Hi everyone, and thanks for joining today. We've got our next Fireside Chat with Zevia, and I'm very excited to welcome them back to our conference again this year. So joining us on stage today is Amy Taylor, CEO, and Girish Satya, CFO. As many of you know, Zevia is an emerging non-alcoholic beverage company that went public about three years ago. Zevia's portfolio of products naturally sweetened with stevia, including carbonated soft drinks, energy drinks, mixers, and teas. Now, the company's at an exciting crossroads, having just announced the first phase of their DSD delivery rollout on their Q1 earnings call last week, which is something we and presumably all of you have been looking forward to. So let's start with our Fireside Chat, and Girish, not to put you on the spot, but wanted to start with you.
You took over the CFO role in mid to late February, I think. So could you talk about your experience thus far and, you know, really what drove you to this role, and then maybe what has surprised you the most in the early days?
Yeah, absolutely. So first off, thanks to you and the Goldman Sachs team for hosting us today. We appreciate that. It's actually a question I get asked a lot, so I appreciate you bringing it up. And so, you know, I've had the opportunity to be a part of a lot of breakthrough consumer brands across consumer verticals. And, you know, what I saw with the Zevia business is it shared a lot of the similarities that I've seen with other breakthrough consumer brands. And so I think first there were clear, you know, category tailwinds. Obviously, the sort of health and wellness mega trend has forced consumers to really consider, you know, natural, better-for-you alternatives. And so Zevia is well-positioned there. And I think, you know, more importantly, you saw the growth rates in better-for-you soda far outpacing, you know, traditional CSD.
I think when I looked at Zevia, I saw a business that had, you know, clean, natural ingredients. I saw a, you know, very clean balance sheet. I saw a very healthy multi-pack business. But I also saw a company that was sort of at the pivot point for an important sort of strategic and operational change to really sort of break through this next sort of growth barrier. And I thought, you know, bringing my skill set to bear in terms of driving a lot of operational improvement, you know, change management would be helpful in partnering with Amy to sort of drive that breakthrough growth. And so I think that's really what sort of drove me to the opportunity. And in terms of what's surprised me, I think it's really been an organization that is open to and ready for change.
And so, you know, I think I won't probably touch on it later. You know, we've outlined some pretty big strategic shifts over the last, you know, 30-60 days. And so it's an organization that is really excited for that and open to it and open to new ways of working.
Okay, great. And then I guess just kind of switching gears a bit, you know, last week you reported your Q1 results, which included your initial FY2024 net sales outlook, and that implies sales growth declines of down 5% to flat. So could you break down, Amy, maybe the key drivers of this and, you know, really ultimately how much contribution you expect from velocity growth, maybe increased shelf space, definitely want to touch on that with you, and new distribution channels?
Sure. So the guide implies a strong back half, returning to growth, sequential improvement. What gives us confidence in that? There's a couple of things. Number 1 is improving scan data. So same source sales, velocity over the last several periods, sequentially improving, but also now category leading. So when we look at the April read, Zevia grew faster than the category, so carbonated soft drinks as well as faster than the diet and zero segment. And so we're excited about current momentum. We're also bolstered by spring resets. Spring resets do a couple of things for us. It resets the in-store conditions to the planogram, which helps us to regain every flavor that should be on shelf, number 1. Number 2, in a couple of very important key retailers, we actually gained space. And then thirdly, it puts into more stores in America our top-selling flavors.
So that accelerates velocities across the board with fast movers like Creamy Root Beer and Vanilla Cola. But we're also bullish on marketing impact. And so we've just started marketing out of store last 4-6 weeks. We've seen some early indicators of a positive impact on velocity, and in scan data compared to rest of market and control cities. So we're really bullish on the back half of the year, accelerating what I would call as back-to-normal growth for Zevia. And with the change in route to market that you mentioned earlier, in combination with the productivity initiatives, which freeze up investments to drive growth, we're really bullish on setting the back half of the year growing and then really exciting growth in 2025 and forward.
Okay. And then you mentioned, you know, some retailers that you've gained space. You're probably not going to call them out, but can you give us a sense of the channels or?
Sure. So what, you know, where we've you know we've been challenged with our supply chain in the last year, and you know that our full-year guide is largely reflective of the volume impact of those challenges in supply chain in the first part of this year. And so one of the most important things that the resets, spring resets do is to put our product back on shelf where it originally planogrammed. But in a couple of critical instances with a mainstream conventional retailer with a national footprint, we just learned in the recent weeks of a 33% increase in space.
Now, that is not demonstrative of every retailer in America, but when you have someone who has Zevia sort of new to their business, added to their business, growing close to triple digits in same-store sales, say, "Yes, this makes sense for us to increase space in those sales," it, in those stores, it also sets us up to increase stores selling. So you can imagine, again, mainstream players, if you think about progress against Kroger, Albertsons, Walmart, and the like, that's where we get step-change growth. The natural shopper, the natural channel shopper loves Zevia, stocks Zevia at home, and buys everything that we sell. Who’s just discovering Zevia is the mainstream and conventional grocery shopper. And we're growing like crazy there. I think I mentioned on the earnings call 23% growth in food in the last 4 weeks and accelerating every 4-week period in our largest channel.
But where the upside is, is at mass and drug and value and then ultimately in convenience, where we can step-change the growth of the base through trial.
Right. And then in terms of some of this space, you've seen that actually set already, or have they just indicated the space change that they're going to give you?
A little bit of each. On the one that I was the national footprint I was mentioning earlier with 33%, that was just communicated. It's expected to be set in the coming weeks. So that's why we share this with you, to say much of the volume and net sales impact of some of that step-change is realized in the back half of the year.
Yeah, okay. And then longer term, you've made strategic shifts to prioritize profitable growth, and we've talked about that a lot, really in an effort to achieve profitability faster. So what does the longer-term top-line growth outlook look like for your company, do you think? And is it sort of in the low double-digit range? Is that feasible and to grow profitably as you accomplish some of the things you just mentioned?
Yeah, I mean, one of the things that I'm really pleased to realize with Girish and Seth for like 90 days now is that, the foundation of this productivity initiative is, yes, to get to profitability faster, but it's also to rearrange the P&L to invest in growth drivers. So Girish, maybe you could talk a little bit about the outlook.
Yeah. So, I mean, as Amy mentioned, we're really, you know, laser-focused on driving improved unit economics. And as we think about sort of the long-term growth rate, I would, you know, I think we're pretty bullish on the opportunity in C-store and the ability for DSD to improve our execution in our grocery channel. And so, you know, I think our perspectives are that, you know, long-term we should be in the teens, from a growth perspective and be able to deliver consistent profitable growth, as we sort of articulated on the last earnings call, you know, in getting to break even slightly positive in 2026 and really using that as sort of the launching point for that, for, you know, mid-teens growth.
Okay. All right. That sounds good. Then definitely wanted to touch on the DSD that you talked about. That really was the highlight, you know, of Q1 print; just was that announcement. Again, we've talked about that for some time. So you've entered the first phase of the rollout, which is great to see. Curious to hear, you know, why you've chosen a partner with really more than one distributor and then really what went into that thought process versus, you know, maybe trying to find a single national distributor. Is that still a possibility?
Yeah. Yeah, I think, you know, to a degree, anything is possible. But what's important for us is we know DSD will improve our performance in our existing distribution and our existing footprint, right, by accelerating volume, by driving incremental display, improving the productivity of our promotions, capturing lost sales by filling out shelves, and penetrating more portions of the store. And we could then unleash DSD to go and launch convenience and merchandise sales, which is everything about step-changing our user base. And so why would we roll that regionally? Well, we're thoughtfully partnering with some really best-in-class operators in the form of Columbia Distributing in Washington, Oregon, Hayden Beverage in Idaho and Montana, and then Bill's up in Alaska, which mirrors the footprint of some of our critical key account chains.
In converting those chains to DSD, first grocery and then with a focus in convenience, we can gain tremendous learnings from those executions to then take nationally. And not only to then frame the conversation for the next DSD partner and the next and the next with beneficial terms and a proven case study of performance, but we also can communicate with retailers to say, "Hey, with proper in-store penetration, with proper brand presence, and with proper promotional support, here is the potential of Zevia beyond the business that you've maintained over the past decade. And here's therefore why we want to step-change in-store presence with the support of DSD." So a staged approach is both supportive of the P&L evolution that Girish described as well as a tremendous case study for us to drive change within retailer footprint based on regional performance.
Okay. Remind us of the rollout, the phasing, because I know I'm also curious to ultimately understand the timing, you know, where you'll be more fully penetrated, do you think, into the C-store channel ultimately?
Sure. We're focused first where we have the highest Brand Development Index. So I think what we indicated on the call or maybe in the Q&A discussion was that we see a potential west-to-east type rollout. We do imagine executing in the back half of the year with more DSD regional partners than we have today. So I would imagine the possibility of adding another 1-2 regions, based upon the early learnings from the Northwest. But right now we're just laser-focused on executing in the Northwest and on getting marketing rolling to drive pull and really build brand heat and brand momentum, which is really at the center of success for singles as well.
But if you think about it, it's still predominantly in some of the existing channels that you're in, this DSD, and then ultimately the C-store channel would be?
Well, in parallel, in the northwest, we expect our distributor partners to impact our existing distribution in grocery, as you just described, and roll out independent convenience and selected chain convenience in those footprints. We are listed now in four regional convenience chains, and we'll get tremendous learnings from different merchandising strategies, different price points, different promotional support, and in the case that those footprints overlap with DSD, then also through the benefit of DSD.
Okay. And then what about, you know, the investment necessary, right, on your end really to support this? And how much, you know, can you quantify the initial investment, and, you know, how do we think about that flowing through the P&L?
Yeah. So, I mean, I think it'll flow through in a variety of ways. Obviously, there's the initial sort of gross margin hit, if you will, from shifting our grocery channel to DSD. There will be some increased marketing expense as we support the local markets and local market activations. And then there's a small amount of what I'll call incremental CapEx as we buy coolers and other, you know, sort of small pieces of equipment. All of that is sort of contemplated in our current, you know, current business model and our current cost base. And so we think we'll have, you know, we've sufficiently budgeted and planned for, you know, the necessary amounts to make it, you know, to make it profitable and work in our markets.
All right. All right. So that's helpful. Consumer insights, you know, certainly remains quite a challenging environment. So hoping you could touch a little bit high-level on what you're seeing from the consumer, you know, and really ultimately what the consumer's looking for today, you know, in terms of your business, you know, what's performing well, maybe what surprised you that didn't perform as well as what you had expected with some of the innovation that you've rolled out.
Sure. Yeah. So let's start macro maybe. You know, I looked through a couple of different things to understand both our opportunity and then the current health of our brand. From an opportunity perspective, there is a macro sea change away from sugar. I think we can all agree to that. The younger consumer is also expecting a clean label product. We have the fewest ingredients of any natural soda, you know, ingredients that you can pronounce. Naturally delicious is how we think about and talk about our product because at the end of the day, the tension in carbonated soft drink categories between health and taste. And Zevia sort of unlocked the idea that you don't have to choose. So it's really limitless enjoyment across usage occasions and family members. And that's the foundation of really a sea change in consumer preference.
We're leaning right into that and very well positioned accordingly. There's also tremendous category tailwinds now. Natural soda is growing. There's new brands on the scene spending a lot of money to demonstrate to consumers that indeed soda could be better for you. We're the most well-established and visible business but also affordable in this environment. It tastes great. We're affordable, and we're relevant across the usage occasions. These are some of the ways in which we capitalize on some of the macro trends that we're seeing. When we think about the health of our brand and business in light of some of those more broad consumer trends, I'm really excited that in the last two reads, we're growing not only sequential improvement but also leading the category in dollars but also in units. Why do I mention this?
We've taken now 4 price increases over the last year and a half. We're largely a fast follower. You know, we remain less expensive than 64% of beverages in America in the non-alc set. So we really believe that better-for-you products are not just for rich people, although as a society, we have really sold better-for-you products exclusively to rich people. So we're making this idea of a clean label, zero sugar soda available to just about everybody. And the fact that we've taken price increases in keeping with the market and are growing now in units overall and ahead of the category, I think it's just a tremendous foundation of brand health going into what some in the staples conversation believe are tougher economic times. Our consumer is less price-sensitive at all income levels.
They're prone to home stocking because, you know, a better-for-you product is a home stocking product if you think about the household buyer and thinking about, you know, kids and adults across use occasions. And so we think we're really well-suited to weather sort of macroeconomic fluctuations as well as lead in the growth of the category.
All right. And then in terms of driving increased household penetration, Amy, do you have a sense right now where your household penetration levels are today and then maybe how that compares to last year and how much better they might be?
Yeah. So, you know, this is a brand carbonated soft drinks are in 90-something% of households, right? And an American family can cut their sugar in half by switching from normal soda to Zevia. And so with that, we may not have 90% household penetration, but we can have 10 and 20 and 30 and 40 in time, just to demonstrate the opportunity. Zevia's been stuck around 5 or 6 points of household penetration. And there's a couple of different things holding us back, all of which are addressed in our plan. One is singles distribution. So we're 90/10 multi-packs to singles. Most beverage brands, certainly the growth ones that are coming out and capturing attention, are the other way around, 90% singles driving trial and then 10% multi-packs trading up.
Our opportunity is to get cold singles within arm's reach of the consumer, supported by DSD so you can compete there, and then supported by marketing. The reason I pointed to the CFO when I talk about marketing is it is the productivity initiative that frees the resources to be able to make material investments in marketing. If we go back to early stages in our conversation, expecting DSD to move faster, expecting the singles business to carry growth sooner, it really comes down to readiness within the P&L to go to DSD and invest in marketing. This is why we believe we're at an inflection point because we can now enable those critical drivers of our business from here forward.
No. That's encouraging. I think ultimately too, just having the right brand. I know you've spent a fair amount of time reformulating, repackaging, and you feel like the brand is ready.
Ready. That is the language that I would use. We've got a great taste profile. Each product that we introduce performs better than the last. So our fastest growers are our most recent entrants. Consumer research would indicate high levels of satisfaction of our proposition as well as our product. And then early-stage entrants into very mainstream categories are performing well. We're back to unit growth. We're driving dollar growth. It's really the perfect environment for us to step on the gas.
All right. Circling back, that sounds great. Let's circle back a little bit just to the spring shelf reset. You know, your shipments in Q1, you know, I'm thinking about your shipments in Q2 are expected to be a little bit pressured, which you called out. So how do we think about that in the context of the spring resets this year and some of what you just mentioned earlier about some of the gains? You know, how do I contextualize that?
I rectify that. Yeah. So, I mean, I think some of our peers have been talking about resets being a little bit later this year. At first, we thought it was just us. We've learned that indeed resets have been rolling a little bit later this year. With those, as I mentioned before, it allows us to gain back the intended planogram assortment. It'll accelerate the presence and growth of our fastest growing SKUs. And it will help us, frankly, gain share and capitalize on the tailwinds within the category today. The reality is though in net sales that manifests in the back half of the year. So softer Q2 guide in light of all the things in transition and in light of the outsized volume impact of the slower recovery of supply chain and on-shelf presence that kind of burdened us in the first half of the year.
But everything from marketing to velocities to unit growth and the spring resets all coincide to generate kind of the back to normal in the back half of the year and then exciting growth for the years to come.
Yeah. And as I'm thinking about space and, you know, you taking more space, and is it in general that, you know, exceeded your expectations or kind of in line with what you were hoping for this year, even though not all happened?
Yeah, of course. There's a couple of wins and a couple of losses. So I would say that the net of it all was as we've expected. We have maintained space in our home turf of the natural channel. And importantly, we've grown space in conventional grocery. And I think these are the sort of the bellwethers of the future opportunities to continue to grow space in conventional channels and reach a mainstream shopper.
When you mentioned growing space in conventional, where are you taking the space from?
Sure. Well, I mean, it comes from a long tail of the hodgepodge that is craft, specialty, natural, and all the cats and dogs that retailers don't exactly know what to do with. And so one of our opportunities is to take a category captain's mindset to help retailers organize this onslaught of better-for-you products into a way that puts beacon brands at eye level such that the rising tide floats all boats. And that new shelf set of a better-for-you set within mainstream CSD is a massive opportunity to gain a younger shopper, a shopper that spends 40% more than your average shopper, and then the brands associated with those and ultimately the retailer.
Thinking about some of the channels where your product is distributed, the food channel, I believe, is still your largest channel, right? And roughly what percentage of your business is the food?
You know, we don't break down by channel other than to say e-commerce is about just above 10%. But food is number one. And that's the environment where we grew 23% in the last four-week read. And so that's, we think, our greatest upside in addition to resources.
That's what I was thinking of in the context of that. Then that implies some channels are faring much worse. You know what I mean? And that's where.
I can talk to those too.
Yeah. That would be helpful.
Yeah. I think we don't really have strained channels as much as we do two different customer dynamics that merit mentioned maybe while masking the banner. In one instance, you know, club can be your best friend or your worst enemy. So club will oftentimes work on rotations. And so while we may be off-rotation with some selected club regions now, we're bullish on gaining new stores distribution for club in the back half of the year. And that becomes additive or kind of gravy on top of our expectations for the balance of the year in club. But that didn't help us in the first half. The other one to mention is one of the two mass merch operators took a private label strategy that introduced a private label soda at the expense of a couple of different brands, including Zevia.
We've already reintroduced some flavors that were discontinued there. We expect more to come. That'll be a slower buildback to distribution. That does impact our scan data in an outsized way.
Yeah. It does. And then in terms of the club, maybe not the larger one, but some of the wins, those are wins that you already know about or you're hoping for?
I'd say we're selling them in now and more to come soon. Our current communicated expectations do not assume incremental club growth.
All right. Let's switch to gross margins.
Sure.
Fun. So Q1 though, your gross margins were better, I would say, than feared, you know, just thinking about maybe lack of leverage from the top line. So you did, in the context of that, maintain your gross margin guidance for the year in the mid-40% range. So maybe touch on some of the drivers of that and then maybe the COGS buckets. Which ones remain particularly expensive?
Yeah. So, I mean, I think it's helpful to maybe provide a little bit of context first. Like the point of the supply chain transition that the company went through last year was to sort of consolidate co-manufacturing partners as well as consolidate warehouse facilities, which should have had an impact, a beneficial impact on gross margin. I think we've seen some of that. And so we've already started to reinvest gross margin dollars in terms of improved visual ID, more competitive promotional levels, which will be more closely aligned with our 2022 promotional levels. And then really sort of as we kind of look forward, we see a lot of opportunities to continue to sort of apply best practices from a procurement perspective as we look to drive down COGS specifically around some of our main input costs.
And so we see all of that as sort of an opportunity for us to continue to sort of not only maintain those margins in the mid-40s but also give us room to invest in DSD, which is why we're really confident that we're able to sort of pull all those levers simultaneously and really try to reaccelerate growth in the business. And so I think from a just pure gross margin standpoint, like you may see some minor fluctuations quarter to quarter. But I think our expectation is that we'll be able to maintain the mid-40s, which will give us the opportunity to invest, right, while still maintaining that.
Right. That will be my next question. But thinking about gross margins over the long term, is that still a realistic target, do you think, over the next several years, assuming all of this kind of plays out, thinking about further distribution gains, top line growth being mid-teens potentially?
Yeah. I mean, I think it is in the short run, in the short to medium term. I think the question just becomes, depending on how quickly we accelerate a shift to sort of a national DSD model, that may have some more implications. But in the short to medium term, based on the levers that we have at our disposal and sort of how we've paced the rollout of DSD, I think that is a reasonable target.
You haven't said when the national DSD or distribution would be? Have you? Is it in the next couple of years? It depends on how this goes.
Yeah. I think we've got a lot to learn. And then I think we want to support the expansion through the P&L in the way that Girish described. So I would expect more activity in the back half of the year beyond the 5 states that we've launched. And then I would imagine that 2025 would bring more. But we don't have a deadline by which we'd want to have a national footprint. And I think we're just thoughtfully growing and applying learnings as we go, especially as we gain there's a bit of a chicken and egg as you gain C-store distribution as well.
True. And then you touched on this, the plans to maybe step up marketing investment heading into the summer especially, which makes sense, especially as you try and build support around your DSD initiative. So curious, how should we think about the reinvestments into your business and ultimately improving the efficiency with your marketing and promo dollars?
You've heard me talk a lot about marketing through the year. So let me see if Girish will have some comments on marketing efficiency. And then I can add some color.
Yeah. So I think obviously there's two buckets, right? And I think from a promotional standpoint, I don't know that we're sort of reinventing the wheel on the promotions. But what we are doing is partnering much more closely with our retail partners and really trying to, in some instances, go deeper but less frequent. In some instances, experimenting with bundles and different sort of pricing constructs. And so really being much more strategic, much more targeted, and in a more thoughtful way with our retail partners. And again, if we think about just gross investment levels, it's really about being closer to our 2022 levels because 2023, I think, was candidly just the cut too far and just wasn't. It's not competitive. And so I think we'll do that.
And then I think separate and apart from that, we are really focused on sort of building out that marketing flywheel with an initial focus really on the digital aspects of it. And so you'll start to see a much more aggressive brand evolution, particularly in our digital channels and retail activation at the point of sale and in the markets that we're activating DSD because it's important for us to really drive brand awareness and support for that.
Okay. Not scaring me too. Okay. That's in line with you. Productivity initiatives. You outlined some impressive ones on your Q1 earnings call. And part of your focus is, of course, to be the profitable growth. So these initiatives, my understanding, is going to deliver between $8 million and $12 million in annualized savings starting in Q3. So maybe you could give us a little bit more color on where this is going to be driven from and then how it will flow through the P&L ultimately.
Yeah. So, I mean, I think ultimately these sort of productivity initiatives or restructuring initiatives get thrown around a lot. I think for us, it was really about accomplishing several things. One is how do we reaccelerate growth? How do we ensure that we have a pathway to profitability? And how do we support this DSD launch? So we sort of took that framework and said, now let's look at our P&L and really understand what is driving value for our consumer partner, our retail partners, or our consumers, and what is not.
And so I think we were able to really pick apart all the different cost buckets, whether it was COGS, selling and warehousing expenses, and SG&A, and really sort of realized that if we just sort of pivoted some of these costs, that we'd be able to free up enough investment both to invest in DSD, increased promotion, and increased marketing support for the brand. And so the way to think about it is it's sort of a third, a third, a third. A third of the savings will come from COGS, doing very simple things like RFPs for our biggest ingredients that we hadn't done before, selling and warehousing.
There's additional opportunities to sort of decrease our overall inventory levels, to decrease our warehousing expenses, consolidate some of our DCs, do one or two more consolidations of our warehouses, and then just really drive some efficiencies on the SG&A line using automation and AI to automate a lot of things that we're doing in the back office. So ultimately, we're pretty confident that we'll be able to execute on this. It's not a scenario where we're cutting to the bone. It's really simply identifying some of these really low-hanging opportunities and executing on them.
So it sounds like you have a fair amount of visibility and control. And this kind of dovetails into your ability to generate the sustainable EBITDA profitability, I guess, on a quarterly basis in 2026. And so as I think about that, what areas would be the potential risk to that or maybe the flip side, upside potential? I mean, is there any area where you foresee being a potential barrier for growth?
Yeah. I mean, I think the things that are exciting is that, as you know, we've invested marketing really in store. And to date, based on route to market, singles availability, and the structure of the P&L, or in last year, the lack of stability in supply chain, we've been unable until now to really get out of store and build brand. So I think the drivers of this brand over the next few years are singles distribution enabled through DSD and brand heat, just investing in the market in a distinct, exciting brand that people choose for emotional reasons and, yes, also because it works for them for all the rational reasons we described earlier. So for me, those are the demonstrations of the upside. We have a stable set of back office functions. We have tremendous progress on unit economics.
But obviously, in the third productivity initiative model, a lot of ways we can get more efficient with what we do today. We are funding our originally planned levels of marketing spending this year without making any changes. So the productivity comes all out of, let's call them, non-working dollars while we protect dollars that drive revenue. So when I look at the next couple of years, I just really outline I think the unknown is what is the pace at which we can drive singles distribution supported by DSD and then marketing efficacy. Those will be the drivers of our pace of growth from here forward.
Okay. We're getting close to running out of time as always. I feel like I have many more questions. Let me maybe touch on the performance across your portfolio. I'm thinking about the concept of just what we've been seeing in some of the scan data. Can you touch on some of the recent performance of some of the key products or brands within your portfolio?
Sure. What's driving our growth is soda. And that's what's also taking our focus, which is a choice, right? And so we've talked in the past about being a platform brand. And yes, our brand does stand for trust. Consumers trust that the mark of Zevia means clean ingredients, zero sugar, a product that you can trust, great taste, and relevant across use educations. But what we need to be famous for is soda. And that's where we're growing the strongest, both in terms of units and in dollars. What you'll see going forward is that we have an opportunity in energy drinks. And we have an opportunity in tea. And those need to operate effectively in the right channels and yield what they can yield so as we harvest the tea business in very focused channels.
And then we test and learn around our opportunity in energy but neither at the sacrifice of our focus in winning in soda. There are such tremendous tailwinds for the category. The idea of a natural soda has arrived. We are the number one consumer choice in natural soda. And that's what deserves our attention. And that's what reflected in the growth that you've seen over the last couple of periods, which I think is a little more reflective of demand. That shows up in our revenue and then in the back half. And then as we gain learnings from being, again, famous for soda, then we can make really selected investments to harvest the opportunity that is a great tasting tea product and then to compete in energy in the right channels until we're ready to be in the big channels.
Yeah. Good point. And then just finishing up, Amy, as you're sitting here and you think about whether it's your stock performance as of late and just the expectations you have for the business and everything that you've laid out and the growth expectations, what do you think is being misunderstood by the investment community right now?
Sure. I'm going to try to answer quickly so Girish can respond to that as well. He's been very helpful in the strategic thinking and also how we start to frame our story, which we're really just starting to tell in a way that gives clear milestones for a potential investor for the future. But net-net, what we really focus on is delivering. We have to be able to provide enough guidance and then deliver quarter over quarter. And the most important metric for us in the near term will be growth. It'll be net sales and growth. And we need to just continue to double down on the things that are working, harvest the benefits of our productivity plan, and continue to then invest in growth such that that flywheel is manifesting in profitable growth and exciting growth in the years to come.
I think we've set up the foundation to do exactly that. It will take time. I think there's a show-me story here. Our job is to execute. I think we have the leadership and the plan to do exactly that. Would you add anything to that, Girish?
Yeah. No. I mean, I just think, look, the company went public in 2021 when it was all about growth. There was a hard pivot to profitability both from an investor mindset as well as the company tried to make that hard pivot. Those types of pivots take time. And I think we're now at that sort of critical inflection point. We have a clean balance sheet. We have a sizable multi-pack business. We have a totally untapped C-store opportunity. We have a great price-value relationship from a consumer standpoint. And I think, as Amy articulated, we now have, I think, a very clear plan to not only reignite growth but get back to profitability. And so sure, there were some execution missteps in the past. But I think, as Amy articulated, we're laser-focused on execution. And we understand we need to the proof will be in the pudding.
We're confident we can get there.
All right. That was a great way to end. So thank you so much.
Thank you so much, Bonnie.
Appreciate you joining us. Thanks, everyone.
Thanks.