The 'Real' Story Behind Spindrift's Stunning Success

0:10Hello friends, I'm Ray Latif and you're listening to the number one podcast for anyone building a business in food or beverage, Taste Radio. In this episode, we sit down with Bill Creelman and Dave Berwick, the founder and CEO, respectively, of real ingredient beverage platform, Spindrift. Even after 15 years and a majority sale of the company he founded, one reportedly valued at over $650 million, Bill Creelman remains convinced that Spindrift is just at the beginning of a real revolution. Since launching Spindrift in 2010, Bill has built the brand into a powerhouse, generating nearly$300 million in annual retail sales, according to Nielsen IQ.

0:57Spindrift is known for its sparkling water made with real fruit juice and purees, with no added sugar or added flavors. The brand has expanded that portfolio to include hard seltzers and more recently, a mid-calorie soda line that harkens back to Spindrift's original mission of delivering authentic, high-quality beverages. Earlier this year, private equity firm Griffin Investors acquired a majority stake in Spindrift. As part of this transition, veteran CPG executive Dave Berwick stepped in as CEO, while Bill now serves as the chairman of the board. Together, Bill and Dave are leading Spindrift into its next chapter, one focused on real ingredients and sustainable growth.

1:38For Bill, the future is full of endless possibilities. As he shared in our conversation, the most surprising part is realizing just how much further we can go. In this episode, Bill and Dave dive into the importance of staying true to a vision, executing it with patience, and creating a brand that resonates with today's conscious consumers. They explore how ambition, when guided by intentionality, leads to real sustainable growth. Bill and Dave also discuss why Spindriff's innovation strategy is grounded in the belief that the world is ready for beverages that prioritize quality, transparency, and authenticity.

2:17Hey, folks, it's Ray with Taste Radio. Right now, I am supremely honored to be sitting down with Bill Creelman and Dave Berwick, the founder and CEO, respectively, of Spindrift. Bill, how are you? I'm well, Ray. Thanks for having us again. Yeah, absolutely. Dave, good to see you. How are things? Good to see you, Ray. Things are going great. Outstanding. Were you both at Expo West? We were. Yep, we were. I missed you both. I'm sorry. But I did see Spindrift everywhere, especially on Hall E. You guys had a huge display out there. How many cans of the Spindrift soda did you hand out? Have we done the math yet?

2:49I think it's over, I'm guessing over 7 ,000 or 8 ,000. 7 ,000 or 8 ,000. Yeah. And the team did a great job. I would think most people were finishing the cans because what you are making is pretty darn fantastic. Yeah, it was fun. It was fun to see the product out in the world, especially having worked on it, you know, and secrecy for months and months and months. So yeah, and the reaction was really exciting too. Innovation. I guess it's sort of a retro innovation in some ways. Where this idea came about and the desire and decision to get back into the soda category. Well, I mean, you would uniquely know just because we talked all, you know, during the growth of Spindrift, just, you know, what the journey is that we've been on.

3:35But maybe just to remind the audience, I mean, we started as Spindrift Soda in 2010, and we were a refrigerated$3 single serve soda. A long neck glass bottle. Long neck glass bottle sold through 75 produce distributors, mostly into restaurants from 2010 to 2016. and then famously we sat down with you in 2017 and declared that we were getting out of that business because we wanted to challenge ourselves to make a product that didn't have sugar which is what the original soda had didn't have synthetic natural flavors and natural colors and that's exactly what we did you know we focused on building a sparkling water format using real ingredients.

4:27And so in the end of 2023, beginning of 2024, the team came up with this idea of like, what if we went back to that original, you know, kind of intensity of product and format, knowing now everything we've learned over the last 14 years, what would it be like if we revisited that intensity level, kind of turned Spindrift up to 11. And that's what they did. These products are effectively are taking this incredible knowledge that we've developed, the supply chain that we didn't really have figured out. We've learned so much about sourcing and seasonality and fruit and temperature and time that we could apply all of that learning now to this product.

5:20And I would argue it's a better product than we made way back when. And it adheres to all the same principles of just sparkling water and real ingredients. So it's been incredibly exciting for us. And I think probably the most bold innovation we've ever done, just because it really pushes the limits of really what Spindrift uniquely is. you know, which is a very simple proposition, but this sort of incredible dimension of flavor without adding a ton of sweetness. You do make great products. I just had a sip of your Shirley Temple and you had mentioned that this was a huge hit at Expo West. I imagine there were a lot of people drinking it as a refreshment beverage, but also as looking at it as a non-alk cocktail or an alcohol analog.

6:14And it is something where I feel like this does remind me, and I do have that kind of memory of when you launched in 2010 and the feeling I got when I was tasting these sodas and they weren't syrupy. You could taste the real fruit in there. The carbonation was spot on. I do feel like these are a great representation of what you originally intended. Dave, when you and I spoke last, you were the CEO of Boston Beer Company. And I remember at the time, hard seltzer was the craze, almost in the same way that Better For You soda is a craze right now in non-alc. And I'd asked you if Truly could, that would be the Boston beer company, Hard Seltzer Truly, could be a brand that was potentially bigger than Sam Adams.

6:59Sam Adams being the flagship beer of Boston beer company. And when I think about the soda, I know it's still early. It's what, you're two, three weeks in at this point, not even. I wonder if the soda you think could be the new flagship line for Spindrip, given what we're seeing in this space, in this soda space right now. I wish you hadn't brought up Truly. I'm sorry. No, I'm just kidding. By the way, Truly became a billion-dollar business. Sure. So about three exercise of Samuel Adams. Yep. I mean, who knows? I think it's a great product. It's really early for us to say, but I think it hits a sweet spot right now, which is people, for the same reason that sparkling does, people are looking for healthy ingredients, better drinking.

7:42I think consumers always like flavor. I mean, flavor is really important and drinkability is really important. And I think what Bill and company have done to bring this to life is tremendous. I think it delivers on all that. And I think importantly, you know, it's a brand that really knows what it's about and kind of sticks to sort of its authentic roots. And I think that helps with consumers because consumers can sense that when it's real and it hasn't been corrupted. And I say working at a big company like Pepsi, which is a wonderful place, by the way, the The risk always is that the purity of brands become corrupted by all the succession of people that come through and run the brands because their goals might be different than the long-term goals that the brand might have, if you will.

8:22This is one that's never been corrupted. There's a through line, as Bill said, from the beginning in 2010 to where we are now with this product. So could it be bigger? Well, we hope so. That would be wonderful if it is, but I don't think we're not necessarily betting on that. we're just going to take it one step at a time. You have three lines of products now. You have your hard seltzer, you have the soda line, you have your flagship sparkling water line. How do you know where to emphasize your time and resources at this point? Believe it or not, even though we've been doing this for 14 plus years, it's still early days for real ingredients and beverages.

9:03And what's so exciting to me is that it feels like real ingredients have never been more relevant than they are today. You know, you have to remember when we started in sparkling water, every other product was the same. It was clear. It didn't have, you know, fruit on the back of the label. Like it just was, you know, relatively big category with very little differentiation. and almost everything we've done is really against this idea of let's bring real ingredients to people and help them understand what it is. And so you mentioned the three product lines we're in today. I would argue, you know, the mocktails is another category that we've extended into.

9:48The teas is another area. It's really all with the same goal. It's bringing real ingredients to consumers, many of whom have never had them in beverages, at least, you know, sort of single strength, unprocessed, like what real fruit actually tastes like. And so when we sat down with you guys a couple of years ago, we kind of announced that this is the direction we were going to be going in. We thought there was an opportunity for real ingredients to be, to show up in places where real ingredients weren't or previously had not been. And that's really what you're seeing us do now as we launch into Soda and continue to drive our business in these other areas.

10:37So I think when we think about resource allocation or where we're going to be spending our time, we really frame it more as how can we help bring more people into real ingredients as a category almost or as like a subset. and kind of direct our time and energy through that lens. And to me, what's interesting and exciting about soda, you know, we've historically had a very strong food service business. For instance, you know, we have a number of food service customers that previously worked with us on our soda line. They were very excited, you know, kind of big acquirers, had it on the menu, et cetera.

11:16And this is a chance now to bring real ingredients to those customers again and help, you know, kind of help move them down the real ingredient pipeline. Yeah, I would agree that real ingredients is a major through line for Spindrift. But as a consumer, I would say that the reason I love Spindrift is because it's a premium product. Everything that you make has a premium vibe to it. And, you know, even the prices are more premium and a higher priced item you would expect to be a better product. I think the premium nature of what you do helps on a lot of fronts. And I think on the retail front as well.

11:56Dave, if you could talk about that, you know, at a time when Better for You So To Ser becoming so ubiquitous that you would think prices are going to come down. How do you maintain that positioning in a way that represents Spindrift and the way it's been portrayed historically? Well, I think just in general, I mean, for years at Pepsi, we tried to come up with a premium brand or brand that could charge more money. And it just has not happened in soft drinks historically. It's because of the competitive nature, that's part of it. And pricing on a real basis has probably declined still over the years.

12:31I think what's really special about this new modern soda subsegment, whatever you want to call it, is that for the first time, there are premium price points that are sticking in the category. And I think it's good for everybody. I think it's good for retailers, for sure. And it's good for the manufacturers and the producers as well. And I think credit to, you know, Olipop, Poppy, Spindrift, and maybe, you know, S. Pellegrino, Perrier, some of these other brands, Topo Chico, to a certain extent, that can create a higher price ceiling. I think it's, right now, I think it's real. And I think it's going to stick because consumers, as you said, are willing, they recognize premium when they see it and they're willing to pay more for it.

13:11And the people who are putting the products out there are very disciplined about, you know, what they want to get for the product. And also the cost to produce it is higher as well. So that's certainly driving some of it. But I think it's great for the category actually to see that. Yeah, and I think I've never really seen Spindrift discounted. I've never seen it in a place where it's like a dollar a can or even a dollar 50 a can. And that's no knock on Spindrift. I'm actually, I think it's a brilliant strategy to maintain, again, that positioning such that people don't think of you as being a discounted brand.

13:44In fact, we see a lot of that right now in sparkling water where emerging brands have put themselves in a difficult spot by discounting to$1,$1.50 when they were once, say$3,$3.50. It's hard, though, I think, to expand and to get those velocities, perhaps, that people are expecting investors might be expecting you to get when you do have that premium price how do you balance the two what how do you consider the dual nature of price and velocity bill well we've just had to focus on the part of the business that we you know the space we uniquely fill and you know our product is expensive to me you know when you fresh squeeze ingredients and you use single strength ingredients, like there's no getting around the fact that that's going to be a more expensive process.

14:36We were, our ingredients are cold chain. We move them cold to our production facilities. So I guess in many ways, like discounting was never really going to be a strategy because of the inherent cost in the ingredients. I think though that more what's interesting to us is value. Like, is there value there when you take an unprocessed ingredient and give them the kind of taste profile and the rounded taste profile of what an orange that you just cut open and you're sort of having as a slice or as fresh fruit? And I think what we have always understood is that word of mouth is going to be our most important and most effective strategy.

15:23People try Spindrift, it's different. They like it, they tell a friend. That's a very patient strategy. It is not, you know, kind of buying front of store and then crossing your fingers. But it was always the strategy that we felt was the most effective for our brand, just given how different it was relative to everything else in the set. Switching gears for a sec, sugar. Sugar has always been something that is top of mind for consumers, or maybe not always, but certainly in the last 10 years, where there's been this, hey, sugar is completely evil, and now it's moved to a place where a little bit of sugar is fine.

16:07Sugar has always been a question about Spindrift, and I'm looking at that 2017 article and talking about your complete transition from soda to sparkling water, and when you would sit at the time, Bill, it's removed the last caveat. that it's real fruit and water and bubbles. That's it. You've embraced the fact that sugar can be a fair thing for consumers. That's something that consumers want at this point. How much does that impact, I guess, the overall strategy? How do you think about sugar in the context of the evolution of Spindrift at this point? Well, we've stayed, you know, that our soda even now doesn't have any added sugar.

16:45And I'm gonna have some of your strawberry shortcake, which you would think is a pretty sweet product, but let's try it here. So imagine when we entered the sparkling water category, it was a category filled with zeros. And when you have real fruit, it cannot have zeros. I mean, literally, you know, real fruit has some de minimis amount of calories. So we had to really embrace that and really explain why real fruit has calories and products without real fruit don't. And that is quite a challenge, especially as a single brand out there really advocating for that point of view. The new product is that exact same proposition, just two, three, four times the amount of real fruit.

17:31Our position on real ingredients and then the kind of resulting calories or sugar really hasn't changed. I would say, I think what we would always say about our product, and especially now, I think this is true in the soda category, is that we're not relying on sweetness. We're really relying on dimension of flavor. What single strength ingredients give you uniquely is a little sweet, a little tart, a little body, some sweetness. You know, that's traditional soda intensity, but a lot more dimension of flavor. And that's why you don't miss the sugar. So I actually think now more than ever, we now know sugar can accelerate things in your body that you don't necessarily want.

18:17We know a lot more about the effects of sugar. So I think we're more, as Dave said, like we know ourselves so well now that it's much more about, you know, kind of continuing to defend our proposition than necessarily kind of reinventing or reimagining it now as we expand. Another ingredient that seems to be top of mind for a lot of consumers, well, it's an ingredient set, that of functional ingredients. And you, Spindrift, famously or in some cases infamously said we are not all about the functional ingredients. So we're not a probiotic, prebiotic. We're not a gut health brand. We really embrace real ingredients.

19:06And in some cases, you know, there's this function, right? Our tea has a little bit of caffeine in it. We obviously have a spiked line that has a little bit of alcohol in it. The original function, right? The original. But it all, you know, it's all derived from the ingredients upstream that you could grow in your garden, you know, or you could make a meal with. And so, yeah, this is like very personal to us, this idea of using real ingredients, this idea of using, you know, less processed ingredients. I actually think though that, you know, and I don't know, I think we all would define function a little bit differently, but I would argue that when you make a meal from scratch at home versus buying a TV dinner, even though you're getting this exact same ingredients, the making it from scratch at home is a little bit better for you.

19:58The actual, you know, kind of bits in the food and the way it's less processed yields a better product. It tastes better, I would argue, but I think also you can digest it easier. And I think that's really what we're espousing here is this idea that we're, you know, when you start with a whole orange or a whole lemon and can kind of follow it all the way through to the beverage you drink, there's inherently it's going to taste better and it's going to feel better. And that is something that we are unwavering on. I think one of the unspoken words in our industry, and I don't know why, because it is the biggest part of our industry is refreshment, right?

20:38I mean, people drink beverages typically for refreshment. You have billions and billions of beverages sold every day because people are thirsty and they want something delicious to drink. And that part of Spinders' trajectory, I think, is an important one. But how do you talk to people about refreshment? How do you talk to people about the fact that this is going to be a delicious product and doesn't need to be anything more than that, especially nowadays when everyone's like, oh, this has to have this or this or that in it. Again, I guess, you know, we believe that the real ingredient revolution in beverage is just starting.

21:14And so when we talk about innovation or where we wanna extend into, we really think about what categories are most in need of a proposition like Spindrift. And then we think about that need state. So here with the soda, we really feel like pairing with food is what we can uniquely bring, certainly refreshing, but also fulfilling. If you look back at when, you know, we started, we were, you know, a favorite of many of, you know, flatbread pizza in Somerville or the flatbread peach chain or burrito. Or, you know, we worked with Wahlburgers when they launched in the early days, way back when. And those are all occasions that I think are better suited to a fuller flavored product, albeit still something that is matching.

22:07It should match in flavor intensity, but also ingredients. And what always struck me is when you go into a great pizza blaze or a great burger joint, you can watch them make the ingredients behind the counter. You can see them rolling the dough and putting the toppings on. And we wanted to have a soda or a proposition that kind of matched that. So we continue to be very intentional about where we take this kind of point of difference of ours that's taken us almost 10 years to figure out. And so I think we still believe the long runway here for Spindrift or other brands is going to be taking real ingredients and kind of matching up with the experience that it's best suited for.

22:54well yeah the occasion however could be a bit of a problem i think and this is just me talking given that you have two really delicious product lines now and you kind of have to weigh where one belongs the other doesn't necessarily or where one belongs the other one say you know fits better i mean i'm sipping on this orange cream flow which is outstanding really, really good. And I'm thinking, okay, well, if I were working for Spindrift, how would I figure out where this belongs versus just your orange mango sparkling water? And is that a dilemma for you? I mean, is the question of cannibalization a concern for Spindrift at this point?

23:36Luckily, you know, we've been in both categories, right? So we were in soda for seven years and now we've been in sparkling water for about seven years. Albeit at a very different part of your journey. Very different part of our journey. But we learned a lot. You know, we were able to kind of see where those categories overlap, you know, so where the consumer overlaps or where the retailers overlap and then where they're different. And I think it's fair to say there's going to be occasions where they're similar. But we also know when we got out of the soda business that there are a whole bunch of customers that now could no longer find the brand.

24:09And I think the need hasn't changed. You know, there's still particularly that with food occasion, in our opinion, is probably better suited for a more intense flavor. I think we have a pretty well-lit line for that. I mean, red wine is a great example. That tends to pair with a specific occasion that's different than rosé or white wine. And so we're, you know, we're very happy for the consumer to come in and meet us at whatever level of intensity they want. We don't want to be too prescriptive about that. But as Dave mentioned, we're being very targeted with where we go with this product because we really want to make sure, you know, for us, the ideal is obviously to bring consumers in in that with food occasion that right now is not purchasing Spindrift because it doesn't deliver the flavor intensity yet that they were looking for.

25:04Intentional is good. Ambition is really good if you're an entrepreneur or someone who's running a beverage company that seems to be on fire like Spendrift is right now. I think ambition can sometimes get away from people. I remember I once spoke with Ben Weiss, who's the founder of a brand called Buy. And Buy was famously sold to Dr. Pepper Snapple or Kirk Dr. Pepper for a billion seven. I think this was in 2017. And Ben at the time had told me, he's like, we don't look at ourselves as the next vitamin water. We're the next Coke. We're the new Coke. And of course, there was a chuckle and, you know, a wry smile there on my half.

25:42Ben was deadly serious, actually. But, you know, Dave, how does ambition fit into your strategy? On the one hand, you've got these great product lines and you want to be intentional about and specific about how you position them and where they're sold. On the other hand, I mean, I can see these and say, hey, well, the sky's the limit for what you can do here. How do you think about and weigh ambition versus intentionality? Well, I think if intentionality is followed correctly, then ambition is sort of achieved, if you will. So I think continue to do what we're doing. I think there's more categories to go into with real ingredients and real fruit that we could redefine, if you will.

26:24And I think we need to do that at the right pace and the right way. And ultimately, the ambition will be achieved. Personally, I mean, I think this is a billion dollar business and beyond. It is. But like I don't wake up in the morning, this is something like week three, but I don't wake up in the morning and say, hey, how quickly can we become a billion dollar business? I think, hey, how successful can we make soda? And to your point, where does soda, where's it going to fit out a consumer's choices? How are they going to consume on what occasions? How do we do, how do we separate that from sparkling?

26:53How do we best reach that consumer? Should we be targeting modern soda drinkers or traditional soda drinkers or both? So I think it's great to have the ambition, but I think you get there by doing all the right, not focusing on that every day, just focusing on what's right in front of you. And I think, again, this is a brand that is like, you know, it's from Bill and the team. It's like it's never wavered from its intentionality, if you will. And I think that's really, I think today's world, people see that. They just understand it. And I think that's a really powerful thing. And I think we just got to keep following, you know, following that same path and we're going to get there.

27:30And actually, I joined because I'm so excited about there's so few brands in any category that have that kind of sanctity to it that it's really super exciting to be a part of this and help the team achieve their ambitions. And again, I think this thing is it's got a lot of runway ahead of it. You mentioned a number of times that Real Ingredients is a platform with which you can innovate into multiple different beverage categories. I think when you're considering new product development, you don't want to over-innovate. You want to be very focused on what you have in front of you, but be cognizant about the potential for the brand.

28:11I don't know. I mean, I sometimes wonder about innovation as being a big trap for a lot of brands. Bill, how have you considered innovation over the years and timing in particular as it relates to the soda line? Yeah, we spend a lot of time on that. You know, and in general, if you think about, let's say we're in four to five product lines over 15 years, you know, it's about every two or three years that we feel like we're kind of ready to come out with something different and unique. I think that the difference is really, as I mentioned already, like it's about showing the versatility of real ingredients and trying to present in a unique way for consumers that may not yet have moved into Spindrift.