From White Claw to Mocean Energy Drink: Tony Vieira on Building Billion-Dollar Beverages

SPEAKER_00 0:00

The Rand Randomness of Nothing podcast where innovation and conversation meet. I always get a chance to talk to inspiring entrepreneurs and people from all walks of life. This gentleman epitomizes it with his heavily executive and facilities management career and now entrepreneurial career in the brewing and beverage industry. Mr. Tony Vieira, thank you very much.

SPEAKER_02 0:19

Hi, thank you, Rashad. I I I'm I'm really um just thrilled to be on on this podcast with you and appreciate you spending the time um trying to get to know us. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Thank you very much. You know, I I I'll be honest with you. When I looked at your accolades and your background, I thought it was like, man, this is the perfect pick for the show. Because, you know, you went from, you know, you're the founder of Motion Energy Drinks, which we'll get to in a minute, but you obviously have a very highly acclaimed, highly esteemed brewing career from all the from the major, you know, distributors, core Miller Cores, and then you but you started right out of college, and then you became a facilities manager, and you've just had this long 36 career in the brewing industry. So can you talk about that, please?

SPEAKER_02 0:56

Yeah, absolutely. It was an interesting, it was an interesting start, right? I've what I've said is that my career has been nuttier than a squirrel turd, right? It's taken so many different you know twists and turns. My wife and I, my wife and I actually got married in college. My son Christian was born um a year before we graduated. And um he's now my partner actually in this business. He's now 37 years old. And um, but so when I was graduating, I you know, I wanted to make sure I had insurance. So I um I I ended up applying to uh um Anheuser Busch and was hired into their brewmaster training program. So I left my wife and kid in New Hampshire where we went to college, and I moved to St. Louis. I drove through the weekend. It was a Saturday, I drove through the weekend, started on Monday morning at Anheuser Busch in their um brewmaster training program. And from there, it's been a whirlwind, and feel I feel grateful that I had that opportunity.

SPEAKER_00 1:59

It's amazing that you know, you know, you've jumped into the real world because you, you know, you entered, you married so you know, at an early age, which is fantastic, and then you're like, gotta go, knew exactly what you needed to do to provide for you and your family. And which is one of the more ironic things of your story were later on in your, and we'll get to that, was that the emotion is now with your son, right? So it kind of life comes kind of full circle in a way. So while you're at in the brewmasters training program, which is obviously you know the highly acclaimed, highly needed one in that industry, what was that process like when you like how did you even get into the beverage industry in the first place?

SPEAKER_02 2:34

Yeah, you know, it's it's it's really funny, Rashad. I I um thought I'd work in their laboratory because I was a biology major. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:43

And so background.

SPEAKER_02 2:44

I sent my resume in um into the local plant in New Hampshire. They sent they ended up sending it to um Anheuser Busch in St. Louis. And because I had done some really interesting undergraduate research, I ended up at um I ended up re interviewing for this brewmaster training program. This is a funny story. They so I get to I get to um Anheuser Busch, I go through five interviews, and I finish my last interview with um the vice president of human resources for brewing international around the world, head of head of human resources, and he starts looking at my transcript, and the first thing he says to me is, You want to you want to talk about your GPA, which was not great. So I saw that, I read about that. Yeah, so I just said, look, you know, I'll be honest with you, Dr. Burnell. The only 4.0 I've ever gotten was in blood alcohol content, right? And so I think so. He laughed and and um it sort of you know kind of broke the ice because I think my interview was about to go south. Yeah. We went, you know, we went through uh the remaining in interview and then you know ended up doing some follow-up stuff in a couple the next couple of weeks. But uh, you know, luckily I got into that uh program.

SPEAKER_00 4:05

So as you're going through the the you know, your your your career through Miller Cors and everything like that, and what's interesting is is that with a very 36 career, what was it like seeing innovation then from now, right? Like what has the process been when it comes to the brewery? Has you know, as from a guy outside looking in, all you see is the beverages on the shelves and things like that in the commercials. But was there a change in the process, you know, that you got a chance to see up close in real time?

SPEAKER_02 4:31

Yeah, I mean, yeah, I mean, when you know, when I was at in the pilot brewery, we used to, you know, at at Anheuser Busch, we used to sort of see some of the new products that were being developed. We'd what we'd be working on them as sort of the hands, you know, um, in the brewery from you know, milling of grains through brewing and you know, finishing of the product. One of the first things I ever worked on when I was there was what they called clear beer, which would be the equivalent of what Mike's hard lemonade turned into, right? It's that product is actually made from a beer. Um so we were working on that type of stuff back in 1989 when I started at AB. Um and and I also worked on O'Dool's, you know, things like that. Then going to um like cores, and I had my own brew pub. So I did a lot of formulation work. Um, and with cores, I was sort of the quality quality manager for the plant, and then the assistant brew master for um the plant I was in. And so I was in charge of getting the formulation to work at scale and making sure that we could do it repeatedly. And so, you know, that that's that's a whole different sort of type of oh, I can only imagine.

SPEAKER_00 5:47

But that's when you're that's when your biodegree really comes into effect because you're coming from a background that a lot of people tip may not have had, so you know the science behind it and everything like that.

SPEAKER_02 5:56

Yeah, yeah, I think that's what that was beneficial for me. Um and and so it it it it it was a good fit. And you know, the way brewing is it's it's just complicated enough that not everybody can do it, but it's certainly not rocket science. Um, but it but it dovetailed well with my kind of background.

SPEAKER_00 6:16

Without question, without question. So when you decided to to become an entrepreneur, obviously after your 36th career, what my curiosity is about this in particular is because there's a trend, you know, with with less alcohol consumption amongst people. So how did you navigate that trend? And then obviously we'll get into your energy drink with motion with your son. So what was it like navigating the trends of falling alcohol consumption? Because it says right now only like only 54%, and then particularly younger people who are of age of drinking are now actually not drinking as much.

SPEAKER_02 6:50

Right. Yeah, so that was a can that was a consideration. I knew, you know, I I you know, I'm I knew I was gonna be retiring at some point. Um, but back five years ago, I thought maybe I'd start a little brewery or start a little distillery, you know, that that sort of thing. And then, you know, as we started looking at options for what I was gonna do, you know, in my second career, um, we we started looking at these energy drinks, especially when Christian sort of you know brought up that he couldn't find one that worked for him. And um so so we, you know, the trend for alcohol consumption had been going down. Of course, we're non-alcoholic. And um, you know, you look at that market today, it's a$23 billion market in the US. And wellness energy drinks is a really small piece of that. However, we think that wellness is gonna is gonna start to really creep up and be and be one of the primary categories in energy.

SPEAKER_00 7:52

What I thought was fascinating too was that you know you had this there's this ingredient called Shiso inside of your drinks, right? Because first of all, let me let me back up a bit. Motion, that's a great name. Like I love that name, I love the spelling of it too, because it just like rolls off the ton. I'm assuming it means motion in the ocean. Like I hate to assume, right?

SPEAKER_02 8:08

But yeah, yeah. So that name, so the hardest thing, to be honest, with starting a beverage for us was to find a name that didn't have any clashes with other beverages. And that was because craft brewers, if you think about it, there's like 10,000 breweries in the United States now. Everybody produces, you know, at least five beers. And so when you're when you're looking for a you think you got a great name, you start to to Google it, and somebody's got something that's similar, and you don't want to have that clash, you know. And so we, you know, we started to look at it, we started looking at what is a you know, what is an energy type of drink, type of name, and then we came, you know, being in motion, right? Right. Um, so then we said, well, how how else could we spell it? And that's how the motion thing came about. We use ocean salt or sea salt in our formulation. We we promote a sort of you know laid back, um beachy summer lifestyle. Um and so we thought it was a really good fit for us. In fact, one of our one of our um slogans um is a body in motion spelt mo C E A N stays in motion, M O T I O N, which is Newton's first love.

SPEAKER_00 9:24

Yeah, and so and when I looked at when you were talking on uh you know your podcast that you had, Ash said it, and when you were talking about CISO and you said, hey, we're not loading this up with all these artificial sugars, you're not having the spike, and then the marketing and the the market that you're trying to actually entail in was a result of, you know, and you told me this before, I would certainly would bring your personal information up. Your son was looking for something to obviously, you know, have a good boost without having that crash or that you know felt like you know, like a like a you know teenager on a sugar high, so to speak.

SPEAKER_02 9:55

Yeah. Yeah, it's true. We um we really wanted to do something unique. And you know, one of the things, you know, that differentiates us is I I'm a formulator. And so when we looked at, you know, one again, it was during COVID, so we you know, I was looking at it and saying, you know, maybe we should do something from an immunity standpoint, anti-inflammatory physical. Oh sorry about that. That's my board in the back. Um by the the um the the formulation started to be developed on a whiteboard. We said, okay, these are the ingredients we want, or these are the functional benefits we want, and these are the ingredients that get us there. And that's how the formulation transpired. And that's why you don't see things like Gorana or taurine, which is in probably 95% of the energy drinks sold in the US. Because we didn't photocopy what's out there, we started from a whiteboard and said these are the benefits that we want. And it included reducing the caffeine level to something we consider reasonable. We have 130 milligrams versus other brands which are 200 and 300 and even higher. So ours is like a cup and a half of coffee.

SPEAKER_00 11:12

Yeah, that's absolutely insane that there's as much caffeine inside of those things. It really is.

SPEAKER_02 11:16

Yeah, yeah. It's really not important. But the Shiso, but the Shiso, I'll just cover that quickly, is a Eastern Botanical um that you know is is used in food and beverage in Asia quite a bit, very well known on Asia, not real well known in the US. You see it a lot in sushi and some other things, but and we wanted to incorporate that into our formulation. And the rest of the ingredients, to be honest, were inspired by when I grew up with my mother, who was a little Filipino woman who was uneducated. Um Karina was her name. When I was a kid and we were sick, she'd she'd give us echinacea and zinc and elderberry and you know, those sort of things. And so when you're looking at immunity support, those are things that help with that. And that's how those ingredients got into this. Wonderful.

SPEAKER_00 12:11

That's beautiful. You know, it and it's funny because sometimes people will just crack one open and you know it without actually knowing what the what the side effects are. So the fact that you're actually taking that extra step to say we can promote an adult drink while also being health conscious for you and have some anti-inflammatories and reduce the caffeine levels, a very, very good thing. So, what's your advice to people who are trying to get into the brewery industry, right? Because it's such a dominant market, because it's such a there's so many large players involved. You had a varied story career in the alcoholic industry, and now you're growing into a very crowded space when it comes to the energy drink market. How do you carve out a niche for yourself and and brand yourself in a market which is surging in popularity?

SPEAKER_02 12:55

Yeah, it's um, you know, it it there like I said, there were there were cl I guess close to 10,000 breweries, most of them small, brew pubs type of um breweries in the US. And um really, you know, it as long as you're passionate, what I find about the the brewery industry is it like I said, it's there it's technical, but there's also this artisan type of um mentality, especially in the craft brewing industry. You have to have discipline around how to make beer and how to clean so that you don't have you know beer that's spoiling and that sort of thing. But the artistic side is also important, so it's this intersection of those two things. So a lot of people can get into um small breweries with the just passion and discipline. Um if you want to get into larger breweries, they're looking for brewing experience and typically they're looking for some sort of science-based background, um, you know, biology, chemistry, chemical engineering, that sort of thing.

SPEAKER_00 14:02

Yeah. And so here you are, you're in you know, in Massachusetts, or the company's based out of Massachusetts. And so here what's been your entry to market like, you know, as as being the new player on the block? What's been the response been? I've read some of the reviews on on Amazon, and what's your distribution model?

SPEAKER_02 14:18

Yeah, so so we are currently basically an on online, we have we we have we have um some um regional you know stores in in our area that sell in in a couple in some other places across the country. Um but we have what we we the way the beverage industry works is that there are specific times of the year where the where the retailers will reset, they call it, for the following year. We started late in 25, um late November, beginning of December. Um so we missed the resets for 2026. So we're what we're doing is we're focusing on on online Amazon and our website, um, just to sort of build an awareness, that sort of thing. We're getting ready for those reset meetings, which start in a couple months, and then plan to roll out in in regional retail establishments beginning in 2027.

SPEAKER_00 15:18

What's that process like? Because they have, you know, you you know, obviously I've seen, you know, when they say, you know, they have there's conferences, I'm assuming you attend or things of that nature, or or would be, and there's also uh um you know um opportunities to get your product to the front of the shelf. Is there certain placement, certain locations that are more prevalent that need to be needed for for your drink, gas stations, party stores, or it or is that not the market where yours would be? I'm just curious about that.

SPEAKER_02 15:46

Yeah, yeah. No, I think I think you hit it on the head, right? We so as a brand new concept, right? Um we're gonna for us, we need trial. And you know, consumers when they try don't want to buy a 12-pack typically, right? They'll they they want to buy a single. Um and so convenience stores actually are really important to energy drinks because probably um consumers over-index on buying energy drinks, especially as singles, at convenience stores. And so that will be a big push for us in 2027. And then the other packs that we that we serve would, you know, for instance, 12 packs and the variety packs would be looking at the the bigger uh sort of retailers and groceries.

SPEAKER_00 16:34

What's the what's the emerging uh is what's a large dominant retailer that's on the east coast where you're placed? And I only ask because like in in the Midwest here, it's like Meyer, right? Obviously, some there's Walmart, which is all across the country, but typically there's you know that regional one that spans across three to four different states. In in the Midwest, it's Meyer, which isn't in Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin. Is there a similar one, you know, in in on the East Coast? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:58

We we would, for instance, love to be in Stop and Shop beginning in 2027. Okay, uh Stop and Shop, there's a there's Hannaford, there's there's a handful of them that really would would be a good fit for us. We're also compliant, to be honest, with our formulation is compliant with Whole Foods and Sprouts, etc. And so that would be a big win for us to get into any of those regionally. Sprouts is not available host, but but Whole Foods.

SPEAKER_00 17:27

Well, I think with your varied background and your science background and your passion for you know satisfying customers and clients in a 36-year career, there's certainly not going to be any issues with talking from a from a place of passion and spirits. Um one thing I can say, because people consume beverages, you know, very, very they're passionate about what they drink and they're picky about what they drink. And I think your background is perfectly fit to have a very good entry into the market because you know you know better than most people that if you don't give people what they ask for when they're drinking and paying for it, how quickly consumer trends can change.

SPEAKER_02 18:00

Yeah, that's true. We you know, we um we wanna we're not here to force you know, force a consumer in any direction. We think we what we're giving the consumer is something you can't get and and another drink. And we know we're not gonna appeal to everybody out there, but there's enough folks out there that are looking for the type of drinks that we that we are that we want to make um that we're resonating really well with those consumers.

SPEAKER_00 18:25

What flavors are there?

SPEAKER_02 18:26

Um we have a strawberry guava, okay, uh blueberry pomegranate, a mandarin, and a white peach currently, and then um we will be launching will and we'll be announcing that this uh in a couple of weeks um uh a white peach as well. That's fantastic. That's fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 18:48

What's what's the size of your tea?

SPEAKER_02 18:50

We have white peach. We'll be launching Southern Sweet Tea as a flavor.

SPEAKER_00 18:57

Okay, what's the you know, I obviously you have proprietary information. I don't want to, you know, if you're if you can't say it, that's fine. You're distributing it. Where do who how are your partnerships of where yours are are are are are manufactured, so to speak, and in and I ask that only because I'm just curious like, is there a biology team? Is there a team that you have specifically that's brewing these for you to make sure that you're hands-on and get exactly what you ask for?

SPEAKER_02 19:21

Yeah, yeah. So we we go to um well-established co-packing a co-packing network. One of my roles when I was working for White Claw was that I oversaw the co-packing of the products. So I I was in charge of quality and I would I had the technical team that worked for me. So we would go in and enforce that they made our products to our specifications to our quality standards. Right. So I, you know, I'm that it's it's one of the things that is sort of my forte. So we're I've selected co-packers that we feel can give us, you know, that the type of quality that we want to preserve the profile that we want to give and that we our customers deserve. We are going to be producing um primarily in two locations. One will be in New York, and we we think the second one will be out on the west coast, and we're looking at two facilities on the west coast, right?

SPEAKER_00 20:16

That's fantastic. Now, not too personal, but what's it like having this company with your son?

SPEAKER_02 20:21

Uh it's great. You know, one of the it it's it's it's what's really interesting is that we are um half of what we do is just trying to make each other laugh, right? When we when we put this stuff together, when we started thinking about this, we we had, you know, we had, I don't know, you know, seven or eight, you know, tenants of what we wanted. You know, it had to be good for you. We had it had to be authentic. Um we came, you know, one of the bullets was funny as money, right? We we we don't want to take take it too seriously, so we wanted to have the brand voice um sound something in between a Ryan Reynolds and a liquid death, right? And so yeah, as you read, yeah, as you read sort of you know, the back of our can and so forth, that's why it would it's that way. So we we have a lot of fun with it. Actually, I'm gonna give I'm gonna give you a heads up on something, which um I don't know when this will um air, but for April 1st, we are gonna be releasing an April Fool's news release.

SPEAKER_00 21:22

Really?

SPEAKER_02 21:23

And the April Fool's news release is that we are gonna be putting out a durian flavored um energy drink. And if you're familiar with durian, it's a fruit that has a horrific aroma. Yes, and it's a Southeast Asian thing. It's a complete farce, but we're we're gonna do it just on April 1st and try to try to fool the beverage industry with this thing. Um, so uh anyway, I don't I don't like I said, I don't know when this will air, but I you know if it's around that time, it it would be pretty funny.

SPEAKER_00 21:58

I'll see what I can do to meet those dates. We're barreling down. It's amazing that spring is right around the corner already for us. Um, yeah. When you're when you're and I will do my best, when you're marketing an energy drink, obviously I know your time is very valuable. What's it like not marketing it towards this? You've really marketed this towards the adults, right? You know, you're you're you know, but a lot of the energy drinks are not, right? How is that gonna place you well in the market? And what has been the success and reception where people are saying thank you for finally getting something for me, as opposed to you know, somebody that is not in my age bracket, more of an adult drink.

SPEAKER_02 22:33

Yeah. I mean, you know, the uh energy drink market's been around for about, I don't know, 30 years, and they pretty much continue in mass marketing to the target has you know has clearly been males 16 to say 24 years old. Right. Yeah, adrenaline junkies, a lot of testosterone-based marketing. So, you know, well, the other question we had is what happens when you turn 25, right? Um because at some point, you know, Rashad, you walk into your, you know, your your office at Goldman Sachs, and you don't want to be carrying a neon colored, you know, energy drink that that's you know, candy cane, you know, flavored or something, right? Right, right, right. So we said, you know what, let's let's do something, let's be the adult in the room. And so because we think there are people that would graduate to us, but we also believe that there are a lot of folks that would never pick up one of those because it's just not that it doesn't meet their their personal brand, their personal image. And and what we wanted to do was sort of be incremental to the market. And we think we we think we're actually doing that.

SPEAKER_00 23:40

Well, I I hope that I can get some uh sample sent to me because I would love to be able to uh have an opportunity to have it on the show or you know, sample it myself, you know, and you know, if there's a way to partner, you know, I would love the opportunity. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 23:53

I'd love to send you samples. I'd happy to do that. Um and um happy to come back and talk to you again. I mean, I I've really enjoyed this discussion. Thank you. Yeah, you're you're um you clearly, you clearly um you know read about us so that the conversation went, you know, very well. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 24:14

I I always, you know, before I I interview somebody, I I always, you know, I never take for granted people's time, right? And to think that, you know, when people are willing to share their stories, share their success, and if they have a product that they put their passion and their heart into, the one thing I can I can control is my own preparedness. And so I'll never say I'm great, but the one thing that you'll never hopefully on wood and somebody will never get from me is that I won't know what you do for a living because that's that's disingenuous to your time. So I want to be respectful for everybody that comes on here in good faith. So I would I really am grateful for the very kind words. Um where can people find yeah, thank you.

SPEAKER_02 24:48

I'm sorry. Well, I just wanted to say thanks again. I think I think you you make it really easy to have a conversation, so I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_00 24:56

I I appreciate that. I always ask this of the guests, not because they need me, but because for the purpose of the show, where can people find Tony Vieira and and your wonderful products that you have from Motion?

SPEAKER_02 25:06

Sure. We we have our own uh website. It's called um you know www.drinkmotionmo-c-e-a-n dot energy.com after that. Or you can go directly to Amazon and type in motion and you'll you'll be able to get our products there. And um we'd love to to have you have your your audience try it, you know, buy it on Amazon in particular, and leave us uh whatever review you have, good, good, bad, would we'd love to see it. So we're trying to improve the product.

SPEAKER_00 25:42

You know, and I think that's you know, anytime somebody puts anything out there, you know, for public consumption, you know, you have to be willing to take feedback because it's always about the continuous improvement process. You know, just like this show is not for everybody, I'm not gonna get the best reviews, and that's okay, right? And some people think, you know, you know, I'm gonna have a great show. So, you know, and that's life, right? But as long as you're putting your best foot forward and you're open to feedback, that's how life gets gets better for you, the product you produce, and and the willingness to work harder day by day because it is so competitive. Podcasting is competitive, the beverage industry is competitive. So, you know, every day you can't take it personal.

SPEAKER_02 26:18

Yeah, it's so true. And you know, we um, you know, with we're also trying to keep a very honest approach to the formulation using natural ingredients, and so what a lot of folks don't realize is there's they're not a lot of options for um sweeteners, non-nutritive sweeteners, other than stevia. Um, there's some others that you can use, but they're not natural. So um, you know, anyway, we we we um but we're we want the feedback and we we will make adjustments as we need to.

SPEAKER_00 26:50

Yeah, and I think it's important too because you have a more informed, you know, consumer base than ever before. You know, everything's available on the internet, reviews are you know at light speed, and people can, you know, research every single ingredient that they couldn't have done, you know, even 10, 15 years ago, especially, you know, you know, this world of I want to know everything that I'm eating or drinking, and I'm gonna research it, you know. So it's very important. So the fact that you're forthcoming about that is wonderful. So I would personally love to have a follow-up conversation with you. I think this can go a lot of fun different places. I'm looking forward to getting those sample products, and I want to thank you for being on the show.

SPEAKER_02 27:26

Yeah, thank you. Um, I've really enjoyed the conversation. Happy to send those samples out to you, and those would be thrilled to come back and speak with you again.

SPEAKER_00 27:35

Thank you very much. Everybody who's listening, this is Rashad on the Randomness of Nothing, guest Tony Vieira with motion energy drinks. Please, when you get a chance, order them on Amazon and hopefully you'll see it in your local retailers soon. Thank you, sir.

SPEAKER_02 27:48

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 27:48

Well, that was fun.