Heywell Making Wellness Simple and Accessible

to sugary soft drinks. According to their findings, Well, a lot of new entrants coming into the space as well, trying to take advantage of that growth. One of those new entrants is Hey, well, the co founders Ashley Selman and britt Aherty join us now on the phone from Chicago. Ashley, britt how are you? Thanks for having us? Yeah, well,

thanks so much for joining us. Hey, Frett, I want to start with you because the two of you work together at Miller Course and you left to start the beverage brand, and it's the idea is making wellness approachable for everyone. How would you describe Brittain? Hey? Well, well, halo, are we make Sparkling a diptagenic water. They're made with adaptogens antioxidants. Wait, wait, wait, what's an adaptogen? I'm not the only one who didn't know that. You didn't know that?

Was sorry, No, I didn't, So help me out here. Sure. An adaptation is a class of plants that help us adapt to stress, and they really just help people meet the demands of modern life. Our drinks, you know, when you need a little energy, immunity, focus, or stress. I need those things. No, listen, I think you guys are tapping into something Tim and I talked about a lot. I see it with my my daughter. I mean, we're looking at we're constantly turning around the things we eat,

we drink and really want to understand. We want TRANSPARENC people understand it, and we really want to eat things that are better or drink things that are better. Um for us. Um, you know, actually come on in on the conversation here in terms of what the work that you're doing and the demand that you're seeing for this. You know, we definitely have seen the shift from people moving away from things that are bad for them to

certainly moving to things that have been more neutral. And then, especially since COVID, people are looking for increased support, especially a stress and immunity support from food and beverages. UM. So we're seeing a huge amount of growth their adaptations. We get that a lot like adapt or what and so it's simply a class of plant. It just supports you. We use things like UM Shashandra, it's a berry. It's

really great for helping manage stress. We use things like LC and the omlaberries a great natural source of UM an occidental vitamin C. So we we've taken these things that are really good for you and we've packaged them in these convenient ready to drink UM sparkling waters that are low and triser and calories UM and just made it easy to find the right occasion for you, whether that's a little extra energy and immunity, or UM energy

and focus, or maybe you know, calm and restore. So UM we have this line of UM for sparkling waters that we've made and that we UM launched the market, and I feel like it's just right on time in terms of what people are looking for. Yeah, the line includes energy and calm. I'm curious about the distribution strategy here because, uh, you know, how how do you actually make sure that this gets to the actual convenience stores.

If what people want to do a single serve or go direct consumer by selling on your website and jump in here Ashley, Yeah, we've found a little bit of both.

I'd say, Um, you know, when during especially COVID, when retail was a little bit harder to break through, we really pivoted and moved into the e commerce space and we were just seeing explosive growth there and we've had some great partners, whether that's good Eggs or snack Magic all across the US, and um, you know, people were looking for convenient waste to shop that they didn't have

to go in the store. So we've done quite a bit of the e commerce work and that actually took our brand a little bit more national, little bit more immediately than we had initially anticipated. But in terms of actual retails retail locations, we've targeted you know, larger urban markets and specialty retail within that, whether that's air Wan or Foxtrot or degru Noes, um, you know, whether you're

in New York, l A or Chicago, those types of markets. Um, so that people can find them, you know, at at that point of purchase. Well on truth be told, Britt. You know, we were our whole team here as we were preparing for you know, chatting with you guys, were talking in our newsroom and you know, looking at the different places that you can buy the product, and I think Target came up, Walmart, Amazon, lots of places. But

where is it, you know? And I am also curious about your for rays, if it's happened or if it's in the future in terms of restaurants, you know, and and and the bar space, like what where are you know the places that you're really really tapping into consumer demand there and you're finding the biggest sales. Yeah. I mean we do really well in specialty and and natural retailers across the country, So places like Foxtrot and air jan Um Yeah. Um, so you know, people where people

are putting priority you know, and spending against health. Um, that's where we see you know, these you know, beverages do the best. UM. You know, in particular, we see a lot of momentum with UM gen Z and younger age millennials. That group in particular is just much more likely to put a priority on UM functional ingredients and leverage functional ingredients to help them with things that actually mentioned are critical community and struct Hey, guys, sit tied

for a second. We'll come back and we're going to continue the conversation. We are talking with Ashley Selman and Britt Doherty, co founders of Hey Well, It's a beverage brand. Uh. They both worked at Miller Corps for a couple of years and I'm also not a couple of years longer than that. And when we come back, we can talk about what that experience brought to uh, this brand in terms of maybe what they wanted to do, what they didn't want to do. I also want to hear more

about adaptagens and the source of these ingredients. I've just been like kind of going down a rabbit hole a little bit with this uh, and it is interesting lemon um and at a lot of ingredients I can't pronounce. Well done, We'll continue our conversation just a moment. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week, Carol Master Tim Stanevik right here on Bloomberg Radio. I want to get back to our guest with us, Ashley Selman and Britt Doherty, co

founders of hay Well It's a beverage brand. UM. Actually, by the way, it was a VP of Brand Marketing and Senior director of Crafts and Imports at Miller Core's. Britt was a VP of Marketing, Insights and Engagement at the company as while they were there for several years. They're both with us separate lines, but on the phone in Chicago. Actually, Britt, one thing I want to ask you,

and actually let me start with you. What was it about your time and experience at Miller Core's that you brought with you guys to creating Hay Well, what was it that you knew you wanted to do differently? And obviously they're not apples to apples, they're different things, you know, different times of beverages. But I'm just curious about that time and experience, you know, what it taught you in terms of what you wanted to do or what you

learned and what you wanted to do differently. Yeah, we you know, we spent a lot of time that millar core is looking both at our immediate industry but also broadly, and what we found really exciting was just um a lot of change that consumers were looking for and that there was just opportunity in the marketplace that wasn't fulfilling it and we we're finding that just not only from you know, a person's perspective, but also personally so Brita Night.

You know, we're working along demanding hours and UM managing you know, UM just crazy lives and we just were looking for things to help us on our wellness journey. And you know, we found that UM something that was UM simple to understand, that was accessible UM also that was good tasting, and that had the functional benefits we were looking for. UM. We just found that there was an opportunity and so you know, we took UM. We took a lot of the great learnings that we had

from our time at milar Cores. And you know, one of the most important things with starting with you know what what was our mission and what was really kind of the reason for being UM. And our mission is to help make wellness more simple and accessible for everyone every day. And our name is just hey, well is

a simple invitation to that wellness UM. So when we started, it was and what it means to be more simple and accessible for us was taking these great ingredients that are really good for you, making it taste really delicious so that you'll actually drink it UM, and making it convenient for you, um and fitting into your lifestyle. So that was kind of our starting point when we you know, we developed brands for this company for a long time.

When we finally decided, well, if ever there's a moment, we're just gonna you know, go for it and make our own brands because we were just really energized by this, you know, we did, and so we started with that point, um and spent a lot of time in formulation making sure that we got all those things right before we

launched into market. You know, from brand development, a lot of brand development for the companies that the large companies that we talk about, you know, Coca Cola and Pepsi, Molson, cores a b in Bev. A lot of that brand development that that happens actually happens outside of the company, and then a company comes in and acquires those startups, they let them do the actual heavy lifting in a lot of cases and finding distribution and and building that

customer base. Britt, how are you thinking about, you know, the next step here in terms of of of what happens when the company does get bigger and when if it does, if it does grow, is this a company that's going to get acquired by a larger company. Well, we're really excited about that mission that actually mentioned. We think that it's something that consumers really see themselves in and our growth plan you know, really reflects that demand

that we're seeing. You know, you guys mentioned the size of the sparkling water segment at eight you know, thirty billion, functional beverages eighteen billion and adaptations you know, really driving the size of that segment. And we do think that we're on the front foot of this trends. The space is really emerging, and we do think it would be really interesting for bigger beverage companies like the ones you

mentioned to UM. You know, round out there there's portfolio UM with functional uh, with focial beverages that really have become you know, eighteen billion dollar segments. Yeah, it's a really good point in terms of we watch the evolution certainly of the beverage market. Where do you guys go with this? It sounds like is there other brand additions or not brand additions, but maybe building out the existing

brand actually go ahead take that. Yeah, you know, we see UM, we still see a lot of opportunity and UM we have a pipeline that we're working on right now. That starts to you know, we started with beverage because that's an area that UM we have a lot of

experience in and a lot of passion for UM. But we think that there are UM you know, there's still a lot of occasions that we have been addressed yet and we feel like there's other UM ways of address seeing wellness and making it simple and more accessible, more inclusive, and so UM many in terms of product offerings are or what you write in terms of products offerings and UM UM in terms of just UM also walking and

living our mission. So you know what's important to us and this is really you know what's important to consumers is we give back one per cent the nonprofits to advocate for inclusion. And you know what we find is that UH and this is where we were too, is that we you know, people want to engage with brands that UM that have this mission that maybe don't start as a big corporate brand, but that start, as you know, with entrepreneurs that are UM really creating a community that

believes in the same things that they do. And so UM that's you know, our growth plane is really just to focus on building that continuity community and providing you know, additional product lines down the road that um that meets those means. So I said, I wanted to talk more about the ingredients. I want to do that, brit And and just learn a little bit about sourcing these um.

Alma berry, a gooseberry that's rich in natural vitamin C. There's an urban here, an amino acid and antioxidant, superberry, lemon berry, pincome ale and sea salt, potassium magnesium. Britt, how hard does it taket these ingredients? Where do you get them? Well, you know, we don't know anyone who hasn't had you been impacted by supply chain in some ways over the last two years. UM, But we're really UM delighted to work with partners that help us procure

and UM. You know, we get them from the US, but also from all over the world, and our goal is really to make sure that they're sourced in a way that aligned to the mission that actually mentioned we have behavile making them is more simple and accessible, which means you know, getting these ingredients in a way that have a scene supply chain, so you know, are they eximally sourced? UM? Can we can we trace back to

the makers? We want to put things in our drinks that are good for you, but that people can feel good drinking. And UM, go ahead, no, you know, just before we go, UM curious, we're Bloomberg. How big is your market? I mean, how much growth have you seen in terms of sales? Ashley like, how much? You know? Just give us an idea of the growth that you're seeing just quickly. Yeah, we're seeing we're seeing great growth and our plan for next year. What's great growth though?

Is it? Is it high teams or is it something more significant than that? No, it's way more significant than that. We will triple our business next year. We're bringing on great accounts like Central Market and us Fair, and we're continuing to expand and e commerce and so um. We're just seeing really exciting growth for for hay Well and UM and we've got some great partners, like Brick said, that helps us make sure that we can well supply

that demand. We'll be sure to check in with us and let us know as things down the road, as you guys continue to build it out, and I'll love to get a check an update with you. Actually. Salman Britt already co founders of Haywell on the phone from Chicago