Elephant Craft Hard Seltzer

Elephant Craft Hard Seltzer is a Craft Hard Seltzer company, on a mission to elevate the booming hard seltzer category by using strictly REAL ingredients and innovative flavor profiles. Our business has been born from our passion and intent, as well as our desire to inject authenticity and goodness into a category that has massive sales and growth, but not a lot of soul. We will be the first production brewery in California that is solely focused on producing hard seltzer AND intend to have the first hard seltzer tasting bar. We will lead the market through quality, passion, and soul.

A little about the market
In case you're not familiar with hard seltzers or the industry, here's a little color into the market we're diving into. All of off-premise sales are up right now (which is where 95% of hard seltzers are sold), but hard seltzer (a beverage made similarly to beer, but tastes like a delicious vodka soda with fruit, and less than 1/2 the calories of beer) has grown into a $2 billion dollar industry in 5 years and has a year over year growth rate of 300%+. The market is estimated to triple by 2022 to $6B and is set to account for 11% of all beer sales by the end of 2020. It is outselling behemoths such as Bud Light, and growing 8x faster than any other beverage category.

With all that said, the category lacks diversity. With about 80 brands nation wide (and growing quickly), the vast majority of brands are the exact same flavors derived from the exact same extracts. Even the craft brewers getting involved are just throwing extract into their bases and trying to get space on the shelf. It lacks intent and authenticity. We aim to change that by crafting truly amazing beverages with unique flavor profiles (lavender lemonade, berry with ginger and lime, kiwi and strawberry with a touch of mint) and ALL REAL INGREDIENTS. In addition, with the market usually around 4.5-5% ABV, we want to buck the trend and go to market at 6.5% ABV so you get a little more bang for your buck.

We're elevating the category and bringing quality and more dollars to the retailers at the same time. It's a win for all.

Our year one revenue will be north of $2MM in revenue, and we are looking to get to $40MM within the next 5 years. 

Our Mission
Do Good, Be Good, Make Good.

Do Good: Just as Elephants take care of their herds, we believe that doing good goes beyond the creation of an incredible product. Our intent is to be good stewards; of our local communities, and of the world around us. As we grow, we want to give a portion of profit from each case sold to causes that are voted on by our customers.

Be Good: Creating an exceptional product capable of building a cult following doesn’t happen by chance. To truly make good, we have to be good. As such, we’re hiring the best of the best. To attract and retain the highest caliber of employee, we are creating a best in-class benefits package, an equity sharing program, and putting plans in place to support an infectious, fun, and rewarding work environment.

Make Good: Anyone can throw some fruit extract into a drink and shove it on a shelf- Elephant is going above and beyond to shape a culture and expectation within the market that demands more from their beverages! Our customers will be enjoying a drink made with creativity, passion and utmost intent. We believe this will inspire a community of enthusiasts that refuse to settle for the homogenized ‘norm’, and will stop at nothing to convert the rest of the market to the higher standard of Elephant.

The Team
Our team is stacked with titans of the beverage and branding industries that are ready to break the mold of the hard seltzer market:

Where are we at and what are we doing?
We're located out of Anaheim, CA, in the center of the tourism capital of California (2 miles from Disneyland, the Angels stadium, the Honda Center, and the Anaheim Convention Center). Our location has 17,000 sq. ft. of operational space and has a taproom, outdoor patio, room for a kitchen, and can produce upwards of 80,000+ bbls of hard seltzer annually. We started working on formulas and business planning in November on 2019 and have since locked down our flavor profiles, licensing, sales commitments, etc.

We are planning to start selling to the public June 1st, 2020 via self-distribution and direct to consumer sales. When we are ready to go to distribution, Stone Distribution (the nation's #1 craft distributor) has verbally committed to bringing us on. Our launch strategy is to start with self-distribution until we have funds available to build out our packaging efficiencies, where we can then get into the distribution game and expand our retailer sales. We want to focus on Southern California in 2020 and start looking into 2-3 new nearby markets in 2021. Following that, we'll expand into 3-4 new market every 6 months. In other words, we want to focus on our home market first and foremost, and expand methodically and as we feel the pull from additional territories.   

Currently we have the interest of a number of retailers that have committed to putting us in their sets.

So what do we need money for?
Our founders have put over $300,000 of their own money into creating the brand and building out the company, but now it is time to bring the product to market. The $1MM will help bring our product to market by providing funds for raw goods/inventory, hiring a tight but rockstar team, provide some money in the bank to get financing for the equipment we need to buy to create efficiencies in our back of house, and provide runway while we build out our sales. Our growth will have a steep curve, and we need to ensure that we have the funds to fuel and back that growth.

Is there an exit strategy in mind?
We believe that every company should be built in a way that makes it attractive for acquisition within a certain period of time. With the market expanding by 300% year over year and estimated annual sales of $40MM within reach in 5 years, we feel we're going to have a very handsome looking target on our backs. With that said, we're going to keep our ears open, create a robust and profitable business, and we can evaluate our position when we start to hear offers. If we are running strong and have the resources to continue to grow and thrive, it might make more sense for us to maintain our ownership. That said, there are a number of potential acquirers in this space that we know and have ongoing conversations with, including Anheuser-Busch, Diageo, Constellation Brands, Sapporo, Mark Anthony Brands, Heineken, Brown-Forman, Pepsico, Coca-Cola, etc.

How much are we seeking?
We are in the midst of our seed round and are looking to raise $2-3MM total. For right now, we are looking to bring on an initial $750,000 - $1,000,000 to get operational, build out our efficiencies, hire the right team, and create a stellar marketing campaign.

I would love to send any interested parties our investor deck/brand book and would welcome any feedback and of course would love to have more in depth conversations with whomever might be interested in discussing a possible investment. Please feel free to contact our CEO, Stephen Young, with any questions or interest via the information below.

Our many thanks for taking the time to review, we look forward to hearing from you soon!

Stephen Young | Co-Founder & CEO 

Elephant Craft Hard Seltzer 

www.gettrunk.com 
Harder, Healthier, Happier