1st BATCH OF FILES AVAILABLE NOW!

Pair of youthful newcomers to bevs say even they're surprised at how much headway they've made in a year with mocktail brand called Remix that's performed well in Sprouts, won spot on Walmart's ecomm platform and built out extensive network of Budweiser houses from Hensley in Ariz to Union Beer in NY. Among backers who see promise in entry is serially successful entrepreneur Lance Collins, one of its investors, who forged initial intros to A-B network, we're told. About to embark on $2.5 mil seed round, Remix is traversing incubation platform of LA Libations, including its Relentless Advantage merchandising arm, and claims to be well along in negotiations with unidentified music influencer to come aboard in chief creative officer role, a good fit for brand named Remix that's made music fests a key part of its activation activities. Founders Sam Stafford and her brother Evan Stafford are taking down-the-middle approach that prioritizes flavor and versatility at low calorie count, resisting the lure of trying to mimic alcohol, on the one hand, or offering functional stack on the other, and keeping the price highly affordable at $10.99 per 4-pk vs the $16-18 other prominent brands charge. It's among widely varying approaches being taken in burgeoning segment, in contrast to effort by Melting Forest to offer similar functional stack that it offers in D-Stress and Energy lines at superpremium price, as we profile below.Effort started when Evan tried Dry January ritual and found himself dissatisfied with options available to him, dismissing them as too sugar-laden or too chemical-y in their efforts to mimic flavor of alcohol. Working to devise their own offering, they worked 4 mos with local San Diego development lab without getting what they wanted, then segued to ADM for 4-5 mos before arriving at current concept, using real juice with some added electrolytes and sweetener blend of agave and stevia. It's offered in 5 initial versions with just 3 g sugar (15-20 calories). Versatility is flagged on-pack with descriptor "premium mixer and mocktail." Flavor range is Perfect Paloma, Marvelous Mai Tai, Tres Citrus Margarita, Mischievous Mule and Muddled Berry Mojito. As noted, this is all new to pair: both early in their careers, Evan had worked at early-stage tech cos that sold to Doordash and Uber while his younger sister Sam had spent some time as assistant to VC power Peter Thiel. Evan is now based in LA.Working with LA Libations, the pair started with innovation-focused retailers like Gelsons in SoCal, Molly Stone's in NorCal and all 150 BevMo stores in Calif and Ariz. In Jul they got Remix into Sprouts' chainwide innovation set, backing it with 300+ demos and generating velocities exceeding 3 units per sku at each store each week, even without meaningful marketing kicking in. They say it became Sprouts' #1 mocktail and #1 mixer chainwide. They're in process of trying to win permanent placement there now. That same month they secured national distribution with broadliners KeHe and UNFI. As noted, they've also won entry to Walmart's ecomm platform and say they've surmounted several hurdles toward winning spot in bricks & mortar sets for Apr reset. They're also a leading mocktail player on Amazon.For distribution, rather than recruit seasoned bev player familiar with landscape, Evan relied on his own tech experience to undertake saturated learning experience, churning out hundreds of emails with Collins helping to open some doors. He negotiated the contracts himself, without use of a specialist. (By way of legal credentials, both had taken LSATs, Sam joked. And he's starting law school now, Evan noted brightly.) They already claim to have good chunk of US covered, with houses that include Hensley in Ariz, Admiral in other parts of Southwest, Ben E Keith in Texas and Northern Eagle in NJ. Timing was right as many were in hunt to replace Poppi, Alani and other volume lost to soft drink networks. Where Bud house hasn't seemed ideal option, as in markets manned by brewery-owned AB One operations, say, via Coast Beverage in SoCal and with Union moving outside its core Brooklyn footprint to cover rest of NYC. Pac NW, heartland region and SE are among next targets.

MOCKTAILS I: Enlisting Broad Network of Bud Houses, Remix Mixer/Mocktail Line Aims for Versatility, Flavor Appeal with Complexity

Publishing Info