There are not many companies where the top executives rejoice in comic book names and that include promotional love buses and armoured trucks among the few assets on their balance sheets. SoBe, the ‘New Age’ US beverage group run by the ‘Lizard King’ and the ‘Manatee’, is one.
Founded in 1995, SoBe prides itself on being a ‘virtual’ brand company that does things differently. But the financial results it produces would impress even the most buttoned-down Wall Street banker. Over the past five years SoBe has lifted its revenues from $2.4m ([***]2.7m) to an estimated $225m this year and it has plans to expand overseas. In April 2000 it entered the EU and it is now selling its drinks through Sainsbury’s, the UK’s second largest grocery chain.
SoBe says its success is due to its ability to promote fashionable, herb-based teas and juices for the youth market. But its eye-catching growth is creating challenges: it may be easy to create a buzz about a new brand but the trick is to sustain it. The question now is whether SoBe can enter the mainstream drinks market without losing its alternative image. Will a mooted deal with Coca-Cola, the multinational soft drinks group, kill SoBe’s iconoclastic appeal?
The company’s founders, Lizard King and Manatee, are both drinks industry veterans with decades of experience gained from working for Pepsi Cola and the Stroh beer company. The two executives were convinced there was a niche for a different kind of New Age drink that would appeal to young partygoers. They were determined to build their brand from the grassroots to maximise its youth appeal.
‘Kids are fickle and hard to reach. These are people you can turn on or turn off in a heartbeat. You have to stay fresh and new’, says Manatee. ‘We are building this brand up and ...