FIGHT THE POWER
These Independent Leaders Are Showing Power Can Lie Outside the Establishment By Jeff Klineman
Rebels, Upsetters, Disruptors, Ghosts in the Machine: it doesn’t matter what you call them, these leaders gathering power in the beverage business by moving product, changing expectations, and making sure that
Bombastic, boastful, perhaps hyperbolic in his claims, right now, Jack Owoc and BANG are destroying the energy drink universe, carving out a disruptive beachhead in the crossover between exercise and alertness. In many ways, Bang came out of nowhere, and it’s gone right after Monster, both in stores and in the courts. Owoc had gone after the category once before, with Redline, before things fell apart, and with the competition heating up, you’re seeing it now for what it is – good old
fashioned hate. With no telling how much product is going through gyms, vending, and direct-to-consumer channels, Bang is nevertheless going to sell close to a billion dollars in product this year. Owoc has always been able to move the needle with his product lines, but this time he’s opened the door for a category to grow, with C4, Celsius, Monster’s own Reign, and more. It’s created a strong power shift – but if things get too distracting legally, the rest of the pack is likely to move in.
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the status isn’t quite so quo. Maybe their approach is a little surly, and maybe it’s not the way you might have done it – but here are some of the tales of the powerful new heroes of whom the beverage bards will sing:
It was just a throwaway line at the end of an NPR broadcast around Independence Day, but it confirmed to a local population something that they always knew in their hearts, and that the rest of the country is fast learning: Ralph Crowley’s Polar Beverage is selling enormous amounts of seltzer, and it’s now the second-biggest brand in the unsweetened sparkling water space. It’s not just in New England, either. With footholds in the Pacific Northwest and the South – Polar’s got a plant in Georgia,
as well – the 100-plus-year-old company is playing to win. Not that Polar wasn’t a force to be reckoned with already: with contract manufacturing in Worcester and New York and an independent distribution operation that’s one of the largest in the country, Polar has always been a key link in the industry chain. But now it’s on the lips – and in the bellies – of consumers nationwide. LaCroix was an older brand that grew to take the top spot – but could an even older brand grow even more?