Kin Seltzer marks first anniversary with strategic C-suite hire, national expansion moves

Kansas City’s Black-owned beverage brand Kin Seltzer is popping the tab on a new year of business this month with the addition of a new chief strategy officer and a new focus on expanding the canned drinks’ footprint.

Quincy Crutchfield, Kin Seltzer; photo courtesy of Kin Seltzer

Quincy Crutchfield, Kin’s new executive, comes with extensive entrepreneurial experience in marketing, branding, and creative design, successfully scales brands for new growth, the year-old company said. Crutchfield notably created KC Night Market, a shopping meets nightlife experience in Kansas City. 

“Now that Kin Seltzer is at a place where I have to leave and find some of these other markets to penetrate on my own, it was the perfect time for him to come on board as our CSO,” said Joshua Lewis, founder of Kin Seltzer. 

For Kin, Crutchfield deals with the day-to-day operations and sales.

“He’s done everything in the food and beverage market,” said Lewis. “He’s launched products, done marketing deals, consulted for startups, a little bit of everything. He knows this market and KC like the back of his hand.”

While Cruchfield holds the fort down in KC, Lewis is preparing to travel extensively over the next couple years to expand Kin Seltzer’s presence, aiming to distribute it in five to 10 additional states, including cities like St. Louis, Dallas, Houston, Austin, Atlanta, Miami, Orlando, and Los Angeles, he said.

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Organic, customer-forward launches 

Kin Seltzer’s main strategy for expanding to new locations is through a party consumer perspective, being intentional about the industry influencers they use to market the brand in every area. 

New flavors from Kin Seltzer; photo courtesy of Kin Seltzer

Instead of looking for influencers online to expand in those beverage markets, Lewis plans to do the opposite by reaching out to influencers actively engaged in the nightlife scenes of select cities, including bars, clubs, and restaurants.

“Going to bartenders, DJs, and some of those people that really drive traffic,” said Lewis. “A big thing for us is to get involved in some of the bigger chains that own a few nightclubs, bars, and restaurants and grow with them.”

For the retail side, the brand needs to expand organically in major grocery stores, already working on closing some national deals for this year, he added. 

Lewis wants the quality of the product to speak for itself, and let Kin Seltzer’s hype grow through the consumers spreading the word, he said.

“We’re super focused on being the cool drink that grows organically with the people. But just at a fast pace,” said Lewis.

New flavors from Kin Seltzer; photo courtesy of Kin Seltzer

New flavors and new cities

To celebrate its first anniversary and welcome the warm summer weather, Kin Seltzer recently launched a new product, Pressure, a strawberry-lemonade flavored hard seltzer. With more than 2,000 taste tests and no bad review yet, said Lewis, he’s prepared for a standout launch.

“This is probably the best flavored seltzer in the market; the flavor of strawberry lemonade is called ‘Pressure’ because that’s exactly what it gives when people drink it,” said Lewis, noting the taste inspires more than refreshment — but pushes people to try something new in life.

Lewis intends to broaden Pressure into a Lemonade line, unveiling a few surprise flavors later this year, he said.

The founder also was happy to report successful efforts to cut costs by 45 percent, thanks to a new production process that allowed the team to triple its output for less expense, Lewis said. 

With some national deals already in the works for this year, he sees Kin Seltzer going international in the future, confident that a lot of people can enjoy a quality seltzer with the message of community and celebration. 

“We’re not the first Black-owned seltzer in America for no reason,” Lewis said. “So, I’m just excited to see people not only enjoy the drink, but really understand the meaning behind it and what it stands for.”

“I think that’s a movement within itself,” he added.