ROAR Organic Expanding Distribution Into Publix Super Markets
ROAR Organic, a line of organic hydration beverages offering a blend of vitamins, antioxidants and electrolytes, is starting 2023 with a number of momentous updates to kick off the year. Alongside a $6 million capital raise that represents a positive re-investment from existing shareholders, ROAR Organic is expanding its distribution footprint, entering more than 1,300 Publix Super Markets with its best selling SKUs, including Mango Clementine, Cucumber Watermelon and Georgia Peach.
On the heels of these impactful growth updates, which follow the Q3 2023 announcement of ROAR Organic’s national expansion with Kroger, the brand will also debut new innovation launches at the end of the quarter.
According to a recent 2023 trend report, analysts are predicting that energy and functional ingredients are key components consumers are looking for this year, with 45 percent of people saying immunity-boosting ingredients, like vitamins, are a key purchase driver (GlobalData, 2022). In order to support the consumer journey toward greater wellness, ROAR Organic continues to put multifunctional and clean ingredients at its core, delivering on taste, quality, and health-supporting benefits. This year, ROAR looks to continue this mission all while reaching consumers in new geographical regions who can benefit from the beverage’s powerful vitamin + antioxidant + electrolyte Complete Hydration.
Concluding 2022 with 116 percent growth in gross revenue, ROAR Organic’s latest capital round gives the hydration brand the leverage to build its internal team in order to continue driving sales and marketing. With open opportunities for new talent across these areas, ROAR looks to strengthen the brand’s position as a powerful newcomer to multifunctional beverages, generating interest from retailers like Publix who are looking for approachable, better-for-you beverages that consumers want to purchase.
“We’re ready to take the brand to new heights this year with the recent capital raise and our partnership with Publix, expanding our retail footprint throughout the country,” said Bill Lange, president at ROAR Organic. “Today, consumers are looking for the full package and seek truly healthy, functional hydration products that are fairly priced, convenient to purchase and deliver on taste. Our mission at ROAR Organic is to make hydration and functional wellness a deliciously vibrant experience, without artificial ingredients or high sugar and calories. We’re confident with these new gains and our soon-to-be launched innovations that we will be able to deliver above and beyond on this mission in 2023.”
In addition to in-store and online distribution with Publix, ROAR Organic beverages can be found in natural and traditional grocers nationwide, including Whole Foods Markets, Kroger, Sprouts, Wegmans, Safeway/Albertsons and more, plus online at www.roarorganic.com and on Amazon. To learn more about ROAR Organic, please visit www.roarorganic.com, or follow the brand on Instagram @roarorganic or Facebook @RoarOrganic.
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Tractor Beverage Company Welcomes Asif Khalid as COO
Tractor Beverage Company, exclusive creator of the world’s only certified organic, non-GMO foodservice beverages, has welcomed industry veteran Asif Khalid to its executive team as the company’s first chief operating officer.
Khalid brings a vast wealth of beverage category experience to the company and joins its ranks following a 14-year career at 7-Eleven, where he served as director of store innovation. In addition to this leading role at the convenience store giant, Khalid was also the senior category manager of non-alcoholic beverages, senior product development manager of private brands and regional market operations manager. More recently, he was the founder and CEO of Good Gracious Beverages, a foodservice company committed to revolutionizing restaurant & hospitality beverage offerings with sustainable craft drinks designed to increase margins via product and equipment innovations that reduce footprints and overhead.
“Asif is a transformational leader whose experience in the beverage industry promises to catapult Tractor to new heights,” said Kevin Sherman, Tractor Beverage Company’s CEO. “He’s joining an already successful team, and with the inception of the COO role, I’m confident we will go into 2023 the strongest we’ve ever been, with a high-velocity operating model that will empower our team to deliver an unmatched caliber of service to our pouring partners. I’m eager to see what we can accomplish together as the remainder of this year unfolds.”
Khalid’s work at Good Gracious to both develop brand, vision, and strategy for a new-to-market family of beverages and commercialize product and equipment innovations for alcoholic and nonalcoholic drinks alike makes him the ideal choice to boost Tractor’s efforts to disrupt the foodservice beverage industry.
“I am thrilled to join the Tractor leadership team and look forward to bringing my experience to this new role to help build on the brand’s success, innovating in the beverage space while creating more value for our customers, partners, and employees,” said Khalid.
As its new COO, a role created specifically to allow the company to leverage his diverse skills, Khalid will apply his knowledge and passion to the next phase of Tractor’s ongoing growth.
Founded with a mission to create better beverages for all, Tractor Beverage Company is the first and only certified organic, non-GMO full line beverage solution for foodservice. Tractor’s handcrafted drinks feature clean ingredients that deliver on taste, functionality, and an innovative consumer experience. Tractor’s vision is to use its beverage platform to expand organic farm practices—and, in turn, lead the way to a more sustainable and flourishing future for restaurants, consumers and farmers.
Tractor was named to Fast Company’s prestigious annual list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies in 2021. For more information, please visit drinktractor.com or follow along on Instagram at @drinktractor.
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Organic Infant Formula Company Bobbie Available on NYC Uber Eats
Bobbie, the mom-founded and led organic infant formula company, is partnering with Uber Eats to deliver its organic, European-inspired formula directly to New Yorkers’ doors. The pilot program is taking the direct-to-consumer formula brand on-demand this holiday season for the first time ever, to bring parents peace of mind in knowing they can nourish their babies in a New York minute.
With the formula shortage still lingering and more than one-third of caregivers reporting difficulties finding formula as recently as November, accessibility to high quality formula is top of mind for Bobbie and Uber Eats. Layered on top of holiday shipping delays (in 2021, 9.4 percent of holiday packages shipped to New York faced delays, among the highest in the country), and unexpected winter weather, there’s a number of “oh no” reasons New York parents may need a can of formula delivered to their doorstep at the tap of a button this holiday season.
Since spring, over 30,000 people seeking asylum have migrated to New York City, with over 20,000 living in shelters, including hundreds of families with infants. That’s why for each can delivered through the pilot program, Bobbie’s social impact arm of the business, Bobbie for Change, will donate a can of formula to the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City in support of recently arrived asylum seekers living in temporary NYC shelters, making a difference for local families in need.
“Formula is food and nourishes our most vulnerable population. For years, we’ve helped our customers order nearly every type of food on Uber Eats, and we’re so proud to work with Bobbie to now help parents and caregivers get their babies formula on-demand through our app,“ said Beryl Sanders, head of new verticals partnerships at Uber Eats. “As a Bobbie mom myself, I know how important it is to have access to high quality formula at any given moment. This first-of-its-kind partnership couldn’t have come at a better time against the backdrop of this year’s formula shortage, and we’re thrilled to offer New Yorkers the opportunity to get their beloved Bobbie on Uber Eats.”
The Bobbie Care team has seen first-hand the need for instant, on-demand formula deliveries since launch in 2021. Parents have called, emailed, and direct-messaged on social, panicked about running out of their formula unexpectedly, unable to wait for their next shipment. Never one to sit idly by while our customers are in-need, Bobbie has relied on Uber to deliver hundreds of cans on their own dime, helping parents in a pinch for a plethora of need-formula-now reasons.
From using Uber to send a can of Bobbie to LaGuardia Airport when a customer was stuck with a delayed flight and a hungry baby to ordering an Uber ride through gridlocked Atlanta traffic to a mom who was on her last scoop and ran out of frozen breastmilk, formula is an essential good, and for parents who need a top-up in moments of crisis, there’s often no alternative solution readily available. Until now.
“From the earliest days at Bobbie, we’ve been focused on reimagining how to make formula one less thing modern parents stress about. As a team of moms, this couldn’t hit closer to home for us. That started with our business model, as the first direct-to-consumer formula brand in the U.S., continued with our launch on shelves at Target nationwide this summer, and it’s beyond exciting to add yet another way for parents to easily access Bobbie with a reliable partner like Uber Eats,” said Laura Modi, CEO and co-founder of Bobbie, and mom of three. “We’ve been putting cans of emergency Bobbie into Ubers and sending them to parents for years now. To see this partnership with Uber Eats come to life in an official way is surreal.”
The Bobbie x Uber Eats pilot will be available in NYC through Jan. 31, or while supply lasts. Deliveries will be available to most Uber Eats users in Manhattan. To order, open the Uber Eats app and search for Bobbie, or tap on the Baby and Kids Hub to see the Bobbie storefront. Cans are priced at $28 each.
Bobbie is an organic infant formula company that exists to build a parenting culture of confidence, not comparison, where every parent is supported in the feeding choice that is right for them and their baby. Bobbie launched in 2021 as the first direct-to-consumer, subscription-based infant formula company in the United States.
Today, Bobbie is the only mom-founded and led infant formula in the country and the fastest growing infant formula to enter the US market since the 1980s. Bobbie’s recipe is modeled after breastmilk and designed to meet the most recent EU nutritional standards for critical ingredients like DHA and iron, while also complying with all FDA nutritional standards for infant formula.
Bobbie is focused on providing a purposefully sourced, USDA Organic infant formula with Organic Valley milk from pasture raised cows. It was the first-ever infant formula to receive the Clean Label Project Purity Award and certification as a Pesticide-Free Product. Bobbie was founded in 2018, is based in San Francisco, and is venture-backed.
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