L.A. Libations, a beverage creator, incubator and accelerator, has taken a major stake in Hi-Touch Distributing.
Hi-Touch has launched many brands in Southern California’s natural channel grocers, such as Whole Foods, Erewhon and Lazy Acres. The company, which will be called Hi-Touch Libations going forward, will fill a route-to-market gap for emerging brands.
“We have big plans for this partnership, we will leverage our big national retail relationships and our merchandising company Relentless Trade Solutions to be competitive advantages for emerging brands which we partner with. This investment gives emerging brands that we choose to distribute a compelling premium Route-To-Market.” said Dino Sarti, LAL co-founder.
“We started our beverage journey wearing uniforms for the Coca-Cola distributor in Los Angeles and we never got it out of our system – it is back to our roots in many ways. This partnership gives emerging brands a much needed premium route to market in Southern California.”
L.A. Libations has been involved in large beverage deals, such as Zico Coconut Water, which exited to The Coca-Cola Co.; Core Water that left to Keurig Dr. Pepper; and BodyArmor, which sold to The Coca-Cola Co. last year.
“In L.A. Libations we found the strategic partner that we have been looking for to rapidly expand and diversify our business,” said Chuck Casano, Hi-Touch co-founder.
“When we started Hi-Touch in 2014, we invested in building a foundation for the best route to market for emerging and national brands in the natural channel. This partnership enables us to rapidly expand our ‘best in class’ service to all channels of trade in Southern California. We have secured our new Southern California warehouse that quadruple’s our infrastructure and allow us to service brands to an incredible amount of new customers.”
L.A. Libations is a beverage creator, incubator and accelerator that operates a merchandising company called Relentless Trade Solutions, a marketing agency L.A. Vibrations and a Southern California Incubation Program called SIP. To learn more about L.A. Libations, visit lalibations.com.
Hi-Touch Distribution is a Southern California direct store distributor that serves natural food supermarkets, such as Whole Foods, Erewhon, Mothers Market, Lassens, Jimbos, Bristol Farms and Lazy Acres. Hi-Touch specializes in emerging brands that require high service levels to exceed partner expecations.
