Conference Transcript - ZVIA 2026-05-14

Operator

All right. It's my pleasure to introduce Xevia for our next discussion. Xevia is a producer of zero-calorie, naturally sweetened plant-based beverages. The company is executing on a robust, long-term growth strategy focused on enhanced distribution, increased velocities, and improving brand awareness. Xevia's initiatives are expected to drive an acceleration in 2026 sales growth and pair with the material improvement in its margin structure over the last several years, driven by discipline, cost management, and efficiencies. We're joined by Xevia CEO Amy Taylor and CFO Girish Satya to discuss Xevia's strategies and outlook. Thank you both for being here.

Amy Taylor, CEO

Yeah, thanks for having us.

Operator

I guess I wanted to start on the recent results. The company just reported a very nice first quarter. Can you maybe talk a little bit about the results, the key drivers, and what was better than you had anticipated?

Amy Taylor, CEO

We had really the company's best ever quarter since our inception, so we're excited about the momentum. The key drivers, I mean, the simplest thing to say is it's really the base business, which is nice to see, versus some timing variance or something. A couple examples of that is that we did back off on promo investments in Q1 in order to prioritize the summer in line with the rollout of our new packaging, a great new base taste improvement innovation and some heavy up in marketing, which I'm sure we'll talk about. So we backed off on promo, and yet retail sales still accelerated beyond our expectations. So that's kind of the base business point. That's one thing. We did enjoy some growth in Q1 above expectations from new distribution, inclusive of a national rotation at Costco. We did see some acceleration of velocity, which would go hand in hand with my first point. So there's a good indicator of demand for us. And then finally, we took a price increase, which we didn't take price prior year. So we had a little bit of a fast follower or a follower on price. And we got more out of the price increase, so got more of it through and realized it faster than we had planned. So those were some of the drivers of just exceeding expectations.

Operator

Okay, so that was helpful, especially coming off the price increase. I guess I'm curious what you're seeing in terms of the current operating environment and the consumer, especially as we've seen higher gas prices. Are you seeing elasticities are changing at all? Is that having any impact?

Amy Taylor, CEO

Not yet. And, of course, we're cautious looking at the rest of the year. We're thoughtful about the rest of the year given the macro. But maybe just to ground us in this, remember that we're a better-for-you product. We're a clean-label product. So we're a couple cents per fluid ounce more than mainstream soda, and the consumer is paying for that clean label. Zero sugar, clean label, and still a great taste. But we are far less expensive than the products that we sit next to on the shelf. So what is starting to be referred to as modern soda, oftentimes half as much. So while we took price, we still have a long way to go, and there could be more pricing action in the future, not necessarily in this year. We are aware that, obviously, there's macroeconomic headwinds. But one thing that we've realized over the last several years is that while we're not immune to the macro, we are a home stocking brand. We're a trusted brand that's been around for a little bit for our heavy user. And we're pretty resilient in the midst of sort of pressure on discretionary income because people still choose to provide better-free products for their family. so we're not quite as discretionary as one might think that a treat like a soda would normally be. We are a bit of a habitual consumption product rather than an occasional one. So as the multi-pack brand within the set that's better for you, that has a strong reputation, we kind of continue those purchase cycles with our heavy users even in the midst of macro fluctuations.

Operator

It does seem, though, like across food and beverage, you're seeing a little bit of a more promotional environment. Maybe it lends itself, the answer to this question lends itself to some of the things you just discussed. But how is your brand positioned for a more promotional environment? Are there things that position you better or worse than maybe some of the competitive set?

Amy Taylor, CEO

Yeah, I mean, I think our, first of all, we are really, Today, we sit in the modern soda category or a better for you soda category. This is a category that is commonly kind of scattered throughout the store, but before it really had the definition that it has today. Excuse me, Walmart took modern soda nationwide. Albertsons followed quickly thereafter, and now additional retailers are starting to house all of these better for you sodas, some of which are functional and occasional and more expensive, and some are more accessible, like us into one set so in that environment we really are a unique player we're sort of a one of one within the category in the sense that we have that accessible price point that we talked about we have classic soda flavors so cola creamy root beer cream soda ginger ale and we have a lot of these new and on trend fruity and fruity creamy flavors so that's unique to us the the rest of the players are mostly just in that trendy flavor set we come in multi-pack so we're as we said before often a home stocking brand so all of that sets us up to play a unique role within the category going into the summer we have a lot of tailwinds just from our initiatives we're investing more in marketing we have this improved flavor taste profile we have a lot of innovation coming post spring resets so yes we're going to lean in promotionally as well but not just to get to a softer price point on shelf, but to drive activity in store, like you were talking about with your last guest, right? Like getting into promotions periodically in order to infuse display in the perimeter of store versus just staying on shelf is the objective there. So I think we will fare well through this promotional environment, largely because we're positioned advantageously from a price perspective versus the rest of the category. And the macro trends for the consumer in terms of consumer choice are away from sugar and away from artificial ingredients. So we're right there and accessible in this moment despite all of the concerns about discretionary income.

Operator

I do want to talk about some of those more proactive things that you guys are doing to grow. Before we do that, though, you talked about the recent results being as strong as they were. A couple of years ago, there were some execution-related dynamics that had impacted performance. You made some changes internally, made some hires. I guess, how is the organization executing today? How have some of those changes impacted the business?

Amy Taylor, CEO

Yeah, I mean, I hope this is an interesting case study in the future, but thank you for teeing the question up that way. We have really been through a fundamental transformation as an organization, and the guy sitting on my left, not to give him a big head, but was a big part of that, Girish, joined us just over two years ago as our CFO and drove a fundamental transformation, not just a cost-out effort in the business, but a fundamental transformation of our organization, of our supply chain, and yielded massive improvement in the fundamentals like unit economics and cost of go-to-market throughout the supply chain. He could certainly talk more about that. But we have been able to do things in parallel that are normally in conflict with one another. improve cash while significantly reducing inventory and maintaining a 95% to 98% fill rate. So we're at a company all-time high fulfillment levels with half the inventory on the books that we used to have and thus the cash flow improvement. We've also been able to improve unit economics while continuing to invest more in marketing, not less, right, through working on cost of goods and taking kind of like the non-working dollars out of the system and put them into the front of house, if you will. So we're standing on really stable footing now. We've delivered a profitable quarter, but structurally you can see in the business that it's built for profitability and really the top line is our focus from here forward because of the stability that we have now.

Operator

Anything from your perspective that you would add?

Girish Satya, CFO

No, I mean, I think Amy kind of covered it. It was a fundamental sort of shift in the business, and I think a lot of times in these situations, companies will either try to cut their way to success or they'll just wildly invest to drive the top line. And in some ways we kind of did both simultaneously, which is a little bit of a different playbook. But I think in the first quarter, you're seeing how that playbook can actually work, right? Where we've continually improved profitability while also investing in the brand. And obviously with a lot of proactive initiatives, we're seeing the fruits of that. And so we're excited about the long-term prospects for the business now that we're kind of fundamentally have shifted it.

Operator

So shifting gears to some of those opportunities, and there are many. First one I wanted to talk about was the marketing side and building brand awareness. You recently announced a partnership with Cardi B as a brand ambassador. Can you walk us through how that came about? What are the plans to leverage that relationship? Feels bigger than what we've seen you do in the past.

Amy Taylor, CEO

It's definitely bigger than what we've done in the past. We're really excited about it. And I'm smiling just because I know she can be a little bit of a polarizing personality, so it's always fun to talk about her. First of all, we have some learnings from last year, and then second of all, I'll tell you the journey of how we got there and what we're going to do together. Learnings from last year, I would say, is we did a campaign with limited resources, like let's say a year ago, with Jelly Roll. And I would say what we learned about that campaign is that it really helped to personify our brand. Like, okay, now I see what you mean by the radically real people's champion. And now that we can start thinking about, okay, based on the learnings of that affordable campaign, frankly, because we did invest in advertising, but it really went viral such that we got far more out of it from social and editorial than we had to pay for in advertising. And so we took those two learnings. Personifying the brand is helpful, and then when you make great creative in advertising, it's going to go a lot further through editorial and social. with those two learnings we looked at just sort of a patchwork of other brand ambassadors folks that love the brand and we get a lot of inbounds of celebrities that have been drinking Zevia for years and years and years or it's on their rider you know and that ranges just from like Gen X rock and roll folks like Alanis Morissette to like you know people sort of of the pop culture moment like Nikki Glaser or Justin Bieber so a lot of really interesting folks that have just been drinking Zevia for their health as early adopters and so we got in a conversation with Cardi B who works so hard as a working mom and shows up really authentically in social media and drinks Zevia. So we started a conversation with her about what would a partnership look like that could be mutually beneficial and it's a multi-year partnership you know that is both cash and some equity so she's invested in the brand and motivated to do more than the minimums of the contract and she's really kind of always on for us so we're excited about this year kind of rolling out an actual campaign around her this summer but so far we've just more done more of the organic social on her side and our side she did do her first ever arena tour this year and we were a sponsor of the tour so showed up on stage as well as activating in and around in the market at each stop so we're excited about the future with cardi who's as radically real as xivia is and so you

Operator

said we'll start to see that kind of in full this summer where will we how will we see yeah so we

Amy Taylor, CEO

have a i mean really a classic television advertising campaign in july with cardi that will also be activated 360 and show up in digital etc so that will be by far our furthest reaching uh 360 marketing campaign that we've ever had as a brand and and the goal as you mentioned at the outset is is reach right it's it's awareness for the brand she has 280 million social followers i I mean, it's like almost the population in the U.S. And she has the 25th most followed handle on Instagram. So she's way bigger than her music, right? She's just kind of a pop culture icon and is very, very engaged in social. So 20 times the followership of Jelly Roll and really, really engaged.

Operator

And so just holistically, long term, I guess, how do you think about the strategies to grow brand awareness, increase household penetration over time? and how will we see that continue to evolve?

Amy Taylor, CEO

Well, you know, as is often the case in beverage, the number one driver awareness is actually in-store. So the blocking and tackling of distribution expansion and improving sets in-store, getting to eye level, getting a vertical brand block, and then penetrating other parts of the store is part of long-term brand awareness and household penetration building. But the other thing that we're really focused on now that we're approaching profitability is investing back into marketing. So just getting up to minimum viable levels of reach and frequency, which this brand has not enjoyed so far. We've had a great product platform without really enough support on what we'll call top of funnel marketing. So long-term, we're at 5% household penetration right now with a product that really solves the entire problem of one of the largest categories in the world enjoying 90-plus percent household penetration which is carbonated soft drinks and the problem in that category is the tension between health and taste and for the first time you actually don't have to pick one because Zevia tastes great and it tastes like a soda and there's no reason not to drink it from a health perspective it has the same health profile is like a sparkling water so with that proposition we have a lot of work to do just to drive trial so we'll be investing in marketing through 360 advertising and digital campaigns sampling grassroots marketing ambassadors like Cardi B and others and bringing the brand to life to ensure that we're getting more kind

Operator

of liquid ellipse and driving more trial. And so as you're in, I mean, you talked about investing in brand building and marketing. You talked about approaching profitability as well. So what's the framework through which you're thinking about the right levels of marketing spend, growing marketing

Girish Satya, CFO

spend? Yeah, let's get yours. Yeah, you know, it's a constant trade-off, right, as we're trying to sort of do both seller top-line growth while also maintain profitability and I think as we continue to you know drive efficiencies and as we continue to drive revenue growth we're going to be able to reinvest into the business but I think importantly to note you know over the last two years we've really right-sized our promotional levels of investment we've brought those up significantly over the last two years marketing as a percentage of revenue is around 13% and so we're starting to approach the levels of you know what I would say are appropriate for a brand of this size and so you know i think we'll continue to invest in marketing continue to invest where we see um you know where we see efficacy there and and again be able to get to profitability because the underlying unit economics are so much more healthy than they were that incremental growth is going to drive profitability irrespective of some of the you know

Operator

headwinds that we're seeing so as we think over i don't know the next couple years obviously you've guided for this year but the next couple years that 13-ish percent plus or minus is generally

Girish Satya, CFO

speaking a decent way to think about it it's generally a decent way to think about it I mean as we think about the margin structure you know long run our gross margins should be in the mid 50s you know we we likely would have been very close to that sans you know the impact of aluminum and fuel this year but you know again the the margin structure is fundamentally different and so I think we've really set it up for you know for long-term success and so it should again when some of these cost pressures sort of subside, you know, we should be able to see that come through and then, again, create more capacity to invest. Sure. Distribution, obviously, another big

Operator

opportunity. You talked about the resets. How much do you think distribution can contribute to volume growth this year? And if you look across channels, kind of where are you seeing the most

Amy Taylor, CEO

momentum and the most opportunity? Yeah, sure. So this year, we'll grow from a mix of velocity and distribution, which I think is a good, healthy thing. Last year, we had a true step change in distribution, so distribution drove most of the growth because last year we went national in Walmart to 4,800 Walmarts, and that was really a step change. This year, we'll see continued distribution gains in groceries, so I don't want to forget about our larger and developed channels because there's still a lot of work to do to expand same-store distribution there. So we gained space. I mentioned in prepared remarks at Kroger and some of the big regional guys like H-E-B and Publix and there are others as well. We also improved our presence at Whole Foods where we've been since the very beginning. So that will drive growth from a source of distribution. Upside for us includes Club because we're in multiple regions, for example, of Costco. We did a national rotation in January and the great thing about that is that we then introduced ourselves into new regions that previously hadn't been exposed to Zevia and some of them deliver quite surprisingly positive velocity such that we got repeat orders, which means either we're going to continue rotations in those new regions or gain permanent item status there, and that would be an example of distribution upside on the year. But looking a little bit more long-term, we still have a massive singles business to grow. Most beverage companies start out by driving singles and driving trial and then you upsell the consumer to multipacks, and we've done the opposite. We are a multi-pack brand from the beginning for various reasons, and now what an amazing opportunity to really step change the household penetration with a focus on singles. This has been a little bit slow going, but now that we've done a brand refresh, the package speaks for itself and really communicates why Zevia on the can. We're doing an entire company-wide focus on rolling out singles through display this summer at the same time that the Cardi campaign and some of the other stuff we talked about. The reason I bring that up is in the long run, singles yield distribution opportunities in channels like food service and convenience. They may not be major contributors to growth this year, but over time, it just signals another avenue of increased household penetration.

Operator

You just mentioned the step up last year from Walmart. And obviously, they've kind of repositioned the category, right? Modern soda, as you mentioned, been a nice tailwind. And we're in year two of that now. How is it performed? How does that continue to grow from here?

Amy Taylor, CEO

Yeah, so the modern soda set at Walmart started out as just four brands, super clean set. We were somewhat of an anchor brand, as I mentioned before, playing a unique role within this set. And it's evolved now to be a little bit fragmented regionally, such that they're testing a number of better-for-you brands and sort of figuring out what is the definition of modern soda. For us, we've had really good velocity evolution in the chain over time, so we're really bullish on growing with them over time. It will take time. Right now, it's a fairly small set, but I think they could double or triple the size of that set given the number of new entrants and then the necessity of holding sufficient assortment for Zevia. That will take time, but in the meantime, we're pleased with the results just from a pure velocity sort of sales per unit at Walmart, And it's just a great story for us to take, you know, that retailer A is performing as it is performing to many other retailers that are maybe underspacing the category today.

Operator

Yeah. So are you seeing any of that carry over to other retailers yet? I mean, as as you see this repositioning, I mean, it feels like a bit of a fundamental shift in approach from the retail side. I guess how how are you seeing others respond similarly or not?

Amy Taylor, CEO

Yeah, I think, first of all, I'll talk about just one headwind based on this dynamic, and then let's talk about all the positive evolutions. The headwind is there is obviously a shift channel-wise from a macroeconomic perspective toward value. So shoppers are, you know, heaving up at Walmart and, you know, on e-commerce and club. So that's at the detriment of, you know, maybe more premium price shoppers' experience at, like, a natural channel. So there is some channel shifting. but far more additive than that is the precedent that walmart has set with this set is now contagious among mainstream grocery right so we increased our space by 30 percent at albertson's as an example last year and we'll or this year versus last year and then we'll in no sorry in 2025 we increased our space by 30 percent this year we'll see another mid single digits increase in space so we're growing from velocity perspective but we're also getting more space this is again another great story to take to other retailers that are following on but part of the reason the category is a little bit difficult to predict right now is because these are all moving parts as retailers figure it out where should this category sit should it sit next to conventional soda or does it sort of bring new foot traffic into you know next to sparkling waters or teas so they're still they're still figuring it out so it's a it's

Operator

difficult to predict okay um on the on the club business um you mentioned that the rotation at costco but it can be a bit of an inconsistent channel i suppose so how do you think about club as an opportunity for the brand over time um maybe what yeah what's your perspective

Amy Taylor, CEO

well you know the goal is never to grow club to some massive mix of business right it has a role to play. It used to be that played the role of really just volume and scale, but now it's really sort of a treasure hunt experience for club members across all operators, and so it's a great place to drive trial. So it is important for us. Today we have everyday item status in a number of regions within Costco, but we have upside in two to three times that within that chain alone in terms of gaining everyday item status in more regions or executing more national rotations similar to what we did in January so that would be like upside to 2026 as well as big growth opportunity in the long run we're today not in Sam's and we have you know so small test of business in BJ's and so that's an upside opportunity as well and then finally a restaurant depot jetro so still a lot of the club universe for us to tackle to drive trial especially on the east coast got it okay

Operator

can you give us an update on the dsd expansion and the singles business which obviously talked about kind of as we get into the summer you're going to see a big push where is that today and

Amy Taylor, CEO

how are we thinking about kind of the we have today and probably always will have a hybrid route to market so we're not full dsd we're direct we have other partners like unify and they get us to a number of channels and then we have a few regions where we have what i would call pilots with DSD and today unlike the energy drinks business today the vast majority of our businesses is in larger format stores so grocery natural and mass and the category itself is very underdeveloped in convenience and I would say is going slower than many would have expected and it's just a matter of who's the shopper in convenience versus who's the shopper at you know Target Walmart and grocery so DSD and convenience are a long-term play for us but we don't expect that that will go a whole lot faster in this moment and therefore I don't expect to continue to grow DSD for now until we see more sort of acceleration within that channel. Okay and how much of the business is it today? Of DSD it's a very small percentage yeah it's very it's it's it's two two regions in the country northwest and southwest and and it's they only handle certain channels for us even in that footprint so it ends up being

Operator

in the single digits um there was discussion in recent quarters around the formulation improved taste profile some of the changes that you guys were making around that where does that stand now and has it had any impact on feedback performance kind of what are you seeing from that

Amy Taylor, CEO

front so it's super early going um we do some of our innovation carries the formula that we're referring to as a more sugar-like taste experience so some of the innovation is already demonstrating strength versus our average velocities which gives us confidence both that it's the right flavor but also the taste improvement is is meaningful the taste improvement around ten or so other flavors so somewhere in around like half of our core portfolio is rolling out now with this new packaging and sort of in advance of this marketing push that we talked about so more to come on that but early indicators are that we've really solved for a couple things that were opportunities for us a richer flavor profile like really a rich experience with each flavor as well as just no aftertaste and I think sometimes that's a perception around stevia which is our sweetener is that it would deliver an aftertaste and people are really surprised to find that that's not within the product in the vast majority of our flavors so for those that are in the room today you know there's a barrel in the back try an orange creamsicle or any one of the other new flavors and I think it's pretty surprising to people how much like sugar it tastes now. We were just in the in the prior

Operator

discussion talking about the portfolio approach being across different categories. You guys recently decided to discontinue the the tea line. Can we talk about what was behind that decision and then go from there.

Amy Taylor, CEO

Yeah, just briefly on tea. You know, tea is largely commoditized category, maybe not as profitable as some others, not growing as fast. And what really merits our organization's attention is our soda business at 5% of household penetration. We can double, triple our household penetration with focus by simply just doing the basics on marketing and focusing on expanding distribution, accelerating velocity. So we've opted to get out of our very small tea business, focus on soda, and then the upside is in energy drinks, which I think the consumer is ready now for a clean label energy drink. There was no overlap between consumers that drank energy drinks and people that cared about ingredients in the past, but that's changing. So our energy drink is really a next phase growth opportunity for us.

Operator

And so what is the, I guess, the plan?

Amy Taylor, CEO

It's nearer in than probably the last couple times that we've talked about this. it's always been this like nascent little you know profitable nicely growing energy drink in natural channel and in e-commerce but we are because we have the stability that we talked about within the organization and the pnl and as we start to see the flywheel working for soda we turn our attention to energy drinks and so there'll be more to talk about uh going into 2027 with

Operator

energy great um turning to margins and the costs and you've done a fantastic job on on productivity in recent years can you talk about how much of that is still to go in 2026 and and where you're continuing to see that productivity come from yeah so as a

Girish Satya, CFO

reminder you know we we've taken about 20 million dollars out of the cost structure so let's call that 12 to 13 percent of revenue over on a trailing 12 months basis the last two and a half million or really the last five million of that happened in or is happening in this quarter so Q2 at that point the the initial 20 million tranche will be done. We have identified an incremental three to five million that will largely as a result of the cost pressures that we're seeing from fuel and aluminum that we've started sort of working on. And you'll see that likely end of Q4, but more realistically in beginning of Q1 of 2027. And so we continues to find opportunities and cogs and selling expenses really continuing to prune and optimize our portfolio and continuing to sort of prune and optimize the supply chain and i think we're sort of nearing the like i you know i've told the team the 20 million was the easy part the three to five is actually gonna be a lot harder because that you know we're getting we're past all sort of the easy stuff um but i i think generally speaking we're we'll probably the last stage of like real cost out at that point you know it'll be minor improvements over time but but those are the big levers and what what is that incremental

Operator

piece that you've to offset some of the more recent headwinds? Yeah I mean it's it's very in

Girish Satya, CFO

the weeds around you know just sourcing from a product sourcing perspective and then just some incremental changes we can make regarding you know freight and transfer and some of how we

Operator

where our warehouses are and things like that. Got it and so can you maybe talk about how tariffs kind of the oil related price inflation how that is impacting the business where the exposure is and how much of the guidance revision on the EBITDA side was from aluminum versus other inflation?

Girish Satya, CFO

Yeah, so coming into the year, we had identified about a $5 million headwind from aluminum tariffs, and so we knew that coming in, so our fiscal year or our initial guidance for the year included that. Because of the war in Iran and sort of the incremental increase in fuel prices, we've identified an incremental $6 million headwind. two-thirds of that is fuel related so that will hit the selling you know and free lines and then the other third of that is basically incremental pressure on aluminum costs and so if you add all that up that's 11 million dollars right and so if you had taken that sort of you pro forma that against where our annual EBITDA guide is I mean you'd have a business in the mid single digits from an EBITDA margin perspective and so as we talk about some of these you know incremental cost out and maybe the eventuals you know eventually these costs subsiding these cost pressures subsiding I mean I think that's what you'll see you know in 2027 and beyond is a business that is delivering you know mid single digits and you know improving profitability over time but that's really where we you know that's really been the biggest headwind that we've seen and we knew some of that coming in to the year but of course the incremental

Operator

know, six was the surprise. With all the costs that you have taken out of the business, the ability to find more, you've talked about pricing opportunities over time. Has your thinking around the long-term margin potential of the business evolved at all? And if not, why would

Girish Satya, CFO

that not be the case? Yeah, and so I think generally speaking, you know, I always thought when I joined that this would be a double-digit EBITDA business, and I don't think that has changed, right? And yes, There's been some, maybe getting there isn't going to be as fast as I initially thought because of some of these headwinds. But when you look at the overall opportunities, mixing further into singles, growing penetration of our energy drink, just general scale and pricing opportunities that we have, I don't see a reason why we couldn't get there. And so, you know, although, you know, again, although there are these pressures that we didn't foresee, the reality is it hasn't changed my original thinking. And I think the pathway is still very clear, and I think the changes that we've made will eventually get us there.

Operator

Maybe I'll take a bit of a different, a more positive approach to that question. With more costs coming out, maybe some of these inflation headwinds are more transitory, temporary in nature. Is there more upside to that than maybe you originally thought?

Girish Satya, CFO

I mean, it's hard to know. It feels like every year we've now had a macro shock. And so, you know, it's hard to look into the future and understand what may or may not change. But generally speaking, I think I feel pretty good about the work we've done and the progress we've made and the levers that we have remaining at our disposal to get there.

Operator

Got it. Okay. On the pricing topic, how do you think about the right level of price for the business on a relative basis, maybe on an absolute basis and the right cadence to take that pricing um if you could walk through

Girish Satya, CFO

your thinking around that that'd be great yeah yeah so i mean as a reminder we we took price early this year um and we did not take price last year and so generally speaking like we're in a premium category but on a price per ounce basis we're a slight premium to mainstream soda but at a significant discount to the rest of the sort of modern soda players and i think generally speaking that's where we try to uh that's where we try to play because we're really focused on how do we deliver the most value that we can to our consumer and especially in this environment we think that's even more important now and so you know we think we're really we're priced really well not only not only to sort of create long-term opportunity continue to take price but at the same time really capitalizing on this moment where the consumer is looking for value and so i think generally speaking we're we're where we want to be from a pricing perspective knowing that there is opportunity in the long run, but at the same time being very focused on delivering as much

Operator

value to the consumer as we can. So the next time you would look at that, presumably, I think you said

Girish Satya, CFO

2027. Yeah, it's unlikely that we'll do anything this year.

Operator

I think I ask this every year, but I'm going to ask you again. When you think about the long-term growth rate for this business, what is the right achievable level that we should think about and how do you think about the composition of that growth across the drivers

Amy Taylor, CEO

you talk about long-term growth yeah talk a little bit on yeah i i think generally speaking

Girish Satya, CFO

you know this should be a business that is growing in the teens uh mid-teens uh you know on a long term you know uh basis and and i think generally speaking you started to see that uh you know in q1 where when uh all of the things start to hit uh that's where you can see the recipe for that type of growth and I think generally speaking we're very bullish on all the changes we've made and and again part of what we're you know if you look at the guide there's a little bit of choppiness partly because we knew there were some we're discontinuing tea we were shifting promotion and marketing into Q3 to coincide with the new packaging and new you know enhanced flavor as well as just a heavy up in in terms of top of funnel you know brand awareness and so in the year you see a little bit of choppiness but generally speaking I think we're pointing towards having all of the right pieces in place to really accelerate top-line growth. And so that's what we're really excited about, sort of getting all the foundational work behind us so we can really sort of really laser focus on how do we accelerate growth. And so as we look forward, that's really where we see, you know, the business, where the business should

Amy Taylor, CEO

be. Maybe just, you know, as a reminder, we've been around like 18 years. So Xevia is around for a long time kind of super serving a very small group of early adopters that like drank a ton of Diet Coke and hated themselves for it. It was invented by a couple, the wife of which who drank a ton of Diet Coke and they created Zevia Cola to get her off her Diet Coke and convinced a few other folks to do that, made some six packs and sold them in Whole Foods, right? And we had a product that really the consumer should have wanted but wasn't quite there yet. And what's changed is now Now, we used to be number one in a category nobody cared about. We're now in the top three brands of a category that everybody's talking about because now soda can be better for you. So there's this tremendous category tailwind that is built upon a macro shift away from sugar and with a younger generation, a move away from artificial ingredients, which is our superpower, that we have truly zero sugar, not just a few grams. And then we have the cleanest label you can really comprehend beyond water, right? We have fewer ingredients. So why do I mention that? just when Geras talks about kind of this this flywheel and this growth expectation that we have the teens over time we're just we are capitalizing on tremendous category tailwinds and then we've rapidly improved the product kind of meet the moment and we really believe we had somebody say to us I hey I was standing in the carbonated soft drinks aisle and I was looking up and down the fact that it's Coke and Pepsi and KDP that's the entire aisle and it's one of the highest foot traffic aisle still in the in the inner aisles of grocery and And he said to us, when I was picturing that in the next generation, this is all going to be today what we call modern soda. So if you can picture the idea that, like, hey, just a couple cents per fluid ounce, you're going to get a clean label soda that you can stock at home and drink every member of the household all throughout the day without having to think about, ah, should I really be drinking this? It's a pretty big unlock. So on that foundation, we kind of walk that back and say, well, how do we, you know, not overspend and get over our skis or get distribution too fast, but in a disciplined manner, continue to grow household penetration and distribution for what we believe could be a really big business. So we feel like we're on the precipice of some exciting things.

Operator

I think that's a great place to end it.

Amy Taylor, CEO

OK, then.

Operator

That was perfect. Thank you very much.

Amy Taylor, CEO

Thanks very much for having us.