🔒Avery’s Beverages considers New Britain expansion as it builds brand loyalty with creative soda brands

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As the president and CEO of Connecticut Foodshare, Jason Jakubowski tirelessly promoted the organization’s annual Turkey and Forty campaign during the month of November.

With a goal of collecting more than 50,000 Thanksgiving meals statewide, Jakubowski appeared on television, radio and social media to help garner community support.

“The need doesn’t break down by town or zip code,” Jakubowski said. “There are families in all 169 towns in Connecticut that are food insecure.”

To further increase campaign awareness and create a new source of revenue, last year Jakubowski’s organization partnered with New Britain-based Avery’s Beverages LLC — the nearly 120-year-old soda maker — to create Turkey Tonic, a seasonal custom soda comprised of cranberry, orange and ginger.

“It helped raise $2,500 last year and is a great complementary (beverage) with turkey,” Jakubowski said.

This year, 50 cents of every Turkey Tonic bottle sold — available as a soda or seltzer — benefited Foodshare’s annual campaign, raising over $1,000.

Rob Metz, who acquired Avery’s in the late 1990s and serves as general manager, credits the company’s creativity and sense of nostalgia for helping Avery’s — founded in 1904 — to build a loyal customer base and continue to operate at a time when few small, independent soda producers still exist.

During the 1950s — amid the soda-fountain era — there were dozens of independent soda producers like Avery’s in Connecticut, Metz said.

Today, only a few remain.

And amid inflationary pressures, supply chain challenges, and often less-than-optimal production facilities, smaller producers like Avery’s are facing increased pressures to differentiate themselves, stay relevant and address shrinking profit margins.

Metz jokes that his 1,000-square-foot production facility is equipped with state-of-the-art 1950s technology. While that inefficiency impacts production capacity — which stands at 150 to 200 cases of product a day — it’s also part of the nostalgic charm that helps attract and retain its customer base, both online and among its 16-town service delivery area, Metz said.

Avery’s brand remains so strong that Metz said he is considering a major expansion to boost production. He said annual revenues approach $1 million.

One creative way Metz bolsters the Avery brand and builds community ties is through his company’s make your own soda program, reserved by appointment on Saturdays. The program allows customers of all ages — a minimum of five people and a maximum of 15 — to concoct and make three bottles of their own handmade flavors.

The program helped give rise to another of Avery’s unique features — its product names. It started in 2008, when a child in a make your own soda session mixed a group of syrups that resulted in a greenish-brown mix, Metz recalled.

“It looked really bad, but tasted really good,” Metz said. “We called it ‘Swamp Juice.’”

Metz decided to use the name and product as a marketing opportunity and create a specialty line of sodas beyond the traditional 30-plus offerings, like root beer, orange and black cherry.

“We started with three (mixed) flavors to create our Totally Gross Soda line,” Metz said.

The trademarked product line — which now accounts for roughly 80% of online sales, Metz estimates — has expanded to 12 flavors and includes sodas such as Dog Drool, Bug Barf and Zombie Brain-Juice.

“We don’t take ourselves too seriously,” Metz said. “Soda is supposed to be fun. Making it is fun and coming up with silly names and flavors is part of that.”

But not everything has been fun for Avery’s over the past few years. The pandemic dried up much of the company’s restaurant-related business in 2020, which drove a 20% to 30% revenue reduction.

Between a $20,000 federal Paycheck Protection Program loan and an uptick in individual soda sales, Avery’s weathered the turbulence and avoided any layoffs of its seven-person staff.

But even amid the pandemic, Avery’s looked for a unique opportunity to connect with consumers — and offer some fun during a challenging time.

In spring 2020, Metz created a limited-time specialty soda — a mixture of lime and orange flavors — called Coronavirus Cocktail. The move reflects a trend that Metz has developed over the years to create specialty drinks tied to current events.

Other sodas addressed the New England Patriots’ Deflategate controversy — Deflate Ball Brew — Trump and Biden-themed sodas during the 2020 presidential election season, and, more recently, Putin’s Punch, with a portion of sale proceeds benefiting the Ukrainian Red Cross.

While independent producers like Avery’s — which generates between 700,000 to 800,000 soda bottles per year — are microscopic in size compared to industry giants like Coca-Cola and Pepsi, collectively craft soda makers are carving out a growing niche in the carbonated beverage market.

According to openPR’s “Global Craft Soda Market Research Report,” the overall craft soda market is projected to grow 5.1 % annually from $665 million in 2021 to $946.8 million in 2026.

Among the differentiators driving some consumers’ shift to craft soda are the higher-quality ingredients, nostalgia associated with sodas produced the old-fashioned way, and the prevalence of glass bottles — instead of plastic — that are more eco-friendly.

In addition, unlike the high-fructose corn syrup used in most mass-manufactured sodas, Metz said, Avery’s — like many independent producers — uses real, natural sugar.

“It reminds (older) people about the soda they remember as a kid,” Metz said. “And it’s helped bring multi-generational visitors (to our facility) with grandparents bringing their kids and grandkids.”

And it’s not just online sales, restaurants and smaller grocers across the region generating demand for Avery’s product lines.

Metz said the company has eight distribution partners that have helped push his company’s products into all 48 continental states, often in candy stores looking for authentic, old-fashioned drinks.

The company also has a private label side of the business. It makes customer labels not only for commercial businesses like restaurants, but also for special occasions like weddings, birthdays and corporate functions.

It’s created a demand that Metz worries may soon exceed Avery’s production capabilities. He said he’s in the process of exploring opportunities to build an additional production facility in New Britain that could triple production, while keeping the current Corbin Avenue location — part of the company’s and city’s history — intact.

For now, he has more immediate challenges to address. The carbonated beverage industry is facing a global shortage of carbon dioxide, the gas used to give soda its carbonation.

Given the increased costs of other raw materials, Avery’s implemented a price increase this past April and — if current cost-pressures continue — Metz said he may consider another one in 2023.

But amid the holiday season, Metz is keeping those challenges in perspective while ramping up his holiday-themed supply of Jingle Juice, with a portion of the proceeds helping Toys for Tots.

Because the holidays, like soda, should be fun, he said.