Brewbound Pitch Slam 13 Finals - Kové Hard Yerba Mate

Speaker 1 [00:11] Up next, we have Kové Hard Yerba Mate. The founders are Alex Montelbano, Josh Makler, and Ryder England. Come on up to the stage. All right. Your clicker is here, and please just mind your timer. Inspired by Yerbamate's first cultivators, the Guarani, we named our company Cove, which translates to the art of living. Hard seltzers and hard kombuchas have created categories of their own following better for you non-alcoholic trends. In the market. And Yerba mate has been sweeping the nation with leading brands like, uh, Guayai, who just reported $96 million in sales in 2020, which was a 14% growth increase over the previous year. So, spotting that gap in the market, we decided to create the world's first. Hard yerba mate. Our product is simple organic, vegan, and gluten-free. While crafted to be low sugar, low calories, and low carbs. We craft brew yerba mate sourced directly from organic certified farms in South America. Then we use a natural fermentation process of yeast and sugar cane to produce our crushable and uplifting, hearty mate beverages. We only use the best high-quality ingredients to craft our products while staying away from natural flavors and fake sweeteners. We also aren't counting calories and we aren't concerned with being zero sugar. We believe the best flavor and drinking experience will come from using raw and real ingredients, and we think you will too. We are passionate about showing people a more uplifting and inviting drinking experience for alternative beverages, and our passion for making our product this way extends to how we operate every single part of our business as well.

Speaker 2 [02:17] As storytellers and creatives, we really lean into our retail marketing. We built our own handmade tasting room in Barrio Logan and have 2 more coming up, literally creating community projects out of all of this. And I'd say that it's going pretty well so far. We've had over 30+ publications in just the past 6 months, and I think it's safe to say that COVED is just getting started.

Speaker 1 [02:42] Speaking of getting started, um, we started in San Diego, growing our local market with self-distribution. We bought a van, we did everything ourselves. And we're currently available now in Northern California, Oregon, Nevada. And we're launching Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, Washington, and Idaho, um, over the next couple of quarters. Um, it may be seeming pretty quick, but launching during COVID, during the holidays, um, we had to expand outside of our own home market until we finally outgrew distribution for by ourselves, or self-distribution, which we're happy to say that we just did. So we're launching in San Diego locally with a, uh, large distributor. We have a 25,000 square foot facility in San Diego, uh, where we just upgraded our equipment, allowing us to quadruple our annual capacity, um, to about 10,000 barrels plus per year. Um, we will be launching with variety packs and, uh, color blocking cartons that will align with our, uh, cans, and we can't wait to share that with you guys soon. Um, we've also been approved in multiple states with larger retailers like Sprouts and Total Wine, and we can't wait to get on the shelves there and, um, show that our product. does well in grocery and not just in the smaller hyperlocal groceries and retailers that we're currently in.

Speaker 2 [04:12] Oh

Speaker 1 [04:12] there we go.

Speaker 2 [04:13] This is the team that got us here, but it's really experiences like this and people like yourself, they're gonna elevate this brand farther than we could ever imagine. Come support your own art of living and don't forget to party and plant responsibly.

Speaker 1 [04:26] Thank

Speaker 2 [04:26] you.

Speaker 1 [04:27] Thank you. Let's head over and uh hear from the judges. Uh, Ryan, you know, one of the slides earlier talked about the traction we're seeing for yurate and non-alk. Um, is that an easy comparison? I mean, can we, can we assume that there'll be also, there'll also be interest for yurramate in alcoholic beverages as well?

Speaker 3 [04:50] There could be. I mean, it's, it's hard to say, um, until you actually get, you know, a lot of traction, a lot of market proof, but, you know, they're certainly seeing. Non-alk categories going to a, you've seen vice versa. Um, so there's a lot of interest from a lot of different people of can you translate things across the elk and non-alk. So it's a possibility.

Speaker 1 [05:06] Malika, what do you think about the, uh, the tasting room strategy that, uh, Kobe has created at this

Speaker 4 [05:10] point? You know, we were talking yesterday about the barrier of just not knowing the ingredients and the barrier of Needing to educate consumers and tasting rooms do such a nice job of that because you get to try the product, you get to hear the story and really feel the energy for not just the ingredients but also how it's made and what inspired the team so I think that's smart, um, it's not necessarily scalable but it's smart as you're starting to to build your brand. Um, one of the questions I had was around, uh, you know, we were talking earlier, Mary and Jason talked about how important it is to really understand your customer and to, uh, be able to show retailers the need that you're filling. We've talked a lot about what you were inspired by and the product and the ingredients. We haven't talked really about who your customer. there's certainly a better for you strategy that comes through, but could you provide a little bit more context on who you're going after? Yeah,

Speaker 2 [06:04] I mean, we certainly follow the health and wellness kind of category, right? Of course, with the benefits of yerba mate and also just kind of the organic and low sugar, low cal like Josh said we weren't chasing stats, but we got them, which was great. Um, also kind of treating the active lifestyle and really something that hasn't been tapped into too much is the creative market. Everyone talks about action sports and this living and activity, but they really don't talk about the creatives that are really driving an industry and really like everyone can see themselves in that. Um, but focusing actually pretty hyperlocal but more in a grassroots format, you know, like we do work with local nonprofits and we really like show up and put our hands in the dirt as we like to say, so yeah, I think it's important to make show physical face, you know, and really allow people to trust your consumer and that's why we put our plants on our can, you know, so they can see those ingredients and be like, oh, that's what a passion fruit looks like, you know, and, and really relate to it.

Speaker 1 [06:56] And, and, and the art of living, uh, like writer said, it, it kind of means something different to everyone. It's, it's unique to every person. So like whether that was building the tasting room with your bare hands where we could get a consultant out and when we needed help, he called his friends. Um, so for me it's, you know, spending the day with my kids and watching them learn something new, but those are the kind of people that we're targeting to. Thank you, Laura. I heard a few folks, uh, talk about how Kobe, they can definitely see Kobe at a, at a Whole Foods. Um, that's possible. Could you also see KOA at a Total Wine at a Bevmo at places that are large liquor retailers, large beer distributors, uh, beers retailers.

Speaker 2 [07:35] I do. I think that there's an absolute need um for this product uh I think it's hot right now um I don't know who did your packaging but it's absolutely beautiful. I mean it was one of the the prettiest packages that I've seen with the botanicals and flowers on there um another thing that I really liked is that you gave an explanation of every single attribute that that product had um so it's pretty easy to pick up a can and say OK this is this is really gonna be great for me. Um, I'm so thrilled that you're, you're heading into a, um, less self distribution and, and joining the, uh, three tier system, um, but, uh, I would just, uh, say as you're going into the stores and going into a wholesale, uh, distribution system is educating because not everybody knows this product a lot of us do, but not everybody does so really have that in line. Where you can train those front line sales people and and do the best you can, uh, with education but beautiful job great tasting. Can I touch on that real quick?

Speaker 1 [08:38] Um, we're just about, we're just about out of time so I just wanna make sure we get to Veronica. Uh, Veronica, final thoughts on COVED.

Speaker 5 [08:46] I'm wondering now that you do have a tasting room, do people who come there, do they know mate or are you educating them there in that space because I'm wondering between hard tea and herba mate, you know, there is an education. I'm a mate drinker, but some folks don't know what it is.

Speaker 1 [09:03] I, I think it's definitely been an education piece kinda in both ways, you know, I, I kind of, you know, identify it as close to green tea and, you know, helping people get it from there. Is, you know, pretty gets them pretty organically to, you know, understanding what it is, um, I think there's a lot more education and understanding the, uh, the kind of qualities of, you know, how mate's been, you know, more based in an energy drink based on, you know, the non-alcoholic stuff when, when you're really brewing it, it's not necessarily built with that much caffeine, it's actually more of a lighter brew, kind of like a green tea so I think that's definitely been a thing, good stuff,

Speaker 2 [09:35] yeah, educating people on the fact it's sessionable.

Speaker 1 [09:37] Unfortunately we're out of time. I gotta cut you off. I'm sorry. Well done, great feedback, great presentation. Thank you.