The Challenges of Commercial Kombucha Production #2

Here’s news about another kombucha brewery facing and overcoming challenges. Corey Wood, the CEO of Elixir Kombucha writes a postscript to their Year in Review on LinkedIn, noting challenges they overcame in 2023:

• getting rejected by 4 distributors: opportunity for us to dig deeper and make a more compelling case to the next distributor.
• getting snubbed by a contractor at a crucial moment during our facility buildout: led to us finding a different, trustworthy local contractor that has done solid and cost effective work for us. DM me if you’re in the Louisville area and need a commercial electrician.
• dumping over 2000 cans down the drain while making tweaks to our new canning line: ok, this one is more difficult to find the silver lining. But, we did learn A LOT about packaging equipment and that knowledge continues to serve us to this day. Now, we can run over 4000 cans 3.5 hours with only 10 rejects, which our crew happily drinks themselves 😆

In the moment, these things felt awful. But upon reflection, a different story can be told.

This is an addition to their main year in review update listing the many things they are grateful for:

We have so many reasons for gratitude – a new facility, bigger equipment, larger team, a community of investors, new distributors and retail partners, and about 100 other reasons!

It’s easy to get caught up in the daily grind, but every time we hear “my gut was a wreck before I started drinking Elixir” or “your kombucha helps me maintain my sobriety” we are able to take a step back and remind ourselves WHY we are doing this in the first place. Gut health and alcohol moderation are two topics that are getting much more attention and as healthcare professionals turned kombucha brewers – we are here for it!

A new year – and our favorite month, Dry January – is upon us! We have so many exciting things in the works for 2024 – new flavors, new retail launches (a few BIG names) and new partnerships. So stay tuned!