Eastern Inspired, Western Desired
Opportunity is Healthy!• Sales of colas and diet colas have declined over
the last 14 years. Coke to spend 1B on Brand Building/Marketing 2017. • Coca-Cola has an Internal VC unit that looks for
premium brands to replace their revenue from traditional HFCS beverages.• 11/22/16 BAI bought Snapple for 1.7B.• 11/22/16 KeVitta bought by Pepsi for 500M.• 12/0716 Coca Cola MNA Division in Berlin,
Germany requested samples of Silk Road.
Silk Road HistoryFounder Payam Fardanesh blended his love of travel, culture, and Mediterranean ancestry when he founded the Silk Road Soda company. These mint and vinegar beverages, or “Mediterranean refreshers,” are 100% organic and are based off of a recipe that dates back to Hippocrates! From Beijing to Spain people are familiar with Silk Road flavors (uncarbonated).
Healthy and Attractive Attributes
Certified OrganicNon-GMOApple Cider Vinegar and Mint BaseNo PreservativesVeganGluten Free80 Calories Per 8oz Serving
Sample of Current Retail Outlets for Silk Road:
Awards and Accolades• Best Organic Product at The Fancy Food
Show Summer 2014 in New York City. 3,700 Vendors in attendance.• Recognized as one of 5 trend setting
companies at The Fancy Food Show in San Francisco winter 2014. 1300 Vendors in attendance.• Endorsed by Oprah.com,The James Beard
House, Yahoo.com, Huffington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, and the Sacramento Bee.
2016 State of the Business• SRS continues to garner attention from medium size and large retailers (Amazon Fresh,
C&K, Safeway, Costco, etc.)• SRS has seen interest from Silicon Valley. There are 10 key food and beverage
distributors that service Silicon Valley tech firms. Associated Coffee (the smallest) placed an initial 8K order in late October.
• Payam is meeting with the two largest Silicon Valley distributors on Wednesday, November 9th (Blue Star and Palo Alto Egg Co.). BOX ordered $3,500 their first month. Meeting with Facebook in 2 weeks.
• SRS is focusing more on distributor requirement than broker requirement to accelerate growth.
• We now have sufficient FG inventory on hand to supply a major retailer trial program and our on-going business
2016 Recent Developments and Opportunities• Landed Associated Coffee in October. They represent over 2-300
clients in Northern California including Google, Yahoo, FB, and leading VC firm. • Meeting with the top two Silicon Valley Distributors on March 9th, this
would give SRS 3 of 5 largest tech distributors in the Silicon Valley.• Jim Rose is developing new lower cost launch plan for Costco. Hiring
of Rose gives SRS opportunity to be Costco national brand. PNW has been delayed, Rose and Associates are currently pursuing NorCal and SoCal Regions.• Safeway, Amazon Fresh, and C&K Markets.
Distribution and Supply ChainDistribution: United National Food West, Inc (UNFI), KeHE Distribution, Tony’s Fine FoodsCrown Pacific, Real Soda.
Direct Sales Cost Plus World Market, HomeGoods, and in Negotiation with Costco.
Supply Chain:Yoshida International Foods – Co Packing Partner of Silk Road SodaYoshida has the capacity to bottle 250,000 units per 8 hours.
Management TeamPayam Fardanesh – Founder CEO, 15 Year Sales Executive (Oracle, Intuit, First Exit to Hill International in 2008).
Randy Jackson (COO) – 30 Year Beverage Industry Experience in General Management, M&A, sales operations, supply chain, marketing, and financial management. Coca-Cola, Monsanto, and Quaker Oats.
Travis Ward – 10 Year Veteran Whole Foods Markets, Grocery Manger.
Summary• New opportunities in the Silicon Valley provide a new and lucrative
revenue source. Tech companies give drinks and snacks to employees as an incentive, this will not only sell product but create awareness of the SRS brand.• Key hurdle is raising up to $250,000 in new investment capital, over
the next 6 months primarily for inventory, working capital and marketing for Spring 2017.• Costco broker change gives us best opportunity to fully realize
potential sales
Challenges and Community HelpChallenges• Competing against the large marketing budgets of “Big Beverage.”• SRS only has enough inventory to launch a small trial at Costco• Cost of Good Sold is High because we are not producing much, we are projected
to produce 750,000 to 1M bottles in 2017.Help - Networking• Ties to High Tech Companies (Example: Number of employees, location)• Ties to Distribution• Ties to Food and Beverage Distributors• Ties to Bankers and VC