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For a while, BLK Water brand seemed well on the way to putting the minerals fulvic and humic acid on Americans' nutritional radar as wealthy LA couple resuscitated one-time Housewives of New Jersey fixture as fast-growing ecomm brand via cunning social media campaign and enlisted bev vet Bob Groux to reestablish brand at retail. But effort came crashing down amid what seems to have been welter of lawsuits vs the now-split couple, David and Sara Bergstein, who'd been installed as CEO while her husband was concluding 8-yr fraud sentence from different set of activities. Undaunted, Groux now is trying again on his own, establishing new company and new brand - Gutsi - even as he moves ahead on DSD distribution co he'd hoped to create with Bergsteins' backing. And all of this soon will be under umbrella of publicly traded entity as he works with Dunn Capital to navigate merger with shell co called Victory & Marine to create entity that will operate Dunn & Groux Beverage Holdings, including Groux Distribution Group. So "Gutsi" could be viewed both as a reference to gut health benefits offered by entries as well as gumption to venture back into fray after all the ups & downs of past few years. Enlisted to the cause have been BLK's founders, Louise and Jacquie Wilkie, as well as sales vet Bob Hofmann, familiar from stops at brands like Voss Water, Nirvana Springs and BLK itself. Here's quick update on Gutsi launch and DSD distribution play in Calif and Ariz. Gutsi Canned Sparkler Layers Minerals Atop Prebiotics In discussion today, Groux declined to address status of BLK and its principals except to emphasize that he does not own that trademark. Gutsi will be the vehicle, starting with canned sparkler, moving on to black-hued plastic-bottle still water and including ecomm-friendly formats like drops, gummies and powder sticks that will also enable him to play in different parts of retail store. As for BLK, that seems to be out of market now with its prospects to return unclear amid background of what we hear is considerable litigation.Debuting around Jun, the canned Gutsi Prebiotic Mineral Soda will contain both gut-health ingredients and fulvic and humic acid to offer layered functionality. Those minerals enable him to avoid the use of caramel coloring, which undermines the gut-health premise of some existing brands, he said. Using juice as sweetener will yield 4 g of sugar, none listed as added. The liquid in Original Cola, Root Beer and Grape entries will be black from the humic acid but he's dialing up the fulvic acid in Orange Cream and Lemon Lime entries to offer liquid colored more like what shoppers would expect. "Drink your minerals" is among brand mantras. He's filed for organic certification for line. For distribution, he'll tiptoe into DSD with his own operation in LA and Gotham DSD and Preferred houses in NY as he works to win retailer authorizations, cutting those accts over to DSD when he can. He said he's enlisted specialized brokers to work natural channel (via broadliners UNFI and KeHe), conventional grocers, mass/club and drug. Co is proceeding with seed round now with view to launching Series A once financial moves conclude.Restarting DSD Initiative, Initially in LA & Ariz Recall that during his time at BLK Groux had initially hoped to ride Bergsteins' extensive real estate holdings into DSD distribution option for LA basin. That never came to fruition as envisioned, but he's now set 15K-sq-ft site in LA and 5K-ft site in Ariz to move forward, with brand assignments to be announced soon. BLK vet Dan McMaster will be running day-to-day there as COO.

LA Entrepreneur Groux Ready to Try Again on BLK Mineral Water Concept, This Time via New Brand Called Gutsi That Layers Minerals Atop Prebiotics; Restarting DSD Venture Too

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