Spindrift discontinued a profitable five million dollar soda line for sparkling water
Bill Creelman · Spindrift: Bill Creelman · Jan 13, 2020 · at 49:15
Bill Creelman, founder of Spindrift, discusses his 2017 decision to drop the company's original sweetened soda product line despite its profitability.
0:00 / 0:10exact quote · 10.3s
720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“So we made the hard decision to shut down. It was about a five million dollar business super profitable, and just focus our resources on, on the sparkling water.”
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 Bill Creelman
Creelman asserts there is no real standard for natural flavor additives
“There really is no standard for a natural flavor. There may very well be all of the things you described, but there's no assurance of that.”
Creelman: Scaling two distinct early-stage brands simultaneously is almost unheard of
“It's hard enough to make one brand successful, but to have two brands, you know, early stage brands succeed, mean something for the consumer, go on to really gain scale and traction is, is really almost unheard of.”
Creelman: Layering sweet and tart flavors prevents missing heavy sugar
“Sugar is a very one-dimensional flavor, so if you can introduce other flavors alongside a little sweet, a little tart, We think you won't miss that big hit of sugar.”
Creelman: Complex real-ingredient recipes create defensible moats against beverage copycats
“What is hard right now for you is going to be your point of difference later, you know, so trying to figure out, you know, how to make this brine, you know, using all of the ingredients that are called out on the label will only bear fruit down the road. Someo…”
Creelman: Beer companies can build massive businesses around a single SKU
“It's a big enough category that you have the luxury of having one product and building a really big business around it.”
Creelman: Keeping overhead low improves future fundraising leverage
“The more you can kind of test and learn on your own dime, if you will and keep the overhead down when you do go out and raise money, you'll really be in a different position of strength than if you take a big swing early on with like more and more overhead.”