Ep. 85 Kyle Cooke and Nick Califano of Loverboy

Kyle Cooke, the founder of one of the hottest hard teas on the market, Loverboy, and COO Nick Califano join Harry and Jenn as we speak about their challenges and successes in launching Loverboy amidst Kyle's popular Bravo series, Summer House and Winter House.   Show starts in earnest:  01:30 ---time-stamped contents--- 00:00 intro - hilarious banter, technical difficulties with slow internet after attempted burglary. 01:30 nick joins the call.  02:00 kyle joins the call. 02:45 update on loverboy since last time on pod.  03:00 getting into 2022 spring chain resets. 07:30 partnering with right distribs to build brand to go deep, plus omni-channel.  09:00 servicing dtc/merch in the mix.  09:45 400k cases last year with supply constraints.  The opportunity for this year in chains is great. 10:30 leveraging interest in indie accts before resets enacted, and wholesalers key in getting placements.  11:00 leveraging six pack form factor as differentiator in Kroger. 12:00 driving summer house fans to retail via website.  13:00 repeat buys — how velocity is affected by summer/winter house being on air nor not.  15:00 driving sales, then repeats due to clean ingredients, taste, etc.  16:00 six seasons on summer house, how it’s filmed. 17:30 grokking the consumer.  very incremental to beer. 18:00 premium liquor-type margins, at 4x the locations. 18:45 c-stores activation?  20:30 brutal filming sked for summer and winter houses, but different. 22:00 dtc and merch big businesses. 23:00 bringing premium super-high margin products to market.  24:15 what’s the goal for 2022:  1 mil ce’s?  more? 26:00 being early to the game has advantages.  27:00 retailers “heads were spinning” with so many seltzer/rtd options. 28:20 consumers leading to premiumization:  new age media leading them there. 29:30 plans for spirit-based product? 31:00 maybe institutional round, grinding, tune into summer house on monday nights on bravo.