the same room. They want to talk to you, and you can talk to anybody you want. We say this all the time, but it's true. There's lots of great brands that we idolize today that came to BevNET Live when they were just getting started, folks like Poppi and Liquid Death, Athletic Brewing, who- Ugh
found their first investor at BevNET Live. There'll also be founders like Ben Weiss, who sold his business for $1.7 billion to Keurig Dr Pepper, and that was, I believe, and it was 2017, 2018. I'm getting the, It's been a while now ... the dates. It's been a while now. It's been a couple lives.
Yeah. But he's back in the business with a brand called Crooked Pop, and he'll be on stage, and I'm sure he's someone that will be available to speak with as well. So these are the kinds of people that, again, as Melissa pointed out, could be future mentors, advisors to your brand, your company.
All you have to do is show up at BevNET Live. What else do you have to do? Exactly. Sit. Sit at home, be on Zoom meetings. Yeah. Look at LinkedIn. Exactly. June 10th and 11th. You can do that any day. What else is going on? Exactly. June 10th and 11th. Learn more at bevnetlive.com. I mentioned that we'll have a couple Whole Foods buyers attending BevNET Live, and I'm really excited for Whole Foods to be bringing their Daily Shop concept to the Boston area, as well as two other US markets, including Chicago and Philadelphia.
That's happening over the next two years. These formats are much smaller stores, smaller locations, and they're designed to service urban areas and urban neighborhoods, and really interesting concept because When you think about small grocery stores, typically I think of bodega-type experiences, but those retail shops typically don't have the selection that Whole Foods might have.
And it's exciting for folks in the Boston area, especially ones who live in neighborhoods like the Seaport, where there aren't a lot of grocery options, for Whole Foods to have a presence there. Yeah, Whole Foods Market has eight of these daily shops already in places like New York City, London, Virginia, so they're adding three more, which is definitely exciting news.
And this is part of a... I don't know if it's a trend we're seeing. It's something that's been going on for a while, but Laurel Supply is a smaller, higher-end grocery store that just opened up in LA. I think I, I saw it posed as LA's healthiest grocery store. There's also one called Nude Miami that just opened in Miami.
So these are, high-end, really beautiful, smaller grocery shops. So it's definitely a thing. There's definitely a market for higher-end, more luxurious grocery, as there is on the opposite end for places like Aldi. It seems like where people are getting squeezed is in the middle. How dare you call Aldi not luxurious?
It's not, Mike. I don't know how else to put it. Yeah. Which is why it's so much cheaper. I love Aldi. Yeah. But in a strange- It's no-frills ... in a strange twist, this store, Laurel Supply, is positioned as somewhat more affordable than Erewhon. I saw their smoothies are a little bit cheaper than the Erewhon smoothies.
Yeah, somewhat more affordable than Erewhon, AKA every place that's not Erewhon, right? Yeah, so Laurel Supply opened up in West Hollywood, and as described, they have sleek interiors, influencer-friendly aesthetic, and highly curated pantry items and prepared foods, which sounds exactly like Erewhon. But their smoothies apparently are not $20.
I think they're closer to 15, which is still very pricey. But yeah, I don't know, for me and for our listeners and for entrepreneurs out there, I think it speaks to the demand for premium and the willingness of consumers to pay for items that- Are on the slightly higher end but do more for them. So you think about all the functionality that you see at an Erewhon, that you see at Whole Foods, and again you can't necessarily compare the two directly, but I feel like for all the talk that we're hearing about a downturn and people spending less on groceries, there still is an opportunity for higher priced, more premium options in grocery stores as long as you're positioning your brand as that.
I almost feel like you can't really waver anymore. You almost have to pick a side, at least in this economy. See, I don't know, I think brands almost do have to figure out a way to live in both places. They have to figure out a way to succeed in Walmart and Costco as well as Erewhon and Laurel Supply. The product is the same, but the messaging is different.
Brands like Poppi and Olipop, those are two, certainly brands that you can see in both places. The $30 water at Erewhon probably isn't gonna make it onto the shelves of Aldi or Walmart, but there are a lot of brands that need to and do play in both places. It's just that they're messaging differently.
Yeah, I think for me, I'm thinking about the early stage entrepreneur- ... and ones that, yes, they might have the opportunity to go a bit more mainstream a few years down the line, but you gotta pick your battles at the outset. And this is a conversation I had with Ian Tecklin, who is the founder and CEO of a brand called Ripi.
Ripi is a maker of frozen ravioli, and it is very premium, very high-end shelf. Packaging's amazing. Packaging is amazing. We talk a lot about that in the interview. And it's really designed for a consumer that hasn't considered frozen ravioli in the past because they thought it was an inferior product, and also to, as a trade-up for those who are currently eating frozen ravioli.
And so this episode, which dropped this week, I highly recommend you listen to it 'cause it's a really good one. In his first 15 months, Ian took Ripi national in Whole Foods and nationwide in Target as well. And so I asked him about going into Target and whether or not the timing was right given the price point, because it is priced around $10 per box.
And yes, you can feed two people with each box, but It remains to be seen how that brand does in a place like Target. Again, yeah, people are gonna spend a little bit more money, and people are gonna spend and look for some premium items in Target. I might expect to see that in a Laurel Supply or in an Erewhon or in a Nude Miami, as well as Whole Foods for sure, but Target will be interesting for them.
These smaller, higher-end shops are oftentimes places where, like you say, emerging brands go to be discovered. There are big social media opportunities. It's a really desirable place to be, so obviously the experience of being there is a lot different than being in an Aldi. I'm rooting for Rippy because they do make some amazing products, and their packaging, as John pointed out, is amazing.
And it is really eye-opening and, ear-opening to hear Ian talk about his emphasis on investing in packaging from the get-go, investing in product from the get-go, as opposed to saying we're gonna figure it out as we go." So tune into that episode, and if you happen to be in the LA area and you visit Laurel Supply, or if you're in the Miami area and you visit Nude Miami, let us know 'cause we wanna hear about those places and your perspective on, how they're delivering on value to their consumers.
So just send us an email to ask@tasteradio.com. I imagine we will see the Olipops and Poppies of the world at these high-end grocers, as they have been sold for many years. When I first encountered Olipop, it was an end cap at Erewhon, and I imagined for a time that this would be the only place I would see Olipop.
Boy, was I wrong. But Olipop has recently introduced a brand refresh, but just specifically for one of its lines of products. If you didn't know, Olipop markets two lines, a shelf-stable line and a refrigerated line. And so in a story today on bevnet.com written by our very own Brad Avery, Olipop talks about unveiling its first major brand refresh since 2018 and a new marketing and creative initiative positioning it as, quote, "the feel-good soda."
And so in updating its design, again limited to its shelf-stable product lines and formats, Olipop says it aims to amplify, quote, "the familiar elements fans already love" and drive, quote, "distinction within the functional soda category." If you look at the brand refresh for the shelf-stable line- It feels softer.
It feels a little bit more approachable, a little bit younger. Not a ton, but a little bit in that direction. And I kinda feel like they're definitely sensing that they might need to go in that direction to fend off the Bloom Pops of the world, Poppy for sure. Because I feel like Poppy has always skewed a little bit younger, right?
That's just me. But certainly Bloom Pop. Have you been to a Target or a CVS lately and seen Bloom Pop just flying off the shelf? Sure. It's crazy. And it's all the Gen Alpha and young Gen Z consumers that are buying that product. So I think Ollipop feels like it's kinda moving in that direction, especially with shelf stable.
I don't know. I feel like it's less fend off and more, to some extent, they have to be looking at the goal line, so to speak, of they've talked about an IPO, heard rumblings of an exit at one point. And this just seems like something that gets their now what I would call core brand really well lined up for that.
It's dials down I don't know, the healthfulness side of it and makes it a little more vague, and the brand just feels more fun. But why only the shelf-stable line? Because realistically, that cold chain product probably doesn't have the ability to scale the way the shelf-stable one, to state the most obvious thing, but I think it also just shows the reality that they recognize that shelf-stable line as the future and the thing that can go far and wide, right? Yeah, I, and I think going far and wide with a package that can appeal to a broad audience, but more specifically younger consumers who embrace these functional sodas as the sodas of their generation, it just feels like that's the strategy.
I, and I'm not a, I'm not a brand strategist. It just feels like that from my perspective. They also reformulated the cola SKU, which I think makes sense 'cause I thought that probably could have used a little bit of tweaking. Tell us how you really feel, Melissa. Yeah, I'm excited about that. And then they also renamed their Mountain Dew dupe, if you will, SKU from Ridge Rush to Citrus Rush.
Mountain dupe. Wow. That was good. I like that. It's interesting that they have made that change because I don't know how many people, we all made that connection between Ridge and Mountain, but s- I don't know of how many people realize what the flavor might be, and so adding citrus- I think it's pretty obvious.
I don't know. To us, it seems obvious. I think to the outside or, the average consumer, maybe less see, I feel like with the Ridge Rush, it was more obvious, and it's less obvious now with the Citrus Rush, but they've planted that idea in people's minds that it's their Mountain dupe.
Their Mountain dupe. I like that. You're gonna have to trademark that, Melissa. I love it. Ollipop has, in their shelf-stable line, it's six grams of fiber, whereas Poppi has three. It seems like people are less interested in fiber than maybe we thought they were going to be. If you don't, don't- don't get me started
Don't get, John, just- I have, I could talk about fiber for... I don't think anyone's interested in it. But don't. Or knows the difference between six and three or cares. No, that's what I'm saying. So I think they moved from- In a soda product, to be clear. Exa- yeah, exactly, but I think that's the feel-good soda.
Nobody really cares that it has six grams of fiber versus three, i've said this a million times on this podcast, but I think at the end of the day, it's just the chance of healthfulness, if that's even a word But that's it. It doesn't need to be efficacious. Yeah. And obviously when they've tried to be efficacious in certain products, it's gotten them in trouble.
Yeah, if you wanted to drink your fiber, you'd be drinking Metamucil and not Olipop. I think when they needed it to be, it was an interesting thing that might have gotten somebody to pick it up and take another look, and now they don't really need that anymore. Yeah. It's clearly important to Olipop because they do have different amounts of fiber between the shelf-stable line and the refrigerated line.
The refrigerated line actually has nine grams of fiber. And as Olipop SVP of marketing, Tara Piper, pointed out, a bolder color palette creates clearer separation between the six gram fiber line and the nine gram fiber line, helping shoppers quickly distinguish the two formats. John's head is about to explode.
But No, look, it's- If it was clearly important to them- It was their foot in the door- ... but it's just my point ultimately is that at this point, the bigger opportunity that they've unlocked is being, again, like mainstream fun- ... feel-good soda. All right, we have about 10,000 products here in the studio to talk about.
We got products. We got products. Let's start with Beast, and it's spelled B-E-E-S-T, and they make trail mixes. Like Beats, but with the N reversed. Yeah, that- See what I did there to make it confusing? They make crunchy trail mixes that are made with dried beef, and everyone has a package in their hand except for me.
They do make crunchy trail mixes and charcuterie mixes they call them- Yes ... because they're, they have interesting things in them beyond their... I guess their flagship product would be the crunchy jerky strip, and then they also have the charcuterie products that build on that and add interesting things like sourdough croutons and, two of my favorite words together, pickle crisps.
I was talking to Lucas and his wife, the two founders of Beast, at our Austin Taste Radio meetup, and he was talking about the charcuterie mix and exactly that, the idea of mixing all of these ingredients in together like a trail mix. This reminds me so much of Parm Crisps. They had the cheese...
They have these little dried cheese circles and almonds. Oh, I know Parm Crisps. So good. Yeah. So good. And they used to have this mix, and I haven't seen it at Market Basket lately, so this is scratching that itch. So you know what this reminds me of? I thought you were gonna say the brand Rind.
This reminds me of Rind, but without the dried fruit. Rind is now more known for, I think, their trail mixes than they are their peel-on dried fruit. Which used to be called their Remix. And these products pretty much supplant the dried fruit with dried beef. And cheese. I don't know. I don't see any- And almonds
similarity here, but this one's got Parmesan crisps, jerky chips, roasted almonds. And they definitely point out and market protein as their- 52 grams per bag ... key value selling point. This one's 30. Yes. Which I guess technically you'd get 2,400 calories, something about that? Another similarity with Rind would be just a interesting heroic ingredient like the dried persimmon that drove us all crazy in Rind- and now there's the pickle crisps in Beast. One thing I would note on the packaging here is that you've got the sourdough croutons, the jerky chips, and the pickle crisps that are the main ingredients in your product here on the tearaway. I would definitely move that to a place where you can't tear it away so you know what's in the- In the package even after you open it.
But I really like the packaging here 'cause it's got the nice window. You can see what's in there, and it looks really just good. It looks really tasty in there. Yeah. And I like Beast is good. It's jerky. It f- it feels like it should. So to wash down that Beast, Mike has some Ginny. G-I-N-N-Y. I have no idea what it is.
What is it? Ray, it is a sparkling adaptogenic beverage- Okay ... with 4,000 milligrams of adaptogens. The one I have in my hand is blueberry lavender calamansi. John has hibiscus yuzu ginger? You got it. Okay. "Meet Ginny, the non-alcoholic spritzer that's as unique as you are. It's inspired by West African and South Asian traditions and crafted with a naturopathic doctor.
Ginny is a delicious way to feel good without compromise," Ray. Interesting. The logo font feels a little DOS. Like computerized logo? It does. I was gonna say Ghia. Craven's holding one- Oh, okay ... where Ginny is written in red. That gives me Ghia vibes. Okay. And it's Canadian. Oh, okay. Just FYI. So Mike is gonna taste test for all of us here.
What variety is that? Blueberry lavender calamansi. Ooh. That sounds amazing. Oh, yeah, this is very advanced flavor. Nice. The blueberry comes first, and then you're just like, "Where's the ... Oh, there it is," the lavender in the mid palate and the Not getting as much of the calamansi lime-ness as I, I might want, but- I feel like calamansi as a mixer- It's-
with blueberry ... it's beckoning me into another sip, so that's what you'd want from a product like this. And it's 60 calories, tastes really good. It's got eight grams of sugar. Yeah this hits the spot for me in an adult drinking occasion. Nice. All right. We should probably try the other one too.
I've got a secret bag of products here, and in that secret bag I've got Mooksi's new products. Oh, you do? Yes. Now, Mooksi- Awesome. Robert, thank you ... Mooksi is a maker of oat bars, overnight oat bars. And so just imagine overnight oats, but in bar format, and Mooksi spelled M-O-O-S-K-I. Robert Broome is the founder.
We met Robert at Nosh Live, where he participated in our Nosh Live Pitch Slam. I wanna say that was four years ago. I've always been a fan. He recently introduced, Mooksi introduced, these new overnight oat bites, and each bite contains 80 calories and three grams of sugar. They come in two varieties: cookie dough and peanut butter.
There's six per box, and Mike is just drooling over there. Peanut butter time. He's gonna... Okay, peanut butter with my left hand. Got it. Okay. You get more chocolate that way if it's in a bite form- Yes ... which can never be a bad thing. Indeed. I've always been a big fan of their cookie dough, and I've had some.
Melissa, would you like to try some? Yeah, sure. There you go. As described on the back of the box, Mooksi was inspired by Robert's mom's muesli recipe, and these are fantastic. Which one do you want John? Whichever one's tastier. I don't know. You guys- It's Mooksi. Ooh, very tasty. They're both gonna be tasty.
Cookie dough or peanut butter? Ah, peanut butter. Peanut butter. Old school, I like it. Yeah. So- All right. Oh, nice catch ... it is one Mike-sized bite, but for most people, probably two. Yeah, Mike just- Yeah. Mike just annihilated that. Overnight oat bites, here we go. Yeah. I'm known to be a person who, if Mooksi is in my hand, it's gone.
You can put as many as you want. I... Remember when we said it was pickles? Yeah, yeah. Oh, I think I know. Now- Yeah ... these products need to be refrigerated, but I love the size. This is perfect- Yeah ... as just a quick mid-afternoon snack, and it's 80 calories. It's not gonna fill you up, but you can have one, you can have two, probably not three.
I'm not gonna have three- I would ... in the middle of the day. Okay. Well- That's the problem. I'd have four or five ... I love these bite-sized- so good ... snacks. Bite-sized snacks are the best. It's an appropriate lunch dessert, and again, there's more chocolate per bite, so it's a little bit more desserty.
Indeed it is. Ray, this just in. The hibiscus yuzu ginger ginny, also fantastic. Okay. This is good. Good pairing? All right. Yeah, I'll take the pairing too. John's got... Is that brew? Yeah, it's beer. Yeah. Oh, the Chestnut Sports Club guys. Oh. To have a cold one every once in a while, Ray.
Good product, yes. Good brand. Gotta say Light citrus lager. It's basically a lager with lemon zest in it, 3.7% alcohol. This is a brand that's been around a couple years, but I feel like the timing right now seems pretty darn perfect. Definitely a good summer crushable beer. Kinda ticks the box of low cal, low carb, low alcohol, and it's just good liquid fun, cool brand, the packaging looks almost regal, like you could be drinking it at a country club and feel really good about it. I think that's what they're going for. Yeah. Yeah. Or you could be like Mike and shotgunning it on the sideline of his, pickup soccer league. I would definitely shotgun that on the sideline.
That stuff's fantastic. Chestnut Sports Club participated in the Brewbound Pitch Slam in 2022. Yep. And I've always been a fan. It almost seems like they were kinda ahead of their time because only recently you're seeing, or more recently you're seeing low-alc beers come to market, and this one was, low-alc beer in 2022.
100%. That was my immediate reaction to reconnecting with the founder was like, timing seems really good right now. Yeah. And I think back when he was pitching, there was still kinda that education hurdle of like, why do we need this? And I think it's pretty obvious why we need this now. And again, liquid's great.
I love the branding 'cause it's kinda quirky in a way that it could play in a lot of different situations. Feels just kinda chill. Yeah. What is the alcohol percentage? 3.7. Nice. Mal- Melissa's interested. Pass that over here. It's almost noon. By comparison, this new beer from Pabst Blue Ribbon contains, drum roll please if I can find this...
Where is the alcohol content on this? I'm gonna say start with the important thing. Three point- Which is Grillo's Pickles. I know. It does contain... So this is, this is- Grillo's has done it again ... another partnership with Grillo's Pickles, which is now, I think they're on the level of Mike's Hard Honey in terms of the number of collaborations that they do.
They're fighting each other to see who can collaborate the most. Yeah. So Pabst Blue Ribbon has paired with Grillo's Pickles to introduce a new pickle flavored beer. It's interesting 'cause the Grillo's Pickles logo is above the Pabst logo on this package. Pabst, which, ev- I'm sure everyone is familiar with that logo, is underneath it and you've got Mr.
Little Pickle Guy on the front of can too. Just chilling. Yeah, 12 ounce can. As usual. And I'm still trying to find the alcohol by volume. 4.7, 4.7% alcohol by volume, so not a ton. I am not going to try this right now. I was gonna say, you gonna crush that Ray, or what? It's not cold, number one. And it's 11 o'clock in the morning, so I'm not gonna do this just yet.
You don't want a warm Pabst? You can check my Instagram account later on and you'll get my opinion on this. It's a beer and a bar snack all in one. It is a beer- ... and a bar snack. You know what else is a bar snack? So Garrett's, which is a very well-known brand of popcorn based in Chicago, has introduced a new flavor.
Drum roll please. I already said the name of the brand. A Mike's Hard Honey variety. Yes, so this is- Shocking ... a sweet kettle crunch and savory mix kicked up with honey chili heat. That's what it says on the front of the pack. If Mike's Hard Honey and Grillo's do a collab, will the world implode? Oh. But I feel like I need to have the beer and the popcorn together, but I'm gonna have the popcorn right now.
I haven't tried this yet. Is it good? It's really good. I took a bag home and kinda crushed it. Garrett's Popcorn's solid stuff. Coat it in a nice buttery Hot Honey flavor. It's good. Yeah, it's good. It's very tasty. And I guess I should clarify, the buttery is kinda like the default Garrett Popcorn flavor.
It's very light, which you know how sometimes popcorn can Just be a, it's a mess in your mouth. I don't know what else to say. When you eat popcorn. This is very easy to eat is all I can say. I will also say that the swicy trend, the sweet and spicy, a lot of times I'm not that into it. A lot of times I just want sweet or spicy.
But the spice and the sweet popcorn is- Oh, my God ... it is a really nice touch. What is going on over there? He's wearing the popcorn and eating it. Can't help myself. Good God, Matt. Cookie Monster-ing it over here. Yes. Om nom. Mike's Mike's been ha- He's got a yellow can in his hand, as he has for a while.
It is a yellow can, and that's all we're allowed to say about this, Okay ... limited edition that Jen Orr, the founder of Pop Off sent us, which is a Vancouver-based brand. Fantastic product. 35 calories, six grams of fiber, prebiotic soda. This one is in a yellow can, so I'm sure you can guess what flavor it is.
Oh, I see. Okay. But don't. Okay. Tastes fantastic. Very lemony. Okay. Very lemony. All right. Thank you, Jen. I think we've got two more- She sent us a bunch up there too, by the way. Their elderflower, their cranberry ginger ales- And that one- ... pretty fantastic. And- ... whose flavor name we cannot say
and the limited edition in the yellow can. All right, Melissa's got some limited edition products of her own. I sure do. I have in front of me a few new Lay's flavors. This is their World Cup launch. I was at CVS with my s- What? Yeah, they dropped 40 new flavors for the World Cup. I was at CVS with my kid, and he looked at them.
He's "What are those?" I was like, "I don't know, but I should get them and talk about them on-" Wait, they dropped 40? 40 new flavors. So this is the Brazilian style gar- 40 across the world For each of the teams. I'm not a big sugar person. There's more than, there's more than 40 teams. True. Yeah. Okay.
Okay, 40. So- Calculating ... they dropped 40 across the world, three in the United States. I have two of them here, the Brazilian style garlic sauce. I also have Argentinian style steak with chimichurri. Come on. And then there is also a- Come on ... French onion. Thank you. All right, send the steak over. All right.
Yeah I guess we'll go for that one. Whoa. Nice catch. Argentinian steak. Are you taking Ray's place here? Bringing in the- Y- ... the gimmick stuff. Yeah, I have to say, the garlic is not... I noticed on the steak flavor there's beef in there. So if you're a vegetarian- Yeah, I was gonna say, I'm looking to see if there actually is- Is there actual beef?
There is ... meat? I think there's beef powder in there. I'm just gonna eat some more Beast. Oh. Ah. Oh, beef fat. Oh, it's got the tallow. They're miss- Of course they have tallow ... missing an opportunity not promoting... Tallow. Yeah. Lay's is all over the tallow. Yeah. Made with real potatoes, but not real steak. I gotta say, the garlic flavor is pretty garlicky, that's weird. I mean- Is it? It does kinda taste like steak with chimichurri on it. Yeah. The Brazilian style garlic does taste... I d- although Brazilian style garlic sauce, I guess that's not a flavor I'm so familiar with. This is weird. Oh, science, you've done it again. Great job, science.
This event would not be possible without our partners Vibrant Ingredients, Belay Solutions, NextFoods, Corner Market Communications, and of course, Anchin. Thank you so much again for making that happen. Where's Ashley Cohen? She's right there. Ashley's the best. She really spearheaded this entire event for BevNET and made us really excited about working with you guys and putting together a real class event in an incredible space.
So thanks so much, Ashley, and thanks so much, Anchin. Let's talk a bit about the work that Anchin does with CPG brands. We welcome Steve Plattman, who is a partner with Anchin's Food and Beverage and Consumer Products groups. Anchin provides specialized accounting, tax, and strategic advisory services to the food and beverage industry.
They help many of the growing privately held companies are on store shelves today. You ever heard of a brand called Poppi? They worked with Poppi. They work with some of the key players across the industry, including manufacturers, distributors, investors, and retailers, and have been a part of many of the biggest transactions in the industry, assisting with deal flow of more than $4 billion over the past 18 months.
So Steve, you work with a wide range of food and beverage founders. What are some of the biggest lessons that you've seen companies learning as they grow? So it's interesting. You mentioned something earlier, a word used, community. We look at ours as a community here. We help a lot of the founders grow. We try to take them on as early as they can.
Less than $5 million is a great sweet spot for us, and we build a foundation for the future. Very early on we start talking about tax planning, strategy, and building a financial model that will help you grow as you evolve into your business over the num- number of years. That's how we build a foundation for our clients here.
We have a great team here. We have 60 plus people who work with me on the CPG, and it's a team effort. We have a lot of different situations. Poppi, we took that company about 10 years ago when they were very small, and we watched and grew with them. And obviously everyone knows they made a big transaction a few months ago, and it was great for everyone on that transaction.
Obviously, financial statement's really important for food and beverage founders, and you help in that regard, but why are they so important, and how do they help... great financial statements, how do they help people raise money? So it's interesting. The financial statements that we help with, whether the internal financial statements or when we actually publish a financial statement doing our accounting work here, this helps founders raise money.
This is the key element, and when they go out to raise money, whether it's institutional money, friends and family, go to a bank, the financial statement is so important for them to understand what is in those numbers, how to talk about those numbers, and we help guide them through that process from an early stage.
The earlier we get involved in that process, the easier and smoother it will be to get to the next level. We have an investor who's gonna be joining me up on stage momentarily, and I'm sure he's gonna wanna know what your financial statements look like, so hence get your stuff in order. Growth is a really big focus in CPG.
How do you advise brands to think about expansion today? Expansion today is tough because the consumer and is very difficult to deal with for these days. They're very tough shoppers. So there's multiple channels here. We have clients who are direct-to-consumer companies, or we have clients who go into the retail channel, the wholesale channel.
They're both very challenging channels, but do what's best for you and be the best at that channel. I would agree. Don't do too much until you're ready to do too much. Yes. Is that what you're saying? Yes, I'm saying that because a lot of clients who start as direct to consumer do a great job at direct to consumer, and then they start pivoting to the wholesale channel, and they realize, "We should stay in our lane."
Stay what's in your lane is direct to consumer. Be the best at direct to consumer. But also have a grand vision for a brand that could be something great, like a Poppi. Yes. Poppi is just a phenomenal story. When they came to us 10 years ago, and we watched them grow, teamwork, camaraderie, community, it's one of the best stories I've been involved with.
Outstanding. Definitely talk to someone from Anchin. Steve, Ashley, anyone from the team here will give you some great advice about how to build your business cost-effectively and intelligently. So thank you so much again, Steve. Really appreciate the time. Thank you.
And I'm now gonna bring up to the stage the investor I referenced earlier. His name is Moy Aras. Come on up. He's the founder of Lucinda Capital Moy, I can't thank you enough for doing this and being here. If you're a early stage founder, raise your hand Quite a few. If you're a person who knows an early-stage founder, raise your hand.
Now everyone raised their hand. It's so important to find investors that can understand your vision and help you grow. Let's talk a little bit about what you do. You've built Lucinda Capital around early-stage investing. What's one mistake emerging food and beverage brands make when pitching investors?
I think Stephen just mentioned it. I think it's around growing too quickly. You wanna have that vision, of course. Maybe I'm talking out of both sides of my mouth here. You wanna have a grand vision for where you see the brand going, but you have to nail your hero product first. What is your first launch?
What is your first product? I wanna see great velocity regionally or in one account before you unlock 1,000 more doors in that next account. So I wouldn't mistake giant distribution for traction. Better traction to me is very high velocity in a small number of accounts and being pulled to the Whole Foods, Sprouts, the national retailers of the world.
Yeah, I would say it's interesting because when you talk to your early-stage investors, when you talk to angel investors, they want to hear about that big potential exit. They wanna hear that my money is going to be grown tenfold, twentyfold, a hundredfold. And it's not always easy to explain that you need to follow a process.
There's a number of steps before you get to that exit. But yes, that big story, that big grand vision is really important. But it takes intelligent investors, it takes experienced investors to understand that it's a process. And I wanna talk about that process because the funding environment has changed quite a bit over the past few years, in particular over the past year.
What should founders be doing differently from an operational standpoint and also from a fundraising standpoint? Yeah. I think the fundraising environment has changed significantly. I was an ex-operator. I've worked at Chobani, Applegate, Nespresso, Aloha for a number of years. So while I'm somewhat newer to venture capital as an industry, listen, I know we're here in Times Square today surrounded by tourists, but I think the tourist capital in CPG venture has gone away.
And by tourist capital, define what you mean by tourist capital. Non-native CPG folks, tech investors, AI investors, B2B SaaS investors, folks who are coming in the DTC boom seeing a lot of growth, and pumping that growth despite those businesses may not have been as financially sound as the ones that came before it.
So I think that era of consumer VC is over, and as a benefit to the founders, what's left are folks that really know what it takes to be a good operator, how to go strategically, how to provide strategic support to get into the right accounts and be surrounded by the right people. And so in a way, I'm more bullish or excited about the future of consumer funding than I've been before.
Let's talk about trends for a second. What are early-stage investors looking for from a trend perspective today, and what might be coming up down the line? A year from now, two years from now Yeah, I think I get asked this question more than any other, and I think I have an unconventional answer for it.
I'm so influenced by my experience at brands that no one probably would've invested in categories that weren't sexy at the time. 10, 15, 20 years ago, who would've invested in a small yogurt manufacturer in Upstate New York and that ended up becoming Chobani, right? So I love... Of course, I could say protein.
Of course, I could say fiber. Of course, I could say the GLP-1 economy. Of course, I could say everything function, functional indulgence, et cetera, et cetera. But I'm almost more excited by stale, boring categories where legacy brands are coasting. There just hasn't been any innovation there. Imagine being a buyer at a major retailer in a category that's not growing.
What do you wanna see more than ever? A young entrepreneur like you to come in and change it forever, right? So I'm almost more excited by large legacy categories like dairy, where Laurel's Coffee is changing the game, or dips, where Habiza Hummus is changing the game. So these giant categories that are just coasting along that no one's thinking about, a new brand could come in and change it forever, and I'm more excited by that as an enduring business versus a potentially short-lived trend.
All right. So this is probably the most important question of the night What separates a maybe from a yes? Because a lot of folks in this room have talked to Mo already, and I'm sure he said, "Yeah, maybe." Yes. Maybe. But what gets you a yes? For those people, I will return your emails. I am sorry about that.
Honestly, Stephen kinda mentioned it before, and so he mentioned accounting statements. And listen, I'm a pre-seed investor, and there's not a ton of data for you at this time. And so when I'm in your data room, there isn't very sophisticated financial analysis happening in there. Sorry to the podcast listeners out there, but it's a trust and transparency exercise for me.
So you've told me one thing in our meeting. You have the pitch deck. There's probably additional data there. I'm looking to verify every single thing that you've said and every single thing in the deck with that information in the data room, the velocity numbers, the market size, your financials. If those numbers track, that tells me I'm working with a transparent and honest person, and that builds your credibility in such a major way to take a maybe to a yes, because now I understand I'm dealing with a good operator.
The kinda next level thing would be for you to tell me what's wrong with the business, what you're trying to fix, and ask for help in the meeting. 'Cause now we're in a conspiracy together. We're on the same team. We're solving that problem together, and I'm picturing what it would be like to be part of the team with you.
And so going through that together, being honest about what's going but also what's not going well, makes me a part of the process and I can picture our 10-year working relationship down the line as we solve that problem in real time together. Yeah, I once spoke with an investor who said, "If you say you're gonna do something and then you do that thing, that's when you're ready to, I'm ready to invest."
That's right. And it sounds like that's exactly what you're saying. Absolutely. If you tell me you're gonna improve gross margins by doing these three things, and then over the next three months as you send investor updates, you've done those three things, incredible. I love it. We'll have the second meeting.
All right, I kinda lied. I said that was the most important question, but this might be the most important question: How do people get in touch with you? How do people get a meeting with you outside of this room? LucindaCapital.com intake form. I see everything that comes through there. It's just me, so you're getting the decision-maker, the only decision-maker at the fund.
I'm also on LinkedIn. You can find me there, and I'd be happy to hear from you. Can we have you on the podcast every week? Absolutely. That'd be great. That would be great. Yes. No, Moy, thank you again- Thanks so much ... so much for coming out here and sharing so much wisdom with our audience. Thanks so much for meeting so many founders.
This is, once again, why we're doing these things. It's for people to meet people to meet investors, and for people to get a better sense of how they can refine their pitch sometimes, too. 'Cause you talk to a lot of people. Maybe you're not gonna get that first pitch right the first time, maybe not even the second time, but eventually you're gonna get it to a point where 10 seconds can be really effective for you and your brand.
So Mo, thank you so much again. Really appreciate the time. Appreciate it. Thank you. Mo Aras.
All right. Let's bring up someone who is also a very experienced operator in the business. Her name is Lella Rafferty. She's gonna be coming up to the stage. Round of applause for Lella.
Lella is the CMO of a, an amazing company called NextFoods. NextFoods is the maker of Cheribundi and GoodBelly. I just named those two brands, but in general, what is NextFoods? Yeah, so NextFoods is really a portfolio of brands. We build science-backed products in three consumer need states essentially.
So gut health, where GoodBelly has 20 years of probiotic credibility, and then recovery and sleep. So that's where Cheribundi, which we're gonna talk a lot about today, sits, and that's really a brand that's built all around the power of the tart cherry. Yeah. So Cheribundi has been known as a brand for recovery and wellness for a long time, and I think recently, over the past few years, there's been a shift in terms of how the brand has been perceived on the consumer level.
Certainly, if you know any sports teams, if you know a lot of pro athletes, they've been using Cheribundi for a long time. But from a consumer standpoint, how has that message changed? How has communication changed for Cheribundi? The origin of the brand was really a center of store commodity juice, and we're still sold in a 32-ounce format today.
I think there's the theory that, there's grape juice, cranberry juice, there could be tart cherry juice sold as a commodity. But where that kind of falls apart is there's a lot less tart cherries in the world, so it can't really be a commodity, and it comes down to our processing. We probably could find ways to take the cost out of the product.
We probably could find ways to do cheaper sourcing. But at the end of the day, if you want to put the Cheribundi label on it, it needs to be sourced properly. It needs to be 100% US-grown Montmorency cherries that have 20 years of peer research behind them. So that's where we focus. The brand's stepped away from that sort of center of store 32 ounce and really focused where we can win and where we have something truly special, which is around the science of sport and recovery.
So everyone in this room knows that one of the biggest challenges in CPG is driving awareness, and particularly on a functional level. How many folks here sell a brand or sell products that have a functional benefit? Raise your hand, please. So quite a few. For listeners at home, I think about 60% of the room raised their hand.
And when you're talking about trying to take the credibility that you've had with pro and collegiate teams and translate that to a broader consumer message and awareness, what does that strategy look like? Yeah, it's no easy challenge, that's for sure. So I think our momentum has come from two places.
One has been really on the e-com side, so we've grown, have really strong growth, especially on our Amazon business. And then over the years, we've just been building up relationships with sports dieticians. So as of today, we're sold into over two thousand locker rooms of pro collegiate teams. So Olympians, pro athletes, collegiate athletes use us every single day for recovery.
It's a really powerful advantage, and we have tons of social media videos of, the best athletes in the world in their sport carrying a bottle of Cheribundi into a press conference, but then needing to tuck it under the desk because, big beverage essentially owns that mic, and we cannot afford to own the mic.
So what we're focused on is the next layer down. There's been a lot of changes with NIL, and those athletes use us authentically already. We have athletes in our DMs all the time. We have Olympians commenting, on our April Fool's joke on Instagram. So we're tapping into those relationships and those hand raisers and those athletes who already use and believe in our product daily to create really a groundswell of messaging around the product.
There's no question that consumers want functional benefits. It's very clear based on anecdotal and analytical data that people want their products, people want their foods to do more for them But telling that in an authentic way, getting consumers to care about functionality is a difficult thing to do.
How do you do that? You talked about social media videos and people using the products in a really authentic way to their lifestyles, but how do you make it fun? How do you make it accessible telling that story? One of the insights that we have, and we talk to our sports dieticians all the time.
They're a core part of where our innovation pipeline comes from. And what we hear from them, and one of the key reasons we're moving away from that center of store 32 ounce is they're constantly telling us they're looking for these more portable, potent formats. Things like gummies, things like these wellness shots that we're launching this summer.
So I think, A, the format makes it a little bit more fun, but also just using that insight. The reason they're looking for these formats is athletes obviously travel with their nutrition. They're constantly on the road, so we're working to make the brand really backpack and gym bag ready. And so that's the big pivot that we're making right now, and I think we're starting to use that insight of like nutrition travels with you in a lot of our creative.
We just ran a campaign in Phoenix and Denver tapping into that insight around what makes the modern athlete a little bit different from you and I. Like I'm not packing my running shoes when I go on vacation. I'm not like checking the macros of the snacks that I'm bringing on the plane, but these athletes certainly are.
And so that was like a key insight that we're using to really bring that mentality to life because they are different and they are special, and there's a lot of everyday athletes that relate to that. I love that you use the term everyday athletes. I think that's brilliant because you're meeting the consumer where they are.
Everyone in a sense, cer- certainly if you have an active job, you're an everyday athlete. If you're talking about even a mailman walks, I don't know, how many miles a day? Yeah. They're, in a sense, they're not a traditional athlete, but they're using fitness in a way that might apply to a product and a brand like Cheribundi.
And I think when you talk about format and going from that 32 ounce bottle into shots, into gummies, you're meeting the consumer where they are. There's also a benefit, and if you go in the back, you can see some of the products that are marked for sleep. Tart cherry does relax the body in a way that might help you sleep a little bit better.
I know you talked about sleep scores And anytime I have some tart cherry juice, I feel much more relaxed, and I can have a much quieter and nicer evening for myself. But when you talk about different functionalities, you talk about recovery and you talk about sleep, can you tell that in a synergistic way, or does it have to be a little bit more, "Here's this line, here's this line"?
No, I think we can tell it as a synergistic story. I think recovery is sleep. That's when your body has the chance to repair all the hard work that you put in during the day. So and I think that's very much how sports dieticians are talking to athletes about it, so that's very much how we talk to consumers about it as well.
It's not, one or the other. It's really both. And yeah, tart cherries have naturally occurring melatonin. We also have products where we add magnesium or additional melatonin to really help enhance that sleep benefit, so we talk about them together. So two things. Number one, definitely pick up two of the products, for folks in the room, definitely pick up two of the Cheribundi products.
One sleep, one recovery. Yep. Maybe have the recovery now. If you had a couple glasses of wine, it might help. I don't know, can't say. I'm not a FDA spokesperson or anything like that. And then the sleep for sure tonight, with all the craziness going on. I don't know if you're staying in Times Square or if you live anywhere in this area.
I'm staying in a hotel where there's loud noise always going on, so I feel like I'm gonna sleep better maybe with some of the sleep products, I think you will. Yes. It really works. Lola, thank you so much for taking the time. Thank you so much, Ray. Really appreciate it. And if you want to learn more about Cheribundi or NextFoods, you go to...
you go to cherrybundy.com. Very good. Thanks so much again, Lola. All right. Well done. Thank you. And we're going to bring up our final speaker of the day, Matt Bachmann, the founder and CEO of Wandering Bear Coffee. Round of applause for Matt. Thank you. So for folks who aren't familiar with the brand, what is Wandering Bear?
So we are a brand of premium cold brew iced coffee. We have two product lines. We have organic cold brew coffee. It comes in a variety of formats and flavors. Then we have a recently launched line of high protein cold brew lattes. So when you launched, I recall you were a box and spout coffee brand. You would have coffee in these large format multi-serve boxes with a spout.
Obviously, Wandering Bear has evolved since then, but what problem were you trying to solve for the industry at the time, and how has your innovation strategy evolved over the last 10 years? So initially, the problem was freshness. Ben and I, if you put yourself back in 2010, '11, '12 New York, we were inspired by what we were seeing happening in coffee shops around the city, and at the time, cold brew was taking over menus in place of iced coffee, and the best of it was the best iced coffee we'd ever tasted, and so we started experimenting making batches for ourself at home, and quickly would run into a problem of sourness, staleness.
Anything more than a few servings after a few days just wouldn't taste very good. And so we found the solution actually looking to the boxed wine industry or the wine industry, where they had solved this for wine. We learned that just like wine, air and light make coffee go stale, and looked to the bag and box packaging to help us address that.
What we didn't intentionally know at the time, but quickly found out, is that we were also creating a new functional benefit in how the product was used. By putting coffee on tap in any refrigerator, it quickly found home in offices in New York City. And so that really became the first version of Wandering Bear, was selling cold brew coffee to offices.
Yeah, innovation's always been a big part of how we think about what we do. We've always tried to do things differently and bring newness to the category. But I... It's certainly taken a while for us to build it as a cultural muscle. But the pace has really picked up over the past couple years. Now we have the organic cold brew lines in 17 different flavors, three different formats, cartons, bag and box, and kegs, and then the new latte line in cans.
But, at the core, it's always come down to really asking ourselves what we believe internally we have the permission to do. What can we look at in the mirror and say "This is Wandering Bear authentic to us"? Then we look for signals about what we think the consumer is seeking. Where do we think those trends are going?
And then we see if we can create something that ultimately we would drink every day, because we do, our families do, our team does. So it has to be tasty enough and healthy enough to be a daily drink for us. It's a really good point, because at the end of the day, you don't want someone to just drink a product a week, a month.
You want people to use your product multiple times a week, hopefully every day if they can, if it applies to their lifestyle. And I wanna talk about, how you innovate in terms of format versus flavor versus occasion, and how that process has changed over the years as well. What's driven the most growth out of those three things, by the way?
I think if you were to look at the numbers, the combination of format and occasion has probably driven the most growth for us. What we've typically seen, and this is probably true across categories, but certainly true in a category like coffee, which is a daily drink for so many people, by positioning ourselves to be able to be consumed in more occasions, which often has to do with the format the product is in, all boats rise.
So if we launch a product that fits in grocery, that drives sales online. If we're online, that drives sales. So it's all worked together for us. So you take the pandemic as an example, when offices completely go away and our business model has to shift, all of a sudden we're selling to consumers online, and during the pandemic, what we were hearing back from them is they wanted experience, they wanted indulgence, they wanted variety, and so we challenged ourself to create flavors, and that's where you get flavors like s'mores and banana bread cold brew, and I think our first was dirty vanilla chai.
That has driven a lot of growth and excitement. We heard consumers for years asking for cans, specifically for cans, but something that would drive them on the go, and I think the challenge for us in kinda those first three innovation points of what we believe, how we can be different and address a consumer need, it took us a while to figure out how we would want to play in that space you gotta actually excite not just the consumer, you gotta excite the retail buyer, and you've gotta make them fans of your brand and your vision as well.
Is it the same story, or are you talking about a slightly different kind of story when you're sitting down with retail buyers, say from Whole Foods? You introduced those new cans that you referenced in Whole Foods, and I was so excited when I saw them in there. I'm like, "Whoa, this is the first time I've seen Wandering Bear in this format."
But, how did that conversation go when you were talking to Whole Foods and getting them thinking, "Yeah, this is gonna work in our stores. This is gonna drive incremental revenue to our stores"? It comes back to that same starting at the core, like what does the brand have permission to do?
What have you earned the right to do? Whole Foods was a great partner in that case. They really believed, what we were going to be capable of. We were already in the store and had demonstrated track record in the multi-serve set, and so the belief that Wandering Bear as a brand could play in premium ready-to-drink and also help push the category forward on some of the wellness goals.
So the latte line, we didn't talk about it, but it's formulated to have twice the protein and half the sugar of, a standard, say better for you canned latte. And so that value proposition to them and to us, aligned very authentically with everything we've always stood for. So any time you launch a new product, in that case, we launched it for the first time exclusively with Whole Foods.
We didn't have consumer data, but we knew our consumers wanted us to be in this format, had been asking for an on-the-go version. We knew our consumers, because of the products we've always made, were well-aligned with the same health and wellness trends that were driving behaviors internally at the company and in just about everyone we would speak to.
And so the sum of that gave a buyer like Whole Foods the confidence to take the risk that any new product has a- and put it on shelf, and it's done very well. Sometimes it's a good idea comes to you at night, sometimes it comes to you in the office, sometimes you're like, "Hey, we should definitely go into cans."
But cans is a completely new format for you, and the operational realities of putting coffee in cans is probably something you didn't really understand as much as you needed to before you actually did it. And I could be wrong, but any time I've talked to entrepreneurs who say, "Yeah, we're gonna do this," and they're like, "Shoot, this is really hard."
How do you balance innovation with the operational realities of getting into a new format, a new flavor, a new ingredient? Yeah, you're raising a great point, which is just capability, and we haven't talked about that. But, i- in any innovation process, understanding what you can make, what options you have, is a key point in that process.
And so we're really fortunate at this point, 12 years into the business, we've built a very sophisticated supply chain. And so- We have the opportunity to do much more than we are doing. It's the choice of what to do, and I think to manage the complexity that you inevitably do create because every new product, every new thing you put on the team's plate is added complexity and that sometimes often not linear, right?
It mounts very quickly is to really build an office of innovation and a capability internally around R&D within the company. What that's looked like over the past few years 'cause you're still, 12 years in, we're so driven by entrepreneurial energy. Ben and I, the founders, are still running the business.
But for us, a product launch was a 90-day sprint to launch, get it out in market, watch it sell, and then move on to the next thing or just keep ru- Like now what innovation looks is really a continuous process with one-year timelines pre and post that launch date. So what that sounds like to founders is a big slowdown, but in reality you are speeding up and trying to get ahead of these op- So there was absolutely a time in the business, no doubt, where exactly what you said would've been the case.
You'd be like, "Yeah, it's liquid in a different format. Just do it." We did have a strong sense at this point what we were getting into, and the planning for that launch that happened last fall had really begun almost 18 months before, and that's just some of growing up. You've learned a few things over the past dozen years.
It's incredible for any brand to be in the stage that you're in right now. 12 years is a long time to be running a CPG company, especially an entrepreneurial CPG company. If there's one thing you can point to as being the most impactful part of you making it, and by making it I mean not going out of business, what's been that one thing?
Today as we sit, Wandering Bear's 21 people. On a weekly basis, easily hundreds touch the brand. The partners and the depth and length of the relationships that we've developed and fostered over the years have enabled us to punch far above our weight and really accelerate the brand in recent years.
And that's not just on, the supply chain side, which we referenced, but that's, Anchin, right? We're in their offices. They've been a fantastic partner. Distributors, brokers, merchandisers, capital partners. The conversation started with, as we're talking about what makes an investable business and what role can Anchin play, for example, in helping businesses get ready to show themselves externally.
Trust and trust in good management and in delivery and just being able to do year over year the thing you said you were going to do is a very great basis for long relationships. And truly, I don't think we'd be where we are without the partners we've recruited along the way. Outstanding.
Relationships really do make a business and can sometimes break a business if you have a relationship that wasn't built on trust. And I think those relationships start here, and I'm gonna come full circle in a couple different ways, which is, once again, we're so thrilled that everyone was able to come out today.
We hope that the relationships that you have started here go a long way for you, and we wanna make sure that those relationships keep going. So if you didn't get to meet someone today, or if you just saw a badge, or if you were like, "Oh, I really wanted to meet that person," reach out to us. Just send us a note any way you can, LinkedIn, email, DM, and just say, "Hey, Ray.
Hey, John. Hey, Mike. Can you make an introduction to this person?" Of course we can. Of course we would love to. We have been big supporters or big... I shouldn't say supporters, 'cause that's gonna s- make us sound like we're a little partial. But we've been big fans of what you've been doing. You said at the beginning, BevNet is a community.
Yeah. And I think we've been big fans of what you've been doing for a long time. It makes me feel happy that we've been a small part of your journey. So thank you so much, Matt. Appreciate it. And really appreciate the time. Thank you so much.
