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Friday, September 3, 2010

A Honus Tasteful Topic: Good News Grows at New Leaf

Honus here.  I was just talking to Eric (and by Eric, I mean New Leaf founder and CEO, Eric Skae) the other day about the State of the Company, and there are a ton of exciting thing happening with the Company! (I'm telling ya, there's a lot, so go a grab a cold New LEaf from the fridge and settle in.  It's ok, I'll wait 'til ya get back........................................ok, good, now we're ready!)

Our recently launched line of lemonades is selling through the roof. In fact, they have completely sold out twice and are quickly becoming our most popular flavors, even outselling our teas!  They are so popular, in fact, that we've doubled production of our currently available flavors - The Tiger, Homemade Lemonade,Strawberry Lemonade and Black Cherry Lemonade - and we're thinking about coming out with even more lemonade flavors soon.  Oops, I probably wasn't supposed to ruin the surprise, but there it is any way: something for your taste buds to look forward to.

In more good news, New Leaf was just picked up by 17 distributors in California.  Talk about a home run!! Do you know what that means?? New Leaf products are now available state-wide in California, which is the third biggest state in the Union! Plus, it means we are now available in the state of Nevada as well. Lots of thirsty people in the desert over there will now be able to cool off by enjoying a nice, refreshing New Leaf.

But not just there: New Leaf products are now available in Utah, Santa Fe and even the Philippines.

On top of that, New Leaf has increased distribution at Whole Foods with the addition of 42 stores in their Southern Pacific division, which includes  Southern California, Arizona, Nevada and Hawaii.  Aloha! Add this to the Mid-Atlantic, Northeast and Rocky Mountain Whole Foods division store we were already in, and New Leaf has the nation almost covered. With regard to Whole Foods that is.

And, if that wasn't enough, New Leaf was also recently approved for all 180 of the Giant Food stores.  Giant Food LLC operates 180 supermarkets in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and the District of Columbia.

I know.  That's a lot going on, and it's hard to keep track of sometimes.  So, to help me keep it straight, I like to think of the beverage industry as a football game. You know, from time to time, you get an exciting kick-off return, run back for a touch down. And that's fun and exciting, for sure, but you can't rely on that to be your game plan.

No. The teams that are successful take their time, working the field 3 yards a play and wind up with the same result - 7 points! - but having learned so much more along the way. This team now has the ability to look back and see what worked and why; what didn't and how to improve it. This team has the tenacity and stamina that makes them ultimately successful.

This team is New Leaf. Building distribution brick by brick, account by account and consumer by consumer (yes, You!), creating the best-tasting beverage available.  Oh yeah, and they happen to be all-natural.  

And the tenacity and stamina that we generate along the way are the characteristics that will ultimately turn the Official Beverage of Taste (TM) into a global brand.

Eric said something to me as the meeting drew to a close that really underscored this for me.  He said,"This is a game of stamina. You can't just sprint out the gate and never look back. In fact, it's just the opposite. You need to take your time, making adjustments as necessary. Sure, you might stuble a little, but that's how you learn and improve."
In other words, slow and steady wins the race.

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