Meet Pete Jokisch of TEAKOE in Elyria-Swansea

Today we’d like to introduce you to Pete Jokisch.

Pete, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Born and raised in Kansas, I grew up in an entrepreneurial family and found myself always creating new endeavors to pursue. I played every sport imaginable throughout my childhood and was always ultra competitive on the field. The one sport I gravitated to most as I went through high school was lacrosse and eventually played collegiately, where we won two national championships for our division and was awarded All-American accolades for my on-field play as a goalie. Upon graduating, I was fortunate to play professionally for a few years in Denver for the Colorado Mammoth, but I was more target practice than anything else as a back-up goalie! It was actually during my playing days at Colorado State University where I started drinking tea for its functional benefits and subsequently started blending my own tea formulations to elevate the flavors in conjunction with the natural health benefits of tea.

Like most food entrepreneurs, farmers’ markets were a logical place to start selling the product to get people’s feedback, so that is where TEAKOE was born! I’ve been in the tea beverage business for nearly 12 years, predominantly working behind the scenes by way of servicing the hospitality sector. Having been in the industry, seeing trends within the beverage space and having a better understanding of what consumers are looking for, we recently decided to launch our new RTD product. Rather than co-pack our product, we found the only way to produce our Fizzy Tea was to build our very own brewing/canning facility to ultimately create our unique beverage. I originally got into tea for the functional benefits as it pertained to my own personal health, but over the years, I personally started getting away from those origins and paid less attention on my personal health and more on the business. I found myself needing a fresh spin on tea to help reignite that original passion and allow me the creative outlet to offer consumers that same excitement. We’re committed to creating healthy daily habits while having fun through flavorful teas and our Fizzy Tea is the catalyst for this movement.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
We have certainly experienced our fair share of setbacks over the years. Most notably would be our past relationship with Smashburger… just as they were our biggest accomplishment (to that point), the contract with Smashburger was also our biggest setback. When we first signed them, they accounted for 90% of our overall revenue. We knew that we had to diversify our client base to get that number closer to 20%, so over the next 12-18 months, we worked diligently to balance that out. We had a clear path to achieving this because our program exceeded all expectations and we were taking the revenues from the Smashburger account and investing in equipment to support new business development. Unfortunately, Coke had other plans because our teas were cannibalizing some of their fountain drink sales and they essentially squeezed us out of the contract much earlier than anticipated by offering significant incentives to Smashburger to switch to their tea product. Within 30 days, we lost 42% of our revenue and were stuck with major capital equipment leases that left us in a really challenging position. It was at that moment we decided to diversify our product lines, extending into retail, and within 12 months through a “nose to the grindstone” mentality, we were able to regain the revenue total we had originally lost. Now that came with some significant expenditures but at least provided us a framework to move forward with.

TEAKOE – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
TEAKOE is a ritual for well being(s) and we believe something you consume daily should be made with ingredients that are good-for-you. People deserve to feel good, have fun, all-the-while going green! We provide this foundation by brewing healthy beverages that combine organic tea with botanicals, real fruit and the perfect amount of fizz in our Certifiably Green facility with 1% of every can supporting pollinators.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
My proudest moment continues to be the way we respond when faced with what seem to be insurmountable challenges. We don’t let these setbacks break us down (too much…) and we find ways to pivot and bounce back. There have been some dark days and expensive lessons learned, but I feel these make us stronger and more resilient. We continually explore new opportunities and operate best when we’re uncomfortable. Earlier this year we were recognized as one of Colorado’s Top 3 food and beverage manufacturers by ColoradoBiz and these affirmations will constantly motivate us to become a better company!

Pricing:

• Fizzy Tea = $25 (12/pk) on our website or $2.49 (p/can) at retail

Contact Info:

• Address: 4206 Madison St.
  Denver, CO 80216
• Website: www.teakoe.com
• Phone:  303.658.0935
• Email: pete@teakoe.com
• Instagram: teakoetea
• Facebook: teakoetea

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