Between Coke & A Hard Place - small companies vying for market share in beverage industry

Brandweek, June 22, 1998 by Gerry Khermouch

"We're trying to do what Arizona and Snapple did: work the grass roots and drive slotting down because the market is demanding the product," said Bello, who briefly worked for FV&S. "A lot of stores will take anything if it's a deal and give it a shot. We can use that to prime the pump."

However steep the barriers, new entries keep flowing in. High-Grade's Battaglia is gambling that experience and existing relationships will help with Briar's. The sodas have been repackaged in elegant, antique-y bottles with inverted triangular pressure-sensitive labels offering some nostalgia appeal. With the brand's heritage of Birch and Sasparilla now balanced with careful concessions to contemporary tastes, such as Lemon Swirl and Orange Cream Battaglia is out on the hustings now, trying to make the most of his own status as a distributor to win credibility from the wholesalers he approaches, just as Don Vultaggio did with Arizona before him. "We're willing to work with distributors, because we've been there, done that," Battaglia said. because if I did I wouldn't b managing 40-odd SKUs of my own," Vultaggio said.