BevNET's Cocktail Showdown 2 - Picnic Brunch

Speaker 1 [00:03] All right. Up next, uh, for Bevernet's Cocktail Showdown too is Josh Meyers of Picnic Brunch. Come on up, Josh.

Josh Myers [00:15] Thank you, Ray. Thank you, Bevnet. Thank you judges for the opportunity to be here today. My name is Josh Myers. I'm the co-founder and CEO of Picnic Brunch, a brand of wine-based brunch cocktails. Uh, started in New York City in 2017 with my brother and a good friend, uh, in New York City, if you've ever been, you know, brunch is a bit of a weekend ritual. Uh, one bright summer day, uh, a group of us, including my brothers, sisters, significant others, decided to skip the boozy brunch at the bar, head to the park, uh, and have our own brunch picnic. Uh, we stopped on the way, picked up the fixings for Bloody Marys and mimosas, uh, set up our spread at the park, uh, and it quickly turned messy. Our dogs started wrestling, knocked over the Bloody Mary mix, picnic blanket, uh, became a little, uh, filled with red tomato, um. Ironically, someone had brought canned wine. It was 2017, so I don't think any of us had ever seen canned wine. And our first thought was, well, can we get Bloody Marys? Can we get reinforcements, uh, in a can nearby? We looked online, couldn't find anything. I think it took about a week, but eventually a light bulb flashed for all of us and we said, hey, there's got to be other people that are interested in something like this. And since it doesn't really exist in many places, let's see if we can do it. Uh, so fast forward through a couple of years of R&D on the product design and the packaging, uh, we launched, uh, to our first market in September 2020 with our Bloody Mary and Mimosa. Uh, we added our Bellini in mid 2021. Uh, we're now up to 8 markets. Uh, in 2022 we'll be launching a direct to consumer channel, uh, along with the spicy Bloody Mary skew, uh, and potentially more markets, more product variations in 2022. Uh, I think we all know that, uh, the ready to drink and ready to serve category is a, a billion dollar opportunity. Uh, what we want to do is kind of own the brunch subcategory. We understand that brunch is an occasion, but it's an occasion that happens in every, uh, every week in every market across the country. Uh, we created picnic brunch to allow consumers to brunch anywhere. Uh, that means it doesn't have to be in the comfort of your own home, at a bar or a restaurant. It can be at a beach, at a park, at your kid's soccer game. Uh, taking your family on a trip to the Philadelphia Zoo, which is one location we're currently sold. Um Now, uh, in terms of competition, we are the only brand that we're aware of that offers all three of the traditional brunch cocktails which we think is a point of differentiation. Additionally, uh, we use a wine base in all of our SKUs, which means we can be sold in more accounts. Uh, on premise it can be a cafe that has a wine license. Off-premise could be grocery, uh, or convenience, uh, ready to drink and ready to serve represent convenience. Uh, and in our case, that means we can help, uh, eliminate waste, reduce spoilage, create a consistent pour, uh, and for on-premise during fast-paced bar service, uh, save time and money for bartenders. Uh, adoption is key, I think for all the brands here we understand that you've got to get liquid on lips and so for us we've created, uh, nostalgic branding. The gingham pattern looks like a picnic blanket, uh, very recognizable. We hope that that goes a long way to distancing or differentiating ourselves on shelves, uh, in the future online, uh, and driving adoption and creating some customer loyalty. Uh, now we're keenly aware that we do have competition, uh, a few key points, uh, because there are Bloody Marys, there are mimosas, there are Bellinis, uh. First off, we're the only brand that we know of that has all three brunch cocktails, which I think is, uh, important in this case. Uh, our wine base allows us more points of distribution. Uh, and then our packaging is, uh, very much aligned to our brand which we again hope, uh, resonates with consumers, creates brand awareness, adoption, and that customer loyalty that I think we all need to survive. Um, the beauty of picnic brunch is the simplicity of the brand. These are all well known cocktails. Uh, we've just simply put them in a can so that our consumers can brunch anywhere. Uh, thank you. Well done.

Speaker 1 [04:23] Great job. Uh, Saeed, uh, folks are pretty particular about Bloody Marys, at least I know I am. Did this one fit the bill for you? I

Speaker 3 [04:31] mean, I'm a, I'm a brunch dude. Uh, so, um. I will say the Bloody Mary was, it was odd, but it kept it made me want to keep drinking it, which for some weird reason, I because I was like, wait, this is wine-based, so it's like, alright, that makes sense. That's why it has a little bit of like a little bit of sweetness to it, but the uh the Bellini. It was really what did it for me because that's the like, you know, having to get peach puree or any kind of peaches liqueur or whatever that one was one that was like top-notch for me and then also the mimosa was great too because it's like it wasn't overly sweet too so the perfect amount of tartness for both the Bellini and the um the mimosa. I don't think I, I could do the uh uh the Bloody Mary back to back unfortunately

Josh Myers [05:21] understood.

Speaker 1 [05:22] Uh, Carlton, what do you think about the scalability of this brunch opportunity or brunch-centric brand?

Speaker 4 [05:28] So in a prior life I used to run innovation for a large Bev O company and the quickest way to get me to shut down a program would be when consumers say, oh, you can take it camping, um, because people actually don't camp nearly as much as they say they do. So I, I, I, I do agree that brunch is a, a much more frequent occasion than camping, but, um, I, I think that that is my biggest question. So why, why do you think this can scale big enough when, when you are tackling just an occasion as opposed to an entire psychographic?

Josh Myers [05:55] Yeah, I, I think there's a big enough opportunity, you know, I joke that it's something that happens, uh, every week and in every market, um, but it's something that we've seen and experienced that we're in 8 markets now and I've been out in those markets and people brunch differently in different markets, but, uh, in one of our markets in the middle of the country, brunch is big at a local chain of 20, uh, pizza shops, and they put us on the menu. They brought in brunch buckets, you know, it, it's a good. Uh, it's something that happens every weekend. Uh, and in our case, I think by, you know, there are some accounts where you might go and maybe it's a football Sunday, and they have, uh, you know, beer specials, 20 bucks for a bucket of 5. We can do the same thing for brunch and be brunch buckets. And I think there's, again, maybe it only happens 2 days a week, but it's something that can happen everywhere and it could be a golf course, it could be at a boat club, uh, you know, I think the opportunities are kind of limitless.

Speaker 4 [06:48] Real quick, if I could just, uh, uh, you know, just as a piece of advice too, uh, don't forget that, you know, yes, I think on-premise is gonna be big for you, and, and even as you go into larger scale restaurants and events, probably they don't have exclusives around Bellinis and, and mimosas. So I, you know, tactically I think you're gonna be able to get this in a lot of places that maybe other larger brands have locked up and have paid, um, to play there, and, and you might be able to slip it alongside them as to your point, you can put a bucket of, of Bellini right next to a bucket of beer.

Josh Myers [07:17] Thank you.

Speaker 1 [07:18] Uh, Tiffany, uh, in terms of the competitive landscape, uh, that Josh outlined, um, you know, do you think that he's given you enough information to say, OK, this is why we would succeed where others may not?

Speaker 5 [07:30] Uh, I think what you point out, which is you've, you've got the brunch cocktails and you have that in your portfolio. As long as your sales plan and your go to market plan aligns volumetrically with the occasion and the number of occasions both in the on and the off, um, you nail every part of it. There's nothing about this that doesn't say kick picnic and that doesn't say brunch. So you're You, if your target, you're hitting it, um, nail on the head. So he understood he understood the assignment and whoever did your packaging did the same. So yeah,

Speaker 1 [08:03] yeah, let's stay on the packaging. Sebastian, is this something that you think is going to attract a lot of consumers just from the label, get them to pick it up, trial, go to trial.

Speaker 6 [08:10] Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it stands out, you know, very a great story too, but the packaging, I think, you know, people will pick it up. Um, my question to you is on the packaging, we see the different can sizes. Why did you decide the 12 ounce and what's the price point? Uh,

Josh Myers [08:24] so the price point, uh, varies market to market, but 10.99 to 12.99 a 4 pack. Um, uh, I'm sorry, can you repeat the first part of the question again? Why

Speaker 6 [08:32] did you decide on that, uh, on that size? I mean 12 ounce is on the larger end of the spectrum.

Josh Myers [08:37] Lower ABV. We wanted it, you know, we understand that people may not drink, you know, I think the Bellini and the mimosa are very drinkable. The Bloody Mary, most people probably have one, maybe two. we wanted it to be a sessionable drink. You can pour them equally or evenly. This can be put in a pint glass if it's on premise, you can dress it up and put celery or olives or shrimp cocktail or crab cakes, whatever you put, um. But we think it just, uh, it fit better and for, uh, it can also split evenly into two champagne glasses which I think is good too. All right,

Speaker 1 [09:06] well done, Josh. Thanks so much. Thank you.