New Zealand is not a side quest. It is the market where we learned whether a honey fruit soda turns in a real fridge.
Before we talk US expansion, this is what the home market forced us to get right.
Facing beats brand decks
Hand height in the cold door. Cherry-heavy opens. One lonely can teaches nothing. Stockist map: Flavour guide for stockists. Café setup: How NZ cafés add a honey soda to the fridge.
Reorder is the product
Trade is 12-pack cases, five-case minimum, GST invoices on Upstock. When a facing holes out, reorder that SKU. Platform ops: How we run wholesale without spreadsheet chaos.
Multiple doors, one SKU logic
Cafés, grocery, tourism venues, lodging, restaurants — different guests, same can rules. Wholesale hub: for retailers. Buyer brief: What’s hot for buyers.
Format discipline
Cans-first. Glass is not the wholesale path forward. Cans-first as an operating decision.
Honesty on the map
Hometown pins are named and checkable — Wānaka, Queenstown, and the rest of Find Sidekick. We take that same rule to the US: US retail without fake pins.
What travels
The sweetener thesis, the facing rules, and the refusal to invent distribution. The US site is sodakick.com. Trade there is Faire / Airgoods — same discipline, different platforms.
