PURA Beverages, a local soft drink company, attended two trade shows in America last month. It returned having secured $1 million (R17 million) in orders, and is now due to launch its products on the shelves of Target, one of the largest retailers in the USA, and possibly Walmart.
The South African startup launched in 2015. It is now sold in over 14 counties. The company also listed its products on Amazon last year.
Founder and CEO Greig Jansen has set his gaze on expanding PURA’s footprint in America.
PURA has now closed a deal to have PURA Kids on the shelves of 600 Target stores in the first quarter of 2023.
“We’ve been talking to them for over 18 months. They’ve come across our products at a couple of trade shows we’ve attended in the US," Jansen told Business Insider South Africa.
“The challenge is, with Covid, they weren’t really putting new products on their shelves because of the logistics challenges that we were facing."
It is now fully set up to distribute in the United States.
“Now that they’ve [Target] said they’ll take us in, we’ve also had to verify our production facilities and make sure they comply with Target, because Target is a big volume store. They have to be comfortable that you’re going to provide the volume that they’re going to order,” Jansen said.
Target has over 1,900 stores in the USA, and PURA was asked to supply to over 1,000 stores as a start. Jansen, however, says he wants to start in the top 600 stores on the East Coast first, so as to not bite off more than the company can chew.
“It’s one thing to get your product on the shelves, but it’s another thing making sure the consumer pulls it off the shelves. We want to make sure we create the pull as we go onto the shelves,” said the CEO.
Walmart, the owner of South Africa's Game and Makro stores, is also interested, said Jansen, and that could open up 10,500 stores and clubs to the brand.
A deal with Walmart chould be finalised sometime in October this year, said Jansen. “We’re in conversation with them already. What they do is line up all the products that they want to bring on the shelf and the review date is in October.
“We’ve submitted our forms, shared our samples and we are in consideration for the reset which they complete on the 17th of October,” said Jansen.
Securing $1 million in orders
PURA secured $1 million worth of orders in the USA via the Summer Fancy Foods showcase in New York and the KeHe Holiday Show in Chicago, Jansen said.
Visiting both trade shows allowed the company to exhibit their products to other big retailers whose attention they had been trying to get for the past two years.
“These face-to-face meetings resulted in some big changes for PURA. We are now in the process of working through the listing requirements with multiple additional retailers who have expressed interest in listing our products,” Jansen said.
“To be able to attend a show and interact directly with buyers and retailers and see their response to your product is always very humbling and exciting at the same time. It makes you feel good,” said Jansen.