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Stirring the Coffee
And, just as he made those adjustments at SoBe and Soup Man, therein might be the best of what Bello can bring to Adina.
Founded in 2006, Adina, despite a reputation for selling good, if expensive, beverages, has been organized more around an idea than a product, according to company co-founder Magette Wade-Marchand.
That’s even why the company chose the name Adina World Beat Beverages, she said, so they wouldn’t be locked down to a single kind of drink. But co-founder and CEO Greg Steltenpohl said that approach left the company without focus. Adina experimented with multiple products that “were not fully executed,” he said, and pushed three divergent beverage lines including Miracle Fruits and Juice Coolers.
Now, under Bello’s advice, the company is rallying its sales and development resources behind the company’s coffee line. The coffee category is ripe for a strong contender, Bello believes.
To that end, Steltenpohl said Adina plans to roll out six new coffee SKUs in the coming year and bring the line to DSD markets on both the East and West coasts.
“The ready to drink category is pretty much dominated right now by Frappucino,” Bello said. “While it tastes great, we think there’s room for something lighter.”
Adina’s coffee drinks weigh in between 90 and 110 calories per bottle, which is about half that of a Starbucks bottled Frappucino – the creamy concoction which Bello credits for blazing the path for other RTD coffees to follow. The RTD coffee category was worth more than a quarter billion in sales in the last year, with Frappuccino alone accounting for $191 million and non-Starbucks brands accounting for around $25 million – about the same as Starbucks Doubleshot. Taken as a whole, Starbucks owns the RTD coffee segment much like Gatorade owns sports drinks, but Bello said he thinks that their presence created a space where another brand can move in.
“(Coffee) has been reinvented and reinvigorated with what Starbucks has done,” Bello said. “(Frappucino) made a place for ready to drink coffees in the cooler set, so we’ll move in alongside it.”
Bello’s bet comes with more than Sherbrooke’s check. He said his experience in coffee stretches back beyond his SoBe days to when he cut his teeth in the beverage market by working on Sanka for Maxwell House. Additionally, the team brought in Bruce Schroder, who ran the Pepsi/Starbucks Frappucino partnership, and Adina has its own dose of in-house expertise. Steltenpohl, you may remember, helped launch Odwalla – now owned by Coca-Cola.
But Adina isn’t the only beverage firm trying to cut their own piece of territory out of Starbucks’ kingdom. Coca-Cola tried to replicate Starbucks’ formula by partnering with Caribou Coffee and releasing metal-bottled versions of that
chain’s brew. SkylarHaley took a nutritious tack on coffee drinks by fortifying AchievONE with vitamins and nutrients. Muud Coffee plans to try the reverse of Starbucks’ model: the brand recently launched 15 oz. RTD cans composed mostly of espresso, and co-founder Matt Marini said long term plans for the brand include opening coffee bars called “Muud Rooms.” Shock coffee continues to have cachet among caffeine junkies. And don’t forget about the Monster in the room – JavaMonster – which might very well have the growing distribution and fan base to trump them all, Frappucino included.
Even with brands clamoring to get into the coffee sector, Bello still thinks Adina has an edge. The company’s coffee is both organic and fair trade – a great pair of marketing buzz-words – and its ethnically-inspired flavors give the brand a strong point of difference. Bello said he thinks that combination could help the brand carve out its own subcategory.
But again, there’s that cultural issue. Bello’s style is in your face, while Adina has long been about laid back San Francisco hippie multiculturalism. How will that jibe with a guy who screams about draining the lizard?
According to Bello, it won’t be a problem. “I’m just there to provide experience and reflection,” he said.
But while the company’s founders share that vision, not everyone does. Miller, for one, has his doubts. He said the beverage market has gotten tougher since his and Bello’s SoBe days.
“Distributors do less and less,” he said. “Slotting fees are higher… It’s really become a much more difficult process now.”
Additionally, he said he’s not sure that Adina and Sherbrooke will have the capital to take on a monster like Starbucks. Companies with much deeper pockets have tried to and failed to take a piece of Starbucks’ action proving, he said, that RTD coffee might be a one-brand category.
But, he added, “If anybody can do it, (Bello) will do it.”