稻谷斯普斯在2009年在发现甜叶菊甜的时致力于整个食物cola he loved so much that he decided to purchase the company and invest $3 million of his own money in it.
Now, 12 years later the CEO of that brand, Zevia, has taken his fast-growing company public as the beverage maker taps into consumer demand for no-calorie, no-sugar offerings while aiming to fend off competition from juggernauts like Coca-Cola and PepsiCo.
"When we bought the business, this was a $5 million brand, highly unstable and with the somewhat insane proposition of competing head on with multi-billion dollar category leaders," Spence said July 22, the day of the company's IPO. "It was a huge gamble, but it paid off and that is what I think makes [this IPO] so exciting and so sweet."
Zevia, which was founded in 2007, has experienced skyrocketing sales growth as consumers shun sugary sodas in favor of beverages that don't have the same negative health impacts. Its beverages were offered in more than 22,000 stores last year, an increase of 4,000 locations from 2018, according to the company's S-1. Net sales soared to $110 million in 2020 from $6.8 million a decade earlier — a 32% compound annual growth rate.
尽管增长，Zevia在2021年第一季度发布了损失，大部分资金都针对创新和扩大业务。作为一家公共公司的第一周一直是一场斗争，其股票通常低于其14美元的IPO价格。Zevia股价上涨34美分,至13.50美元周三清晨交易。
除了无糖，无卡路里的饮料外，Zevia今天发现本身在今天对消费者的许多趋势中沉浸在斯普斯所说的斯普拉斯可以帮助吸引用户的品牌。饮料制造商使用非转基因成分，是一家经过认证的B公司，通过包装铝罐与塑料包装所有饮料来拥抱可持续发展。Zevia也最近从传统的传统转换为有机甜叶菊。
随着消费者吃得更健康，斯普斯在全球范围内令人难以置信。他经过二十年前在注意到他曾在他认为健康的产品中消耗1,000卡路里的糖，他已经消耗了1,000卡路里的决定，他正在对采用类似的心态的更多消费者的银行。
尽管苏打水消耗急剧下降during the last two decades, Spence estimated the average American still drinks 40 gallons of the beverage each year. At the same time, more than 50 countries around the world have put in place sugary beverage taxes that could help spur more consumers to drink products without the sweetener.
Zevia的根源在14年前返回，当时它开始作为一个有三种口味的小苏打公司。从那时起，加利福尼亚州的饮料公司已经扩大了其投资组合，包括能量饮料，茶叶，搅拌机，闪闪发光的水域和儿童饮料。COLA现在负责大约四分之一的销售额。
“我们有一个为每个成员提供the household, every time of day from the moment you wake up until the time you go to sleep, so it's a great platform," Spence said. "And this is a fantastic opportunity to continue to drive growth with this IPO."
尽管如此，他说Zevia有一个“巨大数量”的饮料类别，它可以在大胆的野心中进入，以在除酒精，蛋白质和非金银之外的所有内容中都有存在。他突出了咖啡和运动饮料，因为它可以进入下一个潜在的类别。食物也是一种长期可能性。
Instead of sugar, Zevia sweetens its beverage with stevia, a calorie-free, natural sweetener derived from the plant of the same name. Stevia has been tried in维生素水,Pepsi和Coca-Cola, as well asother smaller drink brands, but all have dropped it because of consumer complaints. Many types of the extract naturally have a somewhat bitter aftertaste.
Zevia has stood by stevia and made frequent changes to how it uses the sweetener, including tweaking recipes and introducing饮料，具有更好协调的口味with its taste.
“该类别领导人有一个非常不同的哲学。他们的哲学有一个令人难以置信的秘密公式，把它锁在拱顶100年里，希望世界不会改变，”斯普斯表示。“世界变化真的很快，所以我认为我们的迭代方法绝对是一个胜利的公式。”
Zevia发现了在超竞争性饮料空间中，加强了深度袋装，更熟悉的竞争对手，包括能量饮料怪物饮料，Lacroix闪亮的水制造商国家饮料，可口可乐和百事可乐。早期迹象很有希望，Zevia在其S-1中注明，其品牌以比其他零卡路里的苏打水更快地增长。
"For 100 years, they've sought to win on taste but often at the expense of clean ingredients. We, on the other hand, believe the whole consumer landscape is changing and today brands in beverage not only need to win on taste but they also need to win with clean ingredients," Spence said. "That is where we win every single time."
