Two and a half years after selling Detroit-based Atwater Brewing to Molson Coors and seven months following his exit from the brewery, Mark Rieth is diving back into the beverage industry with FÜL Beverage, a family of non-alcoholic beers and functional drinks.
“With my years in the beer world, I just saw what was going on in the NA beer space and knew there was definitely a need, especially from a regional local perspective for craft NA beers,” Rieth told Brewbound. “Along with that, I’ve always been a pretty big workout fiend and I’ve always been interested in the energy drink world, especially having teenage kids and seeing what they drink. I’m just reading the ingredients in there and I’m like, ‘How are you putting that in your body?’ and so I wanted to come out with some options that were a little bit better for you and all natural.”
The brand will launch with two non-alcoholic beers (NA IPA and Feel Better Blonde), two pre-workout energy drinks (Savage Berry and Lit Blood Orange), and two post-workout drinks (Recovery Pineapple Coconut and CBD-infused Rehab+ Cherry). The functional beverages use better-for-you ingredients, such as natural caffeine from green coffee extract and monkfruit for sweetening.
FÜL has begun to roll out to retailers in Michigan and is available direct-to-consumers via the company’s website. NA beers are available at retailers in 12 oz. can 6-packs. Functional beverages are available as single-serve 16 oz. cans and in 12-packs.
Rehab+ Cherry, which contains 25 mg of CBD, is priced at $59.99 per 12-pack. The three other pre- and post-workout drinks are priced at $29.99 per 12-pack in both single flavor and variety pack options. Both NA beers retail for $13.99 per 6-pack.
A team of six supports FÜL at launch, and Reith is actively looking to hire sales and marketing staff. The drinks are made with the help of a co-packer, but a FÜL production facility is in the works, and Rieth expects to hire manufacturing staff next year.
Below is a lightly edited and condensed conversation with Rieth about FÜL’s goals and strategy.
How do you envision consumers varying between the three product lines?
“I do see some crossover, but I think a lot of it will be a little bit of a different consumer, which is good, which is what we want to do. We want to move consumers back and forth: ‘I usually drink an energy drink, but I can drink this beer, which is hydrating as well. I like the taste of beer, but I don’t want a buzz.’”
What is FÜL’s distribution plan?
“Depending on the market, we want to go with the best distributor partner for that market. There will definitely be some beer distributors that are distributing it and there could be strictly non-alc distributors that distribute the energy drinks. We’re still evaluating that, but mostly it will all go through traditional beer distributors.”
Geographically, FÜL won’t stray far from its home state to start.
“For distribution to retail, Michigan to start for this year. Then we’re going to look at four to five markets next year. We’re having discussions right now of where to go. Ohio is definitely going to be one of them.”
Rieth has been meeting with potential wholesalers and hopes to announce FÜL’s distributor in the coming weeks.
“One thing I’ve learned a long time ago is that we’ve got to have the right distributor partner that really gets what we’re trying to accomplish, and it works good for them, so it’s a win-win.”
How does e-commerce factor into FÜL’s launch?
“E-commerce obviously opens up things, and that’s how we want to develop and build the brand outside of our home market, so that’s a big part of our world, obviously. And that’s the way of the world these days is e-commerce as we all know, and we want to do e-commerce with our retail partners.”
What considerations need to be made for Rehab+ with CBD?
“There’s some restrictions. Some of the retailers will not carry it, which is fine. We see the CBD product as a big e-commerce platform”
“There’s other there’s other energy drink companies out there that offer some with CBD and some without, and most of those sales are under e-commerce platforms, so we see a lot of that going that way. We also see dispensaries will carry it. There’s a bunch of retailers that will carry it as well, if they can.”
What attracted Rieth to CBD as an ingredient?
“I use it quite often. I have a bad knee and a bad ankle, and I use the rubs, I drink the beverages, and it really helps out. It’s a great product. That’s why we call it Rehab+.”
Why a non-alc beer and what’s ahead for that product line?
“Obviously, beer is near and dear to my heart and has been since forever, and so we have big plans for the beer side. We wanted to start out with these two. I think two really makes a lot of sense. Distributors and retailers get it. ‘Two 6-packs on a shelf? OK, got it.’
“We already have plans for two more products in the fall, so we’re really excited about bringing those out and probably three to four items a year in the craft NA space because we see that as a real growth category. You’ve got to concentrate on your core, find out which one sells the most, and then pulse in your seasonal offerings.”
What can FÜL offer that a larger craft NA player, such as Athletic Brewing, can’t?
“Athletic has done a phenomenal job. They are great – I know them, I support them 1,000,000%. I’m excited for what they’re doing. They’re really tackling that national play for the craft NA category.
“Where we want to be is local. I don’t know of anybody else that’s in the market, so we’re gonna take advantage of that right now.”
What lessons learned at Atwater have helped FÜL’s launch?
“I figured out finally with Atwater that I can’t make what I like, I have to make what the consumer wants. And that’s what we’re doing now. And we’re taking our time. We had focus groups upon focus groups with the initial six beverages that we did, and we’re getting tremendous feedback. And it’s great.
“Don’t grow too fast. Don’t do a shotgun approach. I did that with Atwater. I was in 38 states and all of a sudden I went back down to 12. We don’t want to do that. We want to grow smart, we want to grow with a solid plan in place. We do have visions of being international.”