When Geoff Soares, chief executive officer of Summit Beverage Group, Marion, Va., purchased the company back in spring 2013, he knew little about the beverage business, he says. Soares previously worked in the aerospace and oil-refining industries, so his expertise focused on manufacturing. After acquiring a beverage contract manufacturing company that had failed twice in its history, he realized that the company’s focus on sales and marketing was not benefiting its business; instead, the focus should be on the manufacturing side of the market. In this way, he positioned the company to partner with beverage brands to handle their manufacturing while the brands handled the sales and marketing.
“I’m not a beverage guy in that I know how to compete and convince somebody that my drink is better than [competing brands], so let them do what they do best, and let me do what I do best,” Soares says of the relationship between contract manufacturers and their clients. “These [beverage brands] need to find somebody to [manufacture] their products because they don’t have the capital to invest in manufacturing facilities, and what capital they have, they have to invest in distribution and brand awareness.”