Barfresh Food Group, a provider of frozen, ready-to-blend, and ready-to-drink beverages, officially announced its new 7.6oz ready-to-drink ‘Smoothie Carton’. This offering began selling into the school channel during October, is economically and ecologically friendlier than the original bottle format, and generates a higher margin as well.

The company now has two continuing Twist & Go, manufacturers, including one bottle and the new carton manufacturer, to offset the recently disclosed lost capacity from its third Twist & go, manufacturer. The Company now has a significant amount of available Smoothie Carton capacity that it will be able to grow into as it enters new regional markets and increases market penetration in existing regions. The new Smoothie Cartons and expanded capacity were initially intended to be incremental business; however, in light of its recently announced issues with one of its Twist & Go manufacturers, the company has already commenced transferring some of that lost smoothie bottle volume to Smoothie Cartons and expects to be able to have the majority of lost volume switched over during the course of the first quarter of 2023.

The Company has been working on several cost savings initiatives over the past year and the Smoothie Carton launch was one of those initiatives. The Smoothie Cartons were specifically designed to allow the Company to target the larger school districts as well as districts that are unable to use single-use plastics for sustainability reasons.

Riccardo Delle Coste, chief executive officer, stated, “I’m excited to announce that after completing all testing and trials in the third quarter, we began shipping the product to school customers in October. The feedback we received during the trials was very encouraging and we are excited about our ability to convert existing bottle customers were needed to also be carton customers, as well as win new customers. The product also fits nicely with the emerging trend in schools to move towards more environmentally friendly products and showcases how we are constantly working to meet our customer’s changing needs. Additionally, the new product was designed to allow us to aggressively pursue high-volume accounts.”

Delle Coste continued, “As part of our initiative to lower costs and improve margins, the Smoothie Cartons deliver on this promise by providing significantly increased margins that are more in line with our 2021 margin profile. As a result, this will accelerate the path to sustainable profitability and positive cash flow.”