KOLOA, Hawaii, U.S. – KonaRed Corporation, a pioneer of the coffee fruit category and manufacturers of antioxidant juices and nutritional supplements from the unique and exclusive Hawaiian CoffeeBerry brand coffee fruit from Kona, Hawaii, is pleased to announce its re-positioning of distributor relationships in Hawaii.
These new initiatives include signing of Hawaii Foodservice Alliance (HFA) and Hawaii Coffee Connection (HCC), two major retail distributors in the Hawaii food and beverage markets. Along with KonaRed beverages, HFA and HCC will also be handling the Company’s line of coffees and powders and expect to build on KonaRed’s strong existing brand presence in Hawaii.
Sales in Hawaii have grown within the past three months, and the Company is now positioned for significant sales growth for 2016 in their home market.
The switch to HFA, which occurred in August, has already garnered strong traction and delivered immediate sales and shelf presence in large leading grocery retailers. Hawaii Coffee Connection was added as its sub-distributor in November to cover all of the vast independent and on premise markets in Hawaii and is now yielding new growth in sales.
KonaRed has historically been very active in Hawaii in all major chains, but saw a slowing of sales in the summer of 2015 which motivated the switch in distributors.
These changes are a direct result of the Company’s aggressive corporate initiatives from its new President and COO Kyle Redfield whose mandate is to grow sales through direct management of the Company’s distributors.
President and COO, Kyle Redfield commented, “We have re-established our strong Hawaii retail shelf presence with our beverage products and are continuing to add those same retailers for our coffee and dietary supplement products.
I have seen a dramatic increase in sales activity and our presence at leading retailers growing within the past four months as a result of the changeover to HFA and HCC.”
Chief Operating Officer for Hawaii Food Alliance, Rick Willis stated, “We at HFA are extremely excited to partner with KonaRed to affectHawaii’s sustainable agriculture efforts. KonaRed is uniquely positioned to provide health benefits to a broad spectrum of the population as well as keep local farmers and businesses alive for future generations.”
Redfield added, “We have been methodical about expanding in our home market and believe these new distributor relationships will be paramount for continued growth and an ongoing revenue driver.
We strategically decided to go with two distributors to cover all of the market segments that our products fit in: large grocery retail, food service, independent stores and specialty coffee outlets. This decision has allowed us to cover more ground than we had been able to do previously and will be a factor in our sales growth in the coming quarters.”
