Zevia at Global Farm to Market Conference: Strategic Growth Insights

On Thursday, 15 May 2025, Zevia (NYSE:ZVIA) presented at the 20th Annual Global Farm to Market Conference and Chemicals @ Farm to Market. The company outlined a robust growth strategy amidst both opportunities and challenges. Zevia highlighted its focus on expanding distribution, enhancing marketing efforts, and optimizing margins, while also addressing potential macroeconomic headwinds and tariffs.

Key Takeaways

• Zevia is expanding distribution with major retailers like Walmart and Albertsons, driving growth in Q2 and Q3.
• The company is investing in marketing, targeting low double-digit spending as a percentage of revenue by 2025.
• Zevia aims to optimize margins to the upper 40s, with a long-term goal of low 50s through improved inventory management.
• A $15 million productivity program is underway, with further cost savings anticipated.
• The company plans to be EBITDA positive by 2026, with low double-digit EBITDA margins targeted for 2027 and beyond.

Financial Results

• Gross Margin:

- Q1 gross margin exceeded expectations, surpassing 50%.

- Long-term gross margin target is in the low 50s, despite a 200 basis point headwind from aluminum tariffs.

- Zevia plans to offset tariffs through portfolio refinement and sourcing improvements.

• Productivity Program:

- Achieved $15 million in savings, surpassing the initial target of $8 million to $12 million.

- Further cost savings expected in supply chain, cost of goods sold (COGS), and warehousing.

• Marketing Spend:

- Aiming for low double-digit marketing spend as a percentage of revenue by 2025, nearly double the 2023 level.

- Reinvesting cost savings into marketing to support sustainable growth.

• EBITDA:

- Guidance indicates EBITDA positivity by 2026.

- Long-term goal of low double-digit EBITDA margins.

Operational Updates

• Distribution Expansion:

- Significant growth in distribution with Walmart, from 800 to 4,300 stores, and with Albertsons.

• Product Innovation:

- New flavors launched, including strawberry lemon burst and an exclusive orange creamsicle at Sprouts.

- Increasing pace of innovation with seasonal and retailer-exclusive flavors.

• Marketing Strategy:

- Enhanced marketing approach using authenticity and parody, with viral campaigns and a partnership with Jelly Roll.

• Direct Store Delivery (DSD):

- Outperforming in grocery segments where DSD services are available.

• Convenience Stores:

- Testing flavors and merchandising in regional convenience chains in the Northwest and Southwest.

Future Outlook

• Growth Trajectory:

- Transformation expected within the next four quarters, focusing on business growth beyond cost savings.

• Long-Term Margin Profile:

- Plans to demonstrate compelling unit economics and reinvest in long-term growth by 2026.

- Targeting low double-digit EBITDA margins by 2027 and beyond.

• Walmart Expansion:

- Continuing efforts to optimize space and serve shoppers effectively.

For a detailed understanding, readers are encouraged to refer to the full transcript provided below.

Full transcript - 20th Annual Global Farm to Market Conference and Chemicals @ Farm to Market:

Unidentified speaker, Host: Okay. There we go. We’re going to start with our next discussion here. It’s my pleasure to introduce Zevia for our next discussion. Zevia is a producer of zero calorie, naturally sweetened plant based beverages.

The company is executing on a robust growth strategy focused on enhanced distribution, channel expansion and improving brand awareness. Zevia’s initiatives are expected to drive accelerating sales growth through 2025, which will be enhanced by a materially stronger margins to support an improving EBITDA trajectory. And Xevia is only in the early innings given its growth opportunity. We’re joined by Xevia’s CEO, Amy Taylor and CFO, Girish Satya, to discuss Xevia’s strategies and outlook. Thank you both for being here.

Girish Satya, CFO, Zevia: Thanks for

Unidentified speaker, Host: having us. So let’s see. You’ve navigated an up and down last couple of years, I guess, I would say. How are you feeling about the momentum in the business so far in 2025 and as you kind of look out for the balance of the year?

Amy Taylor, CEO, Zevia: We’re feeling really good about it. We’re heads down and focused on execution and hopefully folks are starting to see that. But I think one thing I’ll note is just things have wildly changed in and around our category. In the last conversation, I think, was pointing to that and then nearer in, in carbonated soft drinks, there’s been a lot of kind of newcomers into the better for you beverage space. And the way I’ll summarize the impact of that for us is that we see the category tailwinds really supporting our opportunity.

So I put a couple of things together for you. Category tailwinds are starting to change the way retailers are merchandising our product and other fast growing, better for you products that are really exciting both for the consumer, for the retailer and for us. Secondly, based upon the productivity initiatives that we have been driving, which I’m sure we’ll talk about today, we’ve been able to unlock the ability to invest more in marketing. So we’re simultaneously improving gross margins and investing in promotional levels and in brand marketing that have been very supportive of growth. And then we are driving product innovation at a faster clip with an unlock around taste that we can talk about later today, one of which is strawberry lemonger sitting up here with me now.

And we’re seeing green shoots in the business at retail as a result of those things. So between investing in marketing, driving product innovation and really seeing distribution starting to grow, we’re feeling really good about the way forward.

Unidentified speaker, Host: So and this will maybe build on that. So growth in 2Q per the guidance and acceleration in the back half of the year. Can you talk about the building blocks of accelerating growth trajectory over the balance of

Girish Satya, CFO, Zevia: So I mean I think as we alluded to or as we discussed in our Q1 earnings call, like we reiterated our guidance for the year. And I think for the year, we believe we’ll be returning to growth, which is really exciting. I think a couple of things to note. We’re really confident in that partly because of the expanded distribution. Yes, we’ve talked about the Walmart expansion and Albertsons, but it’s just two of many examples of expanded distribution that really are sort of hitting in kind of Q2 and Q3 as you may know the shelf, the traditional spring resets have been delayed a little bit.

And so but generally speaking, we’ve been a beneficiary of it, and so we have a lot of confidence that that increased distribution is going to lead to increased growth. Now there’s obviously two caveats to this one, of course, that we don’t the macro remains uncertain. But accounting for that and accounting for the fact that in Q1, we kind of were lapping a lot of lost distribution. And then in Q4, we have to lap that sort of pipeline fill from Walmart. So it’s going to be a little bit kind of like a parabola or kind of a spike in Q2 and Q3.

All that being said, we’re pretty confident about returning the business to growth and really in an accelerated manner in Q2 or excuse me, in Q2 and Q3.

Unidentified speaker, Host: You mentioned the uncertainty related to the consumer. What are you seeing right now in terms of consumer behaviors? Are you seeing retailers kind of change the way that they’re planning? Just a little color about how that’s impacting your business or what you’ve seen so far.

Amy Taylor, CEO, Zevia: Sure. So it’s early. If we’re thinking macroeconomics, it’s early. But let’s bear in mind that there’s a convergence of two things. Of course, the unknowns and there’s some murkiness in the outlook for the rest of the year, consumer discretionary, etcetera.

But that’s happening at the same time as retailers are actually figuring out what this category is. So previously, you may have found Zevia sold in one section and some of our competitors scattered around at two or three other beverage categories or even all the way over in produce. And so as we’ve seen at Walmart, who has reset what is now called modern soda, all of these now better for you sodas in one shopping destination. And so despite all the macroeconomic headwinds, we’re seeing tremendous tailwinds that have to do with just how the category is being merchandised and the rising levels of awareness of better for you soda on the whole. So we’re benefiting from brands that are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to see the idea with the consumer that better for you soda is a thing, that soda could be better for you.

And we’re getting expanded distribution as a result of those tailwinds. So while there might be some and there will be some macroeconomic headwinds, we think we’re very well suited to grow in the midst of that, partially because of these category and retail drivers, but partially just because generally speaking people are continuing to continue to be willing to invest in health. That investment is less discretionary, And we have historically weathered, you know, economic downturns, I would say better than most on a relative basis. You know, we’re a home stocking brand. We’re affordably priced relative to other better for you sodas and those that we sit next to on shelf now.

And we find that repeat purchase, you know, within our very loyal consumer base continues at that same rate, you know, in the midst of headwinds. So we’re still quite bullish on the outlook on the year despite, know, maybe some limited visibility.

Unidentified speaker, Host: How do you so you mentioned two kind of, I guess, my mind, competing things, but maybe you think of it not in the same way. You have retailers that are featuring the category much more prominently.

Amy Taylor, CEO, Zevia: Yes.

Unidentified speaker, Host: You have large, larger, whatever, competitors that are being much more vocal, have a lot more resources maybe than they had previously. How do you think of the puts and takes between

Amy Taylor, CEO, Zevia: Do think about like the competitive it’s glib to just say a rising tide floats all boats. So let me tell you why the current rising tide floats this particular boat. You know, we for a long time were the number one brand in a very small category that was not really mainstreamed, right? So we came out of the natural category, we were kind of the only game in town in natural soda. And then as we started to build mainstream distribution, we started to win a broader consumer base.

We still have a long way to go, we’re, you know, single digit household penetration. But now, as again, there are being millions of dollars put into seeding with the consumer the idea that soda could be better for you. When they come to the shelf set, they also have the option of Zevia, which has a variety flavor profile, usage occasion relevance up and down multiple dayparts, multiple family members, right, versus sort of limited usage occasions, a great taste, always zero sugar, not just less sugar, and then finally more affordable. So we find ourselves in a situation where as the category awareness rises and distribution grows, we’re very well positioned to be the choice of the consumer, especially in the midst of economic headwinds for a better for you great tasting soda.

Unidentified speaker, Host: Do you think you get the credit from consumers that you deserve for being more competitively priced? Is that recognized? And maybe with the different retailer presentation, maybe it draws it out a little bit more. I’m just curious if you think that that is appreciated by consumers as much as it should be.

Amy Taylor, CEO, Zevia: Sure. Well, our job is really to build awareness, right? We are, again, in a category that has 90% household penetration. We’re at single digit household penetration levels. So our greatest opportunity is to drive trial.

And how are we going to do that? We’re going to do that by of course expanded retail presence, but also through marketing, through sampling, and through rapid innovation. So how do we then leverage our price advantage by simply being at a lower price point on shelf? So we’re not messaging that we’re a value player. We’re just available, again, oftentimes a home stocking brand and multipack at a lower price per unit and lower price overall.

So bear in mind, we’re a couple price a couple of cents per ounce, excuse me, we’re a couple cents per ounce more expensive than conventional soda. So we remain a premium product, but we are just less expensive on a relative basis than those that we sit next to on a shelf. So are we getting credit for it? I think what happens is as awareness grows, we get the trial and the repeat comes when affordability becomes more of a factor.

Unidentified speaker, Host: And so awareness, a big enabler has been the marketing pivot or the leading into the marketing side. I guess, what are you learning about marketing the brand? How has that been received so far? How are you thinking about spend and the right levels and mediums? What

Amy Taylor, CEO, Zevia: have you Yes. Let me talk a little bit about how we’re thinking about it and what we are learning. And then maybe Girish could talk on spend levels and just the balance of prioritization from where we are now. So I think what has changed since last time we sat here together Sure. Right?

Is I think Xevia has really found its sharpened voice. And you see that in the campaigns that we ran at the end of the year that went viral, and then the campaigns that we’ve been running through the beginning of this year partnering with a crossover artist, Jelly Roll, who’s like a very mainstream yet just polarizing enough character to sort of speak to Middle America, right? A lot of the category around us talks to, if you may, like a coastal elite. And, you know, it’s Paris Hilton at the DJ decks on Melrose Avenue. And we’ve got jelly roll walking or running a five k with really anyone else who chooses to get off the couch and come out and join him.

You know, he’s lost a hundred pounds and is just trying to do a little bit better every day. He’s a remarkably authentic person, which brings me to this. We really are all about authenticity. And a lot of brands talk about authenticity, but we are the anti artificial soda. And so we have a little poke fun with a little parody in our last campaign at AI, right?

And with the campaign around Jelly Roll, we’ve been kind of poking fun at celebrity endorsement with a celebrity endorsement, right? So I think we’ve really found this lighthearted, parody driven voice that speaks to a much broader consumer base. And what you’re seeing right now is really the mainstreaming of the Zevia proposition outside of the natural channel and in 4,300 Walmarts supported by a marketing campaign that I think is very relatable and very on time for the for today’s consumer. Do you want to talk a little bit about spending Yes.

Girish Satya, CFO, Zevia: I in terms of spend levels, I mean, and priorities, we’re trying to balance both sort of the top of funnel brand awareness with ensuring we’re supporting our retail partners appropriately. And I think low double digits is sort of what we’re targeting right now for 2025, which is almost 2x what we were spending in 2023. And so largely, we’re reinvesting a lot of the savings we’ve been driving to ensure that we can drive sustainable long term growth. And so as we continue to drive more efficiencies, we’ll continue to sort of balance how do we invest to drive that longer term profitable growth, drive brand awareness, but also kind of drop dollars to the bottom line.

Unidentified speaker, Host: Sure. You mentioned the some of the incremental Walmart distribution. What can you share with us about how that’s going so far? Is it more broadening your reach? Is it bringing in existing customers more frequently?

How are you seeing that play out so far?

Amy Taylor, CEO, Zevia: Sure. I mean, going from 800 to 4,300 Walmarts obviously significantly raises our profile and supports our top priority, which is growing our user base, ultimately supporting the growth of household penetration. We’re seeing existing Zevia consumers shop at Walmart and buy more. And then most importantly, we’re finding new shoppers trying Zevia for the first time. Indicative of that, our number one selling SKU is our variety pack.

And historical data would tell us that folks discover their favorite flavor in a variety pack and then come back and buy a slightly higher margin straight pack as part of their home stocking habit. And so we expect that pattern to continue. Overall it’s going well. It’s a very competitive set. There’s super fast growing brands within the set, and there’s only four brands.

So we know that there’s a number of new entrants. That set will continue to get disrupted and have some new players come on board. But what’s really encouraging is here we are midstream within the year, the set’s only been active for about six months, and we’re already launching new flavors into the set, bringing a second variety pack, we talked about on the cue call. And so we’re finding that as large as Walmart is they’re very agile and they’re highly invested in this category, and we’re continuing to kind of engineer the set together to optimize sort of the square footage and serve the shopper.

Unidentified speaker, Host: So you mentioned you had talked on the earnings call about adding the new variety pack and some other SKUs. How do you think about the brand’s potential within that set, right? I mean it’s relatively narrow. There are other entrants. I mean do you expect to continue to gain share of that?

Will the set continue to grow?

Amy Taylor, CEO, Zevia: Yes, it’s going to be really competitive. So we launched I’m proud to share that we launched with 11 SKUs at Walmart. I mean, that’s a really wide variety, right? It’s a variety pack and then 10 flavors. And so what we’ll look to do is optimize that over time and put our best foot forward with our very best flavors.

And I imagine the other brands sitting alongside us will be doing the same. But remember, I mean, Coca Cola is launching a brand into the gut health space. I think Coke and Walmart have a longstanding relationship, and I imagine they may show up as a new neighbor. So it’s going to be competitive, and I think it will play out over time. But importantly, our velocity has accelerated week over week throughout the year without exception.

And so that’s the right type of momentum to maintain and then grow our space and our share.

Unidentified speaker, Host: Shifting gears a little bit to C stores and DSD, those are still very early days as well. Can you talk about the brand’s readiness for those channels, for single serve oriented channels in particular? And you already mentioned being a home stocking brand. And so when you think about the brand pivoting to a more kind of impulse oriented occasion, how you think about that?

Amy Taylor, CEO, Zevia: Sure. Well, maybe just for the audience, this is quite unusual. 85%, ninety % of our business is in multipacks and a minority in singles. Most brands start out in singles, build some user base and then start trading people up to multis. So we’ve sold multipacks for ten plus years.

We’ve only been in the singles business for a couple of years now. And in order to step change that, we have sold singles in the natural channel, operates sometimes like a deli almost, and that’s gone quite well for us. And we’re now expanding singles into mainstream grocery where our DSD footprint has enabled it. And then next, to your point, the category really needs to prove itself in convenience. You know, convenience has come a long way with healthier beverages and foods across the board, but it’s still a very tight space with a very competitive set.

And so for us and our competitors, we’re seeking to just sort of demonstrate that opportunity with inconvenience. How we’re doing it in Zevia is to launch in a number of regional convenience chains in the Northwest and the Southwest, which are the two geographies where we have DSD or Direct Store Delivery Service. And we’ll be able to test and learn around flavor, merchandising strategies and price in order to really vet out what’s the right national plan for us from that point forward.

Unidentified speaker, Host: And how do you think about the cadence of that kind of

Amy Taylor, CEO, Zevia: further It’s early days, right? So we’re literally rolling that out now. And I think our learnings from those regional chains will inform the cadence as well, Andrew. So it’s it won’t be fast. And singles will not be a majority of our business anytime soon.

But it is very important for us to drive trial. So singles is a primary portion of that strategy as are variety packs in the meantime.

Unidentified speaker, Host: You had talked about outperforming the rest of the market with some of those. Is there any way to kind of speak to magnitude? I don’t know that I’ve heard you do that before. Is there anything

Amy Taylor, CEO, Zevia: you can haven’t quantified it, but what I can tell you is in grocery, where we have DSD merchandising services, we are out of stock less frequently. We have a higher percentage of sales on display, so percentage of ACV on display. And from a volumetric and revenue perspective, in sort of the high single digits to low double digits range, that geography is outperforming rest of marketing grocery. So that’s a real that’s a presumption that we can take to the sort of next geographies and

Unidentified speaker, Host: when that’s relevant. Something that we were just discussing before we got started here, You’ve been adjusting some of the taste profiles of your beverages kind of incrementally. And a lot of times that can be a tough needle to thread. So how has that been received? What is different for those that may not And how are you planning to roll that across the rest of the portfolio?

Amy Taylor, CEO, Zevia: Yes. So generally, we super serve like the soda consumer with flavors like cola and ginger ale and lemon lime and orange and the ones that you would right, the soda flavors. But I think what’s most exciting for us in innovation is the breakthrough that we’ve had around a more sugar like taste experience. So oftentimes our stevia based and natural flavors blend shows up really well in something like a creamy root beer because that creaminess delivers the flavor in a more sugar like taste experience. What we haven’t been able to do yet is be more competitive in light and fruity flavors, many of which are very on trend now.

And with a recent breakthrough in what I’ll call a more sugar like taste experience with our stevia and natural sweeteners and excuse me, natural flavors blend, we’ve been able to go into this strawberry lemon burst, which is the big exciting news of this year, and it opens up a whole pipeline of additional flavors that are on the come for the rest of this year and looking into next year.

Unidentified speaker, Host: It is quite delicious.

Amy Taylor, CEO, Zevia: Good. I’m glad you like it. And I also know you’d never lie to me

Unidentified speaker, Host: on stage, so I’m a single time. On product innovation specifically, you mentioned the success of this one. But broadly, has been a real success story for you guys over the last little bit here. So you have the retailer exclusives and things like that. How are you kind of leveraging new products to grow the customer base?

What are the plans around cadence of new products? What’s the right amount per year? How do you think

Amy Taylor, CEO, Zevia: about that? So we’re picking up our innovation pace significantly. So, if you have presumed that Xevia would bring one new flavor each year, you know, you would be right in the past. But this year, we have our one big new piece of national news. We have orange creamsicle, which is exclusive to Sprouts, and let’s see what happens if that’s successful there in terms of its future opportunity.

And then we have a number of seasonal flavors or retailer exclusive flavors coming online in the back half of this year. So we are significantly picking up the pace of innovation to support driving trial and expanding the user base, and some of that is enabled by the breakthrough that we’ve had in the taste and sugar blend.

Unidentified speaker, Host: And are you evolving kind of the flavor profile now that you’ve done the taste profile change? I mean, are you how are about that more structurally kind of shifting or broadening your opportunity set across

Amy Taylor, CEO, Zevia: the Yes. Mean, I think the taste improvement does two things for us. It supports consumption intensification with our small loyal base that we have today. But more importantly, it starts having people come and try Zevia that maybe wouldn’t have tried it before because we either offer a flavor that they like or because their first experience in drinking a Zevia is a good one.

Unidentified speaker, Host: I wanted to shift gears to margins. And the gross margin story has really been a standout. I feel like I haven’t been able to model my gross margins high enough, which is not a challenge. It’s not a challenge. You have talked a lot about kind of mid-40s, high-40s generally, you just cracked 50% here in the first quarter.

Where have you been kind of exceeding your internal cost management expectations to get that upside and how do you think about the durability?

Girish Satya, CFO, Zevia: Yes. And so I think in a couple of things. One, as we think about how have we been able to manage that margin expansion, I think important to note we’ve been able to expand margins while returning D and A to more traditional and competitive levels. And so I think really we’ve been able to drive that via improved inventory management, really continuing to sort of refine and hone in on the portfolio and sort of reduce a lot of the extraneous SKUs. And then really work with our co manufacturing partners to really optimize the product formulations and product manufacturing.

And so really, I think we’ve driven a lot of what I believe to be sustainable improvements in margin. Of course, there’s the 200 bps headwind that we had articulated vis a vis tariffs primarily around aluminum. We think there’s still some additional opportunities for us to offset some, if not all of that through continued refinement of the portfolio. Certainly, price enters the discussion. And then lastly, I think there is still further work we can do from a sourcing standpoint because we’re really we’ve made a lot of progress, but there’s sort of more progress to make.

And so long winded way of saying, I think upper 40s continues to be our internal target. We do believe there’s an opportunity in the long run to maintain low 50s, but I think it’s going to come with scale, and it’s going to come once we can get past some of these tariffs.

Unidentified speaker, Host: So on the tariff point, how much, I guess, visibility do you have to some of those offsets that you discussed? What’s maybe the timing to which that’s going to start to really flow through and both from a negative and an offsetting perspective?

Girish Satya, CFO, Zevia: Yes. So we’ve already, in Q2, begun to see some of the pass through expenses on aluminum tariffs from our co manufacturing partners. It will start to hit in Q2 and be more of an impact in Q3 and onwards. I think from a visibility standpoint, we do have visibility into the levers we need to pull. It will probably take us a quarter or so to be able to kind of get all of the ducks in a row to ensure that we have the reduced cost to offset that.

And so you may see a little bit of choppiness in sort of Q2 and Q3, but we think that once we start exiting Q4 or in Q4, we’ll begin to get the offsets against the headwinds that we’re seeing. So long winded way of saying that we’ll be at the upper 40s when the year is sort of all wrapped up, but there’s maybe a little bit of choppiness in the next couple

Unidentified speaker, Host: of And all of that from a cadence perspective, obviously, you’ve guided 2Q, you’ve guided the year, all of that is in the guidance? Correct. You had the productivity program, which you’ve worked through at this point. How are you thinking about that on a go forward basis where maybe is it continuous improvement? Are there other kind of chunky opportunities?

Are you utilizing some of that to offset the tariffs and so maybe kind of we’re comingling now? How do you think

Girish Satya, CFO, Zevia: Yes. So a year ago, we announced this sort of broad based productivity or transformation initiative and we initially had sort of an 8,000,000 to $12,000,000 target. And I’m really proud of the work the team has done to get us to 15,000,000 today, and I think we’ll continue to see that sort of bleed into the P and L over the remainder of the year. As we look forward, I think we’ve identified incremental opportunities primarily around supply chain, some in COGS, some in sort of selling and warehousing or really our transportation network. And so over the next several quarters, we’re still working on sizing those opportunities as we speak.

We do think they’ll be material. And to your point, we’re hoping to sort of get through that kind of transformation or the remaining transformation, let’s call it, by mid in the next four quarters or so so that we can really kind of move beyond that and really focus on how are we going to grow the business. But I think that will be sort of the transition point where we’ll be able to really kind of start refocusing the business on that.

Unidentified speaker, Host: And as you continue as I think about where you are now from a margin perspective, think about kind of the long term the way you frame the long term margin profile, obviously, which you’re funding through some of the cost saves, you’re going to have the DSD rollout as well. Like how do I think about just kind of the flow of your gross margins but also your profitability kind of over the course of the next couple of years?

Girish Satya, CFO, Zevia: Yes. I think as we think about sort of 2026, my hope is that we will be able to, one, demonstrate really compelling unit economics and reinvest the majority of that into really driving sustainable long term growth. And that sort of is the flywheel, right, where if we can really demonstrate sustainable long term growth with really compelling unit economics, you then will get to a point in ’twenty seven and beyond where you’re really getting to sort of EBITDA margins and cash flow generation, that is going to be really attractive. And so I think, you know, although we’ve guided to ’26 being the year we flip the switch from, you know, EBITDA negative to EBITDA positive, I think we will continue to bias to growth, because with those compelling unit economics, I think in the long run, that’ll create a really meaningful business with low double digit EBITDA margins. And I think I would note in Q1, we could have been profitable, right?

But we were investing for growth because of where we see this confluence of consumer acceptance for the brand, retailer acceptance for the brand. And so it’s really important that we capitalize on that momentum.

Unidentified speaker, Host: And so to get from the 25,000,000 guidance to EBITDA positive in 2026, what specifically needs to happen?

Girish Satya, CFO, Zevia: Yes, I think we need to complete the transformation that we’ve talked about, which is not only ensuring we get the $15,000,000 that we believe we’ve already achieved, that incremental that I’ve talked about. And then really those marketing investments, which we believe there are working and driving growth to drive incremental growth. But I think the good news is that between the two, we don’t need top line to grow 50% to get there. We need moderate top line growth and those cost savings that we talked about. And I think that will get us there.

Unidentified speaker, Host: When you I don’t know how much of the last panel you just listened to, but when you think about kind of the broader health and wellness trends within beverage, functional beverage, better for you beverage, how do you think it all fits together for the consumer? Like what’s the consumer going to do with all these different options?

Amy Taylor, CEO, Zevia: Well, know and maybe some other folks know that I spent twenty years building the Red Bull brand, and it was every year that we said, okay, it is saturated enough. There can’t possibly be room for one more. And here we are fifteen, twenty years later and it’s still just an absolute onslaught of new products and new options for the consumer. But maybe I’ll just reground us in one thing and that is that like carbonated soft drinks have the same household penetration as like toilet paper and toothpaste. We’re talking in the 90s, like North American households stock soda.

So what I think is exciting is that there are multiple options now sort of in the fringes around soda for functionality at a higher price point, for limited usage occasions, and for a fairly limited consumer, right, when we’re talking functional beverage. But at the core, the mainstream consumer is definitely moving away from sugar. It is a macro trend that is global and here to stay. But the sort of new news that it’s on its way is the younger consumer, and I think the consumer of today and tomorrow, is moving toward a clean labeled product. So what that means is that there’s a massive category that has 90% household penetration that either must evolve or be in time replaced.

And when Walmart uses language like modern soda to contemplate the idea of low or no sugar and clean label sodas, I think it’s really a signal of what’s to come. That in a very, very big way, we can define the future of soda as being very simple product with very few ingredients, all of which are grown in the ground and not made in a lab, and that you don’t have to consume your sugar or your calories from a beverage, but you can save it for nutritious foods and enjoy your soda across usage occasions without any guilt or any reason to worry about it. So I welcome innovation. I love all the sort of fringe functional products. I think they help to sort of rise the proverbial tide.

But ultimately, think we’re a soda for soda drinkers at a soda price that tastes great without any of the reasons not to drink it. And this is what I think is really the largest opportunity over time.

Unidentified speaker, Host: I feel like you don’t like it when I ask this question.

Amy Taylor, CEO, Zevia: Bring it on, man. I don’t know what’s coming, but let’s see.

Unidentified speaker, Host: As it relates to like the grander vision of where you guys can play in your portfolio and you have tea, have energy drinks and you’re very focused on the core soda for obvious reasons. I know you’re right. I want to stress that. But where do you think the brand has the right to play over time? How do you expect or think the portfolio can evolve

Amy Taylor, CEO, Zevia: over No, I don’t not like that question. I actually really like

Unidentified speaker, Host: that Okay.

Amy Taylor, CEO, Zevia: So we joke, for everyone else’s knowledge, we have been focusing on soda. And what that means is that we have gotten out of some businesses that doesn’t serve that purpose. So we had a mixer’s business, we have a kids business, we have exited those for great efficiency and focus now and they have benefited the business and will continue to benefit the business by doing that, even if it’s been some volume headwinds over the last couple of years. We now sell tea, which is a great tasting organic tea, that’s a small business that we kind of harvest on the side. We have energy drinks, which I’ll talk about in a second, and we have soda, which is far and away our focus.

And we need to become famous for great tasting zero sugar clean label soda that is affordable, that you can stock in your household. And once we do that, and that sort of proverbial flywheel is feeding the business in the way that Gyriss just described about the next few years of an outlook, then there’s a future revenue stream in energy drinks that we could be able to put our attention to, and it deserves that attention. People that sell energy drinks get up all day and think only about energy drinks. And when we have the organizational capacity to go and do that, we think there’s space for true clean label energy drinks. And by then, we will have the brand reputation as being the one to bring that to market.

But in the meantime, it’s a great business in the natural channel and on Amazon. And so we want it to do its job over there until we’re ready to take our brand equity into that space.

Unidentified speaker, Host: Got it.

Amy Taylor, CEO, Zevia: Does that really answer your question?

Unidentified speaker, Host: Yes, Okay, I like it. I wanted to stress that we’re very focused on soda.

Amy Taylor, CEO, Zevia: Get it. Thank you for the support.

Unidentified speaker, Host: And maybe I’ll just close with this one. When we’re having this conversation a year from now, how do you think the conversation around Zevia will have evolved? What will we be talking about looking back and saying, hey, on this extremely well, excited about for the What would we be talking about?

Amy Taylor, CEO, Zevia: I appreciate the way you framed the question because we are heads down focused on execution right now. Why I’m proud of Q1 results is because we executed what we said we were going to do, and we intend to put a few quarters together like that. But if we’re here on the stage together next year at this time, which I hope we will be, I think we’ll be finished talking about, as exciting as it is, margins and profitability and all of the different levers that get us there because our transformation program will have delivered against that. I think we will have grown our distribution in the way that Walmart, Albertsons, Walgreens and others to come that we haven’t announced yet have demonstrated the way they’re communicating to the marketplace that this is a serious future play in the form of modern soda, I think we’ll be reaping the benefit of that. I think we’ll be realizing that this breakthrough taste evolution that we have created have invited far more consumers into the category.

And most of all, Andrew, I think we will be talking about now investing in marketing such that we ensure that Xevia is a household name.

Unidentified speaker, Host: That’s great. That’s a great place to end. Thank you so much for being here.

Amy Taylor, CEO, Zevia: Really appreciate Yeah. For having us. Thanks. Thanks, everyone. Awesome.

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