In 2016, the brand had its first hit with Dusty Boots, billed as “Canada’s first hard root beer,” an alcoholized version of the soda-fountain classic. It became Canada’s top RTD innovation in 2016. After the success of Dusty Boots, the company began a pivot toward the ‘better for you’ beverage alcohol space. “We made a decision as a team in 2017 that we wanted to be a company that was exclusively focused on innovating for the “better for you” active consumer. The other thing that we decided is that we felt that our RTD lacked trans- parency to the consumer. The consumer didn’t know how many calories or how much sugar was in the beverage because it’s not mandated that you put a nutrition facts label on an RTD or beverage alcohol product. To push ourselves
to break through as a better for you company, we felt it was important that we cut out sugar, cut down calories, and also include nutritional fact tables, so the consumer knows what they’re putting in their body. We’re a young active team and as a team, we moved away from sweet and sugary beverages. So, we wanted to innovate to the active consumer focusing on wellness,” said McDonald. Cottage Springs launched in 2018. “Our mission was to give the consumers a great taste but with no sugar, no sweetener, and to have all the calories come from alcohol. That’s when we really estab- lished ourselves as a “better for you”” beverage company” said McDonald.
“We made a decision as a team in 2017 that we wanted to be a company that was exclusively focused on innovating for the“better for you” active consumer.”
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JUNE 2020 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • JUNE 2020
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