![]() I would insist on growing the brand more before I turned it over to somebody. But if there were ever a situation where it would come time to sell, I wouldn’t do it at the stage that Honest Tea was at. That’s the best way to build something that you care about. I want to build it like I’ll own it forever. Q: Are there lessons you would share with other leaders of mission-driven brands when they are considering selling to a giant company? That on its own is a great example of democratizing organic and healthier drinks. We went from 15,000 stores to 150,000 stores.Īs disappointing as it is to see Honest Tea discontinued, Honest Kids, which has become a larger brand, is still there doing what we hoped it would do. The goal had always been to democratize organic drinks, to make them available in places where they weren’t. How does the decision to sell to Coke look to you now? Q: The reason we’re talking now is that Coca-Cola, which bought Honest Tea in 2011, recently announced that they would discontinue the brand, with the exception of the Honest Kids line. Essentially, we started with the impact we wanted to have and then we had to go search for the market opportunity. That whole process created the guardrails that came to define what Eat the Change is about. How do we reduce the environmental footprint of our food? How do we reduce food waste? How do plant-based diets play into solutions? As part of that we stood up a grants program that supports nonprofits working to expand planet-friendly diets. We spent a year digging into the issues that we wanted to be tackling. That was even more the case with Eat the Change. I believe if you ingrain the mission into the product, there’s no chance to go astray. In other words, it was good for the business and for the mission. The change to organic and fair trade added to what made us special and different while being consistent with the brand and the market opportunity. “I believe if you ingrain the mission into the product, there’s no chance to go astray.” It took eight years to get the entire line to be certified fair trade. We started to make a fair-trade bottled tea in 2003. Then as we got to know more about the supply chain, we learned that fair trade was really important too. We were the first to make organic bottled tea in 1999. If chemicals are sprayed on them, those chemicals end up in the drink. From the time tea leaves are picked until they are brewed, they are never washed. Once our less-sweet tea was in the market, we realized, well, organic ingredients are really important. That helped us secure a space on the shelf. We went to the buyers and said, “Here’s the calorie profile of all the teas in your cooler, and here’s Honest Tea’s.” It was a clear point of difference. Honest Tea initially started around just one idea-a less-sweet tea. How would you compare your approach to launching Honest Tea in 1998 to your current work with Eat the Change? Q: You’ve been a social entrepreneur for decades.
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