CPG Stories: The Realities of Scaling a CPG Brand with Steve Candland

Steve got his start in CPG while living in Australia where he developed a palate for ginger beer. When he moved back to Utah, he wanted to have a great ginger beer, but there weren't any around. So, naturally, he made his own — Traveler's Soda was born.

"It takes at least a million dollars to have a product that is professionally formulated, packaged, and can be manufactured at scale. And I didn't have that." Steve ultimately made the difficult decision to wind down.

"I don't think Walmart is good for small CPG businesses," Steve said. "Walmart holds all the power. They'll make you sell it at a price point lower than what you're comfortable with, and even if it sells out, next year they'll ask you to sell it even cheaper."

For one brand, the manufacturer didn't do a test run with newly purchased equipment and it did not work as expected. They hired temporary workers and ran three shifts daily, drastically increasing costs. The company ultimately went under.

"If you walk down to Whole Foods, there is probably a bunch of stuff on the shelves that just isn't that good. Some not-good stuff sells." Steve uses a simple framework called the Uncle Joe Test — if Uncle Joe tries your product and says 'Yuck,' go back to the drawing board.

"Do you want to sell at the farmer's market, or do you want to scale? If you want to scale, you need access to $1 million. You need this to hit exit velocity."

"You need to know the people you're working with are trying to help, can communicate, aren't hot heads, and will say, 'Yes, Steve, let's figure this out together.'"

The CPG industry is amazing and full of great people doing cool things. It takes the right mindset to be successful, but having the right partners, right product, enough resources, and a clear path forward are all things you need to build a successful CPG business.