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New Lyre’s CEO bets on US
Calirosa Tequila co-founder David Gimpelson is aiming to drive growth of Lyre’s in the US as he becomes the alcohol-free brand’s new CEO.
Gimpelson has joined Lyre’s as CEO after serving as the president of Calirosa, a brand he co-founded in partnership with singer Adam Levine in 2021. He was also the former executive vice-president for Casamigos Tequila for three years, prior to its sale to Diageo in 2017.
Gimpelson has taken over his latest position from Paul Gloster, who was promoted to the CEO role in July 2023. Gloster will remain with the business for six months to help with the transition.
Explaining his move from Tequila to the alcohol-free category, Gimpelson noted that the agave spirits sector has become a “little saturated” after its boom over the last five years.
But he stressed that he didn’t enter the alcohol-free business to “jump on the wave”.
“It was really a lot about the ethos of the [Lyre’s] brand and what they were attempting to do in an overall movement in the category,” he says.
“I’m just trying to go along for the ride and see if I can help fuel the rocket ship, a little more. So it’s really just about finding some of the missing pieces of the business and helping carry it forward. But the non-alc versus alcohol space, I do believe that there’s a true movement happening. It is real, and it’s here to stay.”
From a personal viewpoint, Gimpelson adds: “I love disruptive brands and disruptive companies, very similar to Casamigos [which] was disruptive at its time. Calirosa, with a pink Tequila, has been disruptive and is having a disruptive moment. But the non-alcohol movement is having a very disruptive moment in the industry, and so to be a part of the largest non-alcoholic brand, from the most awarded to being in the most countries around the world, is an incredible opportunity and challenge for myself as I embrace the new role.”
Focus on the US
Gimpelson will manage Lyre’s from Las Vegas in Nevada, adding that the opportunity for category growth is “the largest in the US”.
He reflected that the business has been “spread pretty wide” but has “grown exponentially year over year”.
Since its launch in 2019, Lyre’s has rapidly expanded to 60 markets across the globe and is the world’s leading independent non-alcoholic ‘spirit’ brand (according to IWSR figures cited by Lyre’s).
Of the company’s market strategy, he says: “If you only have a certain amount of funds to spend, the larger the footprint is to spend the money, the less impact you can have, right? So the business has, traditionally, over the last five years, gone wider instead of deeper. My goal is to go deeper within the markets that are performing the most or where statistics show that they have the greatest opportunity to increase sales and revenue.”
The new CEO highlights “traditional markets” such as the UK, the US, Australia and Canada as areas of focus, while the Middle East is an “impressive market” and some attention will also be placed on Asia too.
However, the US will be 75% of the company’s focus going forward. Gimpelson notes that the States was already 50% of total sales for the business, which “happened pretty quickly over the last 12-18 months”.
He stresses: “We’re not going to forget about the rest of the world, and we’re going to still champion the business that we have in the other countries around the world. But the momentum and the growth opportunity is in the US, and so transitioning the mindset of the business to not be everything to everybody around the world, and really figuring out how we can be a few things to a few people. And so really concentrating our efforts and double downing on our growth in the US is definitely the priority over the next 12 to 18 months.”
Citing recent acquisitions in the category (Diageo with Ritual Zero Proof as an example), Gimpelson said these brands were “doing some very healthy numbers just inside the US, you know, greater 50s”.
Fellow drinks giant Pernod Ricard has also shown interest in the category, purchasing a minority stake in Lewis Hamilton’s alcohol-free agave ‘spirit’, Almave.
Lyre’s will “slowly grow its baseline in other countries” but the way to “double or triple our business and revenue is through more penetration through the US”, Gimpelson maintains.
IWSR data also suggests the category is gaining more American fans. From January to July 2024, IWSR found that alcohol-free ‘spirits’ volumes were up by 29% compared to the same period in 2023.
Open to acquisitions
In terms of expanding the business worldwide, Gimpelson believes this should be the role of a “strategic partner that acquires us one day”.
“Let’s make that their goal, because they have the global footprints and the resources to support global distribution,” he says. “When you’re a startup business, it’s very hard to have global resources and global distribution.
“Let’s make sure that we’re working as smart and as efficient and effective as possible to grow the business where it is, versus worrying about opening up new business in new countries, because we just don’t have the finances and resources to support those countries.”
When asked about whether the aim is to find a strategic partner for the business, Gimpelson was upfront: “It has been a very clear conversation with the board when I was hired, that the goal of this company is to grow the business and ensure there’s an effective, efficient route moving forward, so an acquirer would be interested in our business over the next 18 to 24 months.”
It’s perhaps no coincidence that Gimpelson left Calirosa as it welcomed a new backer to the Tequila business. Last month, Amass Brands Group took a majority stake in Calirosa.
“It was an incredible journey for the last five years, and sometimes it’s okay to pass the baton to a new organisation and let them continue to run with the brand,” the Lyre’s CEO explains. “And so I felt it was a right time to pass the baton on Calirosa and look for new ventures for myself to carry the baton on behalf of somebody else.”
Streamline strategy
As the company’s new CEO, Gimpelson will also look to streamline the Lyre’s portfolio, which has boasted 18 products in its line-up including several ready-to-drink (RTD) serves and an alcohol-free sparkling wine.
He will take a “two-pronged approach” to streamlining, eliminating the “bottom three or four SKUs that are not selling as well as some of the core SKUs” and championing the hero products.
The Agave Blanco Spirit is one of the brand’s biggest-selling products in the US, and the company recently launched an alcohol-free Margarita RTD, which Gimpelson believes will become the “largest-selling canned product” for Lyre’s in 2025.
While Tequila is no stranger to celebrity investors, Lyre’s also has its own in DJ David Guetta, who took an undisclosed stake in the brand in November 2023. Pat Cummins, captain of Australia’s cricket team, is also an investor.
The new CEO is quick to emphasise that Lyre’s will not become a celebrity brand.
“He still has an incredible presence in European markets,” Gimpelson says of the DJ. “When he is in the US and performing there, it will obviously open up doors and opportunities to bring Lyre’s into the fold.
“Our intention is that Lyre’s will always be the leader and the front man in this band. David Guetta stopped drinking a while ago [and] started championing Lyre’s, especially our Classico Grande, which is our non-alcoholic sparkling.
“The intention there was not to bring him in and to then champion him as our leader in the organisation, so I would not expect cut-outs of David to show up at a retailer near you anytime soon.”
Lyre’s was founded in Australia by Mark Livings and has its corporate headquarters in the UK. Gimpelson notes that the brand will transition its global headquarters to Las Vegas.
Furthermore, it will have three production sites: the current facility in Australia, Refresco in the Netherlands, and the Green Mountain Beverage site in Vermont, US, for its canning capabilities.
All UK production has been moved to Refresco, while Green Mountain is the first US co-packing partner for Lyre’s.
Gimpelson notes that this would be a “major shift” for the business, which traditionally did most of its production and exporting from Australia. It was a “very inefficient process” due to Australia being an inconvenient location, he explains.
“One of the biggest issues with Lyre’s was supply and demand,” he adds. “Demand has been higher than supply has been able to service. We’ll now be able to maximise supply.”
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