A couple weeks ago I had the amazing opportunity with speaking to Eric Lovell, the CEO of Frost Creek Beverages, to get an understanding behind soft drinks during COVID-19. Since then, there has been more bizarre stories popping up that place soda companies in weird positions. This includes international hot spots like the moment Hugo López-Gatell, Mexico’s Health Undersecretary, tried to connect soda consumption with COVID-19 deaths because of sugar being linked to diabetes and hypertension. I reached out to Rick Owen, the Vice President of Sales at Oak Cliff Beverage Works, to discuss what events we can possibly see further down the line in COVID-19.
Hello Rick, what steps has the company been making to ensure quality health standards for its employees during COVID?
The changes have not been all that dramatic for us other than masking in the office and working more from our home offices for applicable employees. Our production and warehousing standard operating procedures have always been a very “sanitary” processes as we are producing consumable products.
There has been recent headlines of various beverages becoming empty on supermarket shelves due to potential aluminum can shortages, CO2 carbonation shortages, and citizens stockpiling product. Has your company had to deal with logistical complications like this and were any key lessons learned in the process?
We have not had serious sourcing problems with our suppliers. This is partly because we are not “package diverse” (primarily fountain and FCB products). Our significantly reduced volume during Covid has also reduced our demands on our suppliers.
With Texas restaurants still having capacity guidelines in place, has your business dedicated to fountain beverages needed to adapt to new locations or have the restrictions had little effect?
The restrictions have been absolutely devastating to us. We are makers of premium hand-crafted fountain beverages and over 90% of our business is in dine-in restaurants. Unlike our “big beverage” counterparts we are not package diverse nor are we customer diverse. Prior to Covid we were working hard to try and get more customer diverse by offering our fountain and FCB products to the c-store channel and we did get our products into Buc-ee’s, but then Covid hit and everything seem to slow down. Everybody seems to be “hunkering down”, meaning not making changes or meeting face-to-face.
Beverage distributors like Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have regularly diversified from soft drinks due to rising health trends. Most recently was Coca-Cola’s creation of a coffee flavored soda and Pepsi’s acquisition of Rockstar Energy Beverages. Has COVID highlighted the importance of having a diverse line of flavors, products, or services for your company and will this continue post-COVID?
We are a very small family owned company specializing in premium hand-crafted fountain soda. Being in ready-to-drink packaging is certainly a longer-term goal and probably would have helped take some of the sting out of what’s going on but I’m not sure how anybody plans for something like this. Being more customer diverse is the biggest lesson learned but we knew that was important before Covid and was working hard to make it happen.
What has been the key selling point on why a restaurant should switch to craft sodas like your company?
The carbonated soft drink business has been declining at a slow pace for over 20 years. Consumers still love their sweet tasting bubbly drinks, but they are becoming much more health conscious and growing more and more concerned with consuming artificial ingredients and HFCS. REAL SUGAR SODA is made with 100% domestic grown and refined cane sugar, all-natural/non-gmo flavoring and coloring. Our Cola Zero is sweetened with Sugar Cane Reb M which is an all-natural/non-gmo derivative of cane sugar (no artificial sweeteners!!). Most importantly, our REAL SUGAR SODA products taste amazing!! Soft drink brand loyalty is declining, and consumers are looking for beverages with “better for you” and functional attributes. Even the energy companies are adding “all-natural” line extensions. A restaurant switching to a locally made craft-soda helps to provide their customers a high quality and uniquely differentiated dining experience from every aspect of the menu. Restaurant customers also appreciate it when they see the restaurant supporting small business.
