MEET THE PRODUCERS
A carbonated water launched with the aim of helping to reduce New Zealand’s high sugar consumption is quenching Kiwis’ thirst for a tasty alternative to sweet fizzy drinks. We meet the trio behind Vista
Three school pals putting the sparkle into healthy drinks.
It all began with three Kiwi blokes looking for a soft drink they could happily swig “after the largest of nights”, but one that would tick the taste and health boxes too. Something they could knock back in vast quantities “without feeling guilty about sugar and calories”.
The more they talked about it, the more friends Adam Sorensen, 27, Scott Day and Russ Hopper – both 28 – realised there was more to this than their own rehydration conundrum. “We were concerned by the high rate of sugar consumption in New Zealand and thought there was a gap in the market for a drink that was genuinely healthy,” says Adam.
Indeed a recent Auckland University study has found sugar in drinks carries a greater risk than sugar in food of contributing to obesity and diabetes – both rife in New Zealand.
“The three of us have always tried to avoid sugary drinks, but it seemed we were left with very few beverage options when we didn’t feel like drinking plain water,” says Adam.
And so – like many of the best business ideas – the trio came up with a concept so simple, it seemed amazing it wasn’t already in every store. A fizzy drink containing only carbonated water, purified using UV and charcoal filtration methods, and natural flavouring. Tasty but not sweet. Appealing but not pricy. Kind to your teeth and kind to the planet – in endlessly recyclable cans.
That drink is Vista – a sparkling water flavoured with natural fruit extract from a local supplier. You’ll find it at a supermarket near you in Lemon, Berry, Feijoa and Watermelon flavours.
The drinks don’t taste sweet; the fruit flavour is subtle, which makes them as refreshing as water but with a little more zing. Just as palatable is the price – $3 for a 355ml can.
“Most healthy beverages are sold in cafes in glass bottles and are unaffordable for the average Kiwi family. We knew that to truly make an impact and reduce sugar consumption, we’d have to position Vista as a fizzy drink, get it onto supermarket shelves and compete with the big players in the soft drink category,” says Adam.
They’d seen similar products to Vista overseas, but in New Zealand weren’t aware of any in single-serve packaging that had no sugar, apart from those that “were full of artificial sweeteners”.
One of the trio’s mantras is that being healthy should be simple – and Vista’s clean packaging design reflects that. There are no mind-boggling health stats, no endless lists of fancy ingredients – just the contents plainly stated: water and natural flavouring.
While the product – manufactured at a plant in Auckland’s East Tamaki – is straightforward, launching was a little less so. None of the three had any food industry experience, and while they’d attended Kristin School together, in later years they scattered all over the globe. Scott was a marine engineer on superyachts in Miami, Russ a yacht broker, and Adam worked in sports marketing and sponsorship in London. “The business took longer to get off the ground than we’d have liked and involved plenty of late-night conference calls between multiple time zones!” says Adam.
A CLEAR START
There were three non-negotiables they were crystal-clear on: Vista had to be affordable, packaged sustainably and it had to taste good. Luckily – or perhaps because of this clarity around what they wanted their product to be – the brand awareness bit was easier than they’d envisaged. A few weeks after launching, they were being “bombarded” on social media by people who wanted to try Vista but couldn’t »
There were three nonnegotiables they were crystal-clear on: Vista had to be affordable, packaged sustainably and it had to taste good
get their hands on it.
“It’s not a bad problem to have, but trying to meet that level of demand so quickly was stressful nonetheless,” says Adam.
“One of the biggest challenges was our first full-scale manufacturing run. The minimum order quantities were huge and we hadn’t yet tested the market, so we just had to jump in! It was a significant risk to be sitting on such a large quantity of stock with no stockists.
The product had a shelf life of one year, so the pressure was on to secure stockists and build brand awareness quickly enough to get through all the stock before it expired. Luckily, we managed to move the first run of product with minimal wastage.”
HONOURING THE VISTA VISION
Another thorny issue was keeping Vista affordable. Their rivals were global beverage giants with economies of scale on their side, making it challenging for a small Kiwi start-up to compete. But they’re finding ways to stay true to this key pillar of the brand.
“We’ve made many small adjustments to our processes in order to make the business viable. We’ve set up our own manufacturing line, which will enable us to cut costs significantly.” The new facility will also mean more jobs, increasing their current staff of two to around 10-12.
And the packaging kills two birds with one stone – aluminium cans are not only recyclable ad infinitum, they’re a lot cheaper to produce than glass. “If we used glass packaging, the drinks would easily be another $1-2 more.”
Plastic bottles would be cheaper still, but that was never an option. “They can only be recycled around eight times before being sent to landfill.”
The three don’t claim to have all the answers; indeed on their website they admit that aluminium cans, made of 70 per cent recycled materials, “might not be perfect”, but it’s a start. Adam also concedes, “there’s no doubt plain tap water is the ideal choice as an everyday drink, both for your health and the environment. However, the reality is most people don’t want to drink plain tap water all day, every day. If you’re looking for an alternative to plain water, we think it’s the next best option. And for people who drink sugary soft drinks all day, switching to Vista is a massive step in the right direction.”
They’re also not sitting still; there are many plans and ideas in the pipeline to keep growing the brand. “We’re a fairly ambitious bunch! Long term, we’d ideally like to have five to six flavours in the range.”
As for export opportunities, they’ve already earmarked Asia as a major focus.
While the journey hasn’t always been easy, the rewards have added more than a little sparkle to the whole experience. Right up there is seeing their creation in stores. “It’s pretty incredible to see something you created from scratch sitting there on the shelf at the supermarket you’ve been shopping at your entire life,” says Adam.
THUMBS-UP FROM THE KIDS
Then there’s the satisfaction of proving the sceptics wrong about getting consumers – especially kids – to warm to the product.
“When we were developing Vista, lots of people advised us we’d struggle to get kids drinking it without adding at least a small amount of sugar or sweeteners, but we could count on one hand the number of kids who haven’t liked any of the flavours when we’ve been doing sampling sessions.”
Last but by no means least, it’s immensely gratifying to hear of the impact their drink is having. “Lots of people have told us that replacing their usual soft drink with Vista has helped them lose weight, made a difference to their health or improved their energy levels. It’s awesome to hear and is exactly what we set out to achieve.”