Beverage brands cannot access UNFI distribution without retail accounts secured
Allison Ellsworth · Poppi: Allison and Stephen Ellsworth. From Farmers Market Vinegar Drink to $2B Soda Sensation · Sep 22, 2025 · at 31:07
Poppi co-founder Allison Ellsworth explains the structural distribution barrier emerging food and beverage brands face when attempting to enter major distributors like UNFI.
0:00 / 0:04exact quote · 4.5s
720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“It's like the chicken or the egg, like, get into Unify if you don't have a retailer. If you don't have a retailer, you can't get in.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Allison Ellsworth
Lakers' official soda Poppi cannot be sold in the team's arena
“We are the official soda of the Lakers, and we're not allowed to be sold in that stadium because of contracts.”
No better-for-you beverage brand used brightly colored cans before Poppi's rebrand
“Hands down, I will say I was wrong. Colored cans were the way to go. It just popped off the shelf, and no one was doing better for you with color at the time.”
Ellsworth: Modern soda brands must package in 12-ounce cans, not glass
“If we're gonna call ourselves soda, we can no longer be in glass bottles. We 100% have to be in 12 ounce soda cans.”
Poppi's monthly Amazon sales surged from $3,000 to $250,000 post-Shark Tank
“We're doing, like, 3000 on Amazon quickly over the next few months. We're doing 250,000 on Amazon a month.”
Viral TikTok video generated $100,000 in overnight Amazon sales for Poppi
“Honestly, one night, I sat down on the couch, and I just told my story. I did it in one minute or less of, started this in my kitchen, got a deal on Shark Tank, it's five grams of sugar, it's apple cider vinegar, it's this, dah, dah, dah, and I posted it and w…”
Poppi founders launched the beverage brand with $90,000 in personal capital
“Yeah, so I went to my sister, who's always been a really big believer in me, and she ended up giving us 30,000 dollars. My dad gave us 30,000 dollars, and then we put 30,000 dollars in of our own money. So basically a total of 90,000 dollars, which was everyth…”