Reporting a 169 percent increase in sales for 2018, LIFEAID Beverage Company announced last week it is aiming to triple its retail presence to at least 18,000 doors this year, including Walmart, Whole Foods, Kroger, and Sprouts stores.
The announcement comes as the company prepares to expand chainwide at Walmart with its FitAid, FocusAid, and ImmunityAid SKUs, as the retailer looks to grow its functional beverage set with national and regional brands.
LIFEAID VP of Sales Dan Leja told BevNET, "The company entered 429 stores Walmart last year and that the expansion marks a ten-fold increase."
The company has also expanded in Kroger; according to Leja, LIFEAID has experienced a “natural evolution” with the retailer, having first entered with a 40-store test in the Texas market in 2016 and slowly expanded over the past two years. The latest expansion brings the brand’s presence to 15 Kroger divisions, which Leja said is about 1,500 doors.
LIFEAID has also reformulated its nootropic-based FocusAid line to double its caffeine content to 100 mg per can. Leja said the SKU is projected to grow more than 500 percent in 2019 and will make up 40 percent of the company’s total placement.
Leja said the company is also seeking to increase brand awareness by working with “micro influencers” who can appeal to the company’s niche target demographics. LIFEAID will seek to grow its FitAid line within yoga studios, while the company is recruiting musicians and DJs to promote its PartyAid line.
“We really want to piggyback off of what we’ve done with FitAid and building the name within the Crossfit and functional fitness space,” Leja said. “It’s not gimmicky or anything like that. We’re truly passionate about the offerings that we have and we want to portray that in a professional manner.”
On the West Coast, LIFEAID is also building out its DSD network to service the convenience channel, working with distributors Hensley in Arizona, Golden Beverage in Utah, Bonanza in Nevada, and New Age in Colorado. The company is negotiating contracts currently to service the entirety of California and the Pacific Northwest.
“By building out this proof of concept we wanted a story we could take to distributors and not just sell them on hopes and dreams,” he said. “Most of our retail authorizations started in the west, so that’s why we’re building our DSD footprint there. We also have some high-level meetings coming up in the Northeast in the coming weeks to start carving out a DSD footprint there as well.”
Visit lifeaidbevco.com for more information about the brand, or to shop the entire lineup of their clean nutritional blends to fit your active lifestyle.
Source: on BevNet.com - Jan. 31, 2019 at 6:41 p.m.
