Cuộc họp công bố kết quả kinh doanh quý 3/2026 của Zevia (ZVIA): Doanh số tăng 18.4%, nâng định hướng

Điểm nhấn chính

• Doanh thu thuần quý 3/2026 tăng 18,4% so với cùng kỳ năm trước lên 48,3 triệu USD. Trong đó, sản lượng đóng góp 14 điểm phần trăm vào mức tăng trưởng và giá bán đóng góp 4 điểm phần trăm.
• Lỗ EBITDA điều chỉnh thu hẹp xuống còn 0,9 triệu USD so với mức lỗ 1,7 triệu USD cùng kỳ năm trước. Biên lợi nhuận gộp tăng 80 điểm cơ bản lên 46,4%.
• Tăng trưởng được dẫn dắt bởi đợt luân chuyển hàng trên toàn quốc tại kênh bán lẻ hội viên, tỷ lệ bán hết thực tế cao hơn kế hoạch, đà tăng trưởng của thương mại điện tử và giá bán bình quân ròng cao hơn.
• Zevia đã nâng dự báo doanh thu thuần cả năm 2026 lên 177 - 179 triệu USD và điều chỉnh dự báo EBITDA điều chỉnh về mức từ hòa vốn đến lỗ 0,4 triệu USD.
• Công ty đã hoàn tất khoản đầu tư vốn cổ phần tăng trưởng trị giá 20 triệu USD từ GP Investments sau khi kết thúc quý, nâng lượng tiền mặt dự kiến hiện có lên khoảng 50 triệu USD.
• Ban lãnh đạo dự kiến sẽ ra mắt từ hai đến ba sản phẩm ngoài dòng nước giải khát có ga truyền thống thông qua chiến lược ưu tiên kỹ thuật số vào nửa cuối năm 2027, sau đó sẽ triển khai trên diện rộng hơn vào năm 2028.

Dữ liệu tài chính trọng yếu

Hiệu quả kinh doanh và vận hành

Kết quả kinh doanh tại kênh bán lẻ hội viên và doanh số bán hàng kỹ thuật số là những động lực doanh thu chính. Ban lãnh đạo cho biết tốc độ bán hàng trong đợt luân chuyển hàng toàn quốc tại kênh hội viên đã vượt kế hoạch nội bộ, trong khi Amazon và Walmart.com tiếp tục duy trì đà tăng trưởng mạnh mẽ. Công ty cũng duy trì giá bán hiệu quả hơn dự kiến, với tốc độ luân chuyển doanh thu tại kênh thực phẩm tăng 4% sau các đợt điều chỉnh giá gần đây.

Các hương vị mới và được cải tiến đã cho thấy sức hút ban đầu. Fruit Punch, Peaches & Cream và Orange Creamsicle đã cải thiện thứ hạng trong kênh phân phối sản phẩm tự nhiên. Cherry Lime, ban đầu chỉ được mở bán độc quyền qua Walmart.com, đã cháy hàng trong vòng bốn tuần và trở thành sản phẩm bán chạy nhất của Zevia trên nền tảng này.

Zevia đang ưu tiên các sản phẩm lon đơn nhằm khuyến khích dùng thử và mở rộng các dịp tiêu dùng. Công ty có kế hoạch mở rộng phân phối tại các cửa hàng tạp hóa ở Mỹ và Canada, được hỗ trợ bởi việc trưng bày tại tủ mát, trưng bày hàng hóa và các chương trình khuyến mãi. Ban lãnh đạo cho biết các điểm bán phân phối cả lon đơn lẫn lốc nhiều lon đạt thị phần tốt hơn so với các điểm bán chỉ cung cấp lốc nhiều lon.

Các sáng kiến phân phối bao gồm đợt ra mắt phiên bản giới hạn trên toàn quốc tại Target với vị trí trưng bày đầu kệ tại hơn 900 cửa hàng bắt đầu từ tháng 2, đợt luân chuyển hàng kéo dài ba tháng tại Sam’s Club trên 80 địa điểm bắt đầu từ tháng 3 và một đợt luân chuyển hàng khác đã được xác nhận tại Costco. Mối quan hệ hợp tác với DOT Foods nhằm mục đích mở rộng độ phủ sóng trong ngành dịch vụ ăn uống và các kênh phi truyền thống khác.

Chiến dịch hợp tác với Cardi B đã tạo ra hơn 1,8 tỷ lượt hiển thị, lượng người dùng hoạt động hàng ngày trên Zevia.com tăng 63%, số lượng người theo dõi mới trên mạng xã hội tăng ròng 13% và có hơn 70.000 lượt đăng ký nhận email. Mức độ nhận biết thương hiệu trong nhóm người tiêu dùng từ 18-34 tuổi đạt 25% tính đến tháng 9/2026, tăng 5 điểm phần trăm so với cùng kỳ năm trước. Ban lãnh đạo cho biết giai đoạn tiếp theo của chiến dịch sẽ tập trung mạnh hơn vào việc thúc đẩy dùng thử sản phẩm và chuyển đổi.

Dự báo của ban lãnh đạo

Ban lãnh đạo dự kiến tăng trưởng năm 2027 sẽ chủ yếu đến từ mảng kinh doanh cốt lõi. Về dài hạn, công ty có kế hoạch sử dụng nguồn vốn mới để đẩy nhanh tốc độ đổi mới các dòng đồ uống chức năng và chăm sóc sức khỏe, mở rộng kích cầu trên kênh kỹ thuật số và củng cố mô hình tiếp cận thị trường kết hợp. Ban lãnh đạo tin rằng các sáng kiến này có thể hỗ trợ nâng quy mô kinh doanh lên gấp ba lần theo thời gian, song nhấn mạnh đây là cơ hội dài hạn chứ không phải là dự báo chính thức.

Rủi ro và các yếu tố cần theo dõi

• Chi phí nhôm tăng cao đã ảnh hưởng đến khả năng sinh lời trong quý 3, trong khi các chi phí liên quan đến nhiên liệu và nhôm vẫn được phản ánh trong triển vọng cả năm.
• Dự báo quý 4 đã tính đến khả năng các nhà bán lẻ thay đổi thời gian giao hàng và mức tồn kho.
• Các hoạt động tiếp thị và hỗ trợ ra mắt các dòng sản phẩm mới trong ngắn hạn sẽ làm tăng chi tiêu, trước khi ban lãnh đạo kỳ vọng các sản phẩm cao cấp sẽ giúp gia tăng biên lợi nhuận theo thời gian.
• Kế hoạch triển khai các sản phẩm lon đơn đã nhận được xác nhận từ một số nhà bán lẻ cho năm 2027, nhưng ban lãnh đạo cho biết kế hoạch phân phối vẫn chưa được đảm bảo hoàn toàn.
• Các ý tưởng đồ uống mới vẫn cần trải qua quá trình thử nghiệm, đo lường và các bước phê duyệt nội bộ trước khi ra mắt.

Điểm nhấn phiên hỏi đáp với chuyên viên phân tích

Đổi mới ngoài dòng nước ngọt có ga: Zevia hiện đang thử nghiệm các sản phẩm tập trung vào hương vị, tính năng và các dịp tiêu dùng khác nhau. Ban lãnh đạo dự kiến sẽ triển khai từ hai đến ba đợt ra mắt ưu tiên kỹ thuật số ngoài các dòng nước giải khát có ga truyền thống vào nửa cuối năm 2027, với mục tiêu triển khai toàn diện vào năm 2028.

Tác động đến biên lợi nhuận: Ban lãnh đạo kỳ vọng các dòng sản phẩm cao cấp trong tương lai sẽ có biên lợi nhuận gộp cao hơn danh mục hiện tại. Tuy nhiên, các khoản đầu tư cho tiếp thị và ra mắt sản phẩm sẽ tạo áp lực lên chi tiêu ngắn hạn.

Chiến lược tiếp cận thị trường kết hợp: Zevia dự kiến sẽ đầu tư thêm ở mức khiêm tốn vào mạng lưới giao hàng trực tiếp đến cửa hàng tại khu vực miền Tây, hỗ trợ trưng bày hàng hóa qua bên thứ ba tại các thị trường không áp dụng DSD và tiếp tục mở rộng thương mại điện tử. Ban lãnh đạo ghi nhận tỷ lệ giữ chân khách hàng và tỷ suất sinh lời trên vốn đầu tư khả quan từ các hoạt động kỹ thuật số gần đây.

Các động lực tăng trưởng trong quý 3: Trong 18 điểm phần trăm tăng trưởng doanh số, có 14 điểm đến từ sản lượng và 4 điểm đến từ giá bán. Các yếu tố tích cực chính vượt kế hoạch của ban lãnh đạo là tỷ lệ bán hết thực tế tại kênh bán lẻ hội viên mạnh hơn, sự tăng trưởng của kênh kỹ thuật số và các hoạt động khuyến mãi ít hơn dự kiến.

Toàn văn biên bản cuộc họp công bố kết quả kinh doanh

Toàn văn cuộc gọi công bố kết quả kinh doanh

Phần trình bày của ban lãnh đạo

Operator

Greetings, and welcome to the Zevia PBC Third Quarter's Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions]

As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce Jean Fontana with Investor Relations.

Jean Fontana

Thank you. You may begin. Thank you, and welcome to Zevia's Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. On today's call are Alexandre Ruberti, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Girish Satya, Chief Financial Officer and Principal Accounting Officer.

By now, everyone should have received access to the company's third quarter 2026 earnings press release and investor presentation made available this afternoon on the Investor Relations section of Zevia's website at investors.zevia.com. Before we begin, please note that all financial information presented on today's call is unaudited. Certain comments made on this call include forward-looking statements, which are subject to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

These forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and beliefs concerning future events and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in these forward-looking statements. Please refer to today's press release and other filings with the SEC for a detailed discussion of the risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements made today. During the call, we will reference certain non-GAAP financial measures as we describe business performance.

The SEC filings as well as the earnings release and presentation slides that accompany today's comments and reconciliations of the non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are all available on our website at investors.zevia.com.

And now I'd like to turn the call over to Alexandre.

Alexandre Ruberti

Thank you for joining us today for our third quarter 2026 earnings conference call. I will begin with a brief overview of our third quarter results, followed by an update on the key focus areas we outlined last quarter and a discussion of the GP equity investment funding the strategic reset we outlined in our recent press release. Our third quarter results mark an important step forward for Zevia. We delivered strong topline growth, meaningfully outperformed our expectations on adjusted EBITDA, and saw encouraging proof points across the key focus areas we believe set us up to unlock the next phase of growth for the company.

Net sales increased 18% to $48 million, while our adjusted EBITDA loss of $900 thousand was considerably better than our expectations. Our strong year-to-date performance reflecting net sales growth of 13% and adjusted EBITDA of $600 thousand, combined with approximately $30 million of cash on the balance sheet in addition to $20 million in funding from GP Investments, reinforces our confidence in our outlook and ability to accelerate the trajectory of the business.

Our robust top line growth reflects solid performance within the club channel following another national rotation, as well as strength in both Amazon and Walmart.com. During the quarter we saw encouraging early signs that our better-for-you soda portfolio is resonating. Our enhanced classic and new more fruity flavors along with our package refresh have received positive feedback from both retailers and consumers. In addition, the 4% increase in dollar velocity in the food channel suggests acceptance of our recent price actions.

Flavors such as Fruit Punch, Peaches & Cream and Orange Creamsicle are hitting the mark, with improved sales rankings within the natural channel, our most mature distribution channel. Cherry Lime has emerged as another proof point of our success. Initially launched as a Walmart.com exclusive, the limited-time offering sold out within four weeks and became the #1 Zevia product at Walmart.com.

This success has generated strong retailer interest, which we believe opens the door to incremental placement and broader innovation opportunities as we build our 2027 pipeline.

Now turning to highlights from the key focus areas we shared on our last call, including enhancing our go-to-market strategy and sharpening our identity.

First, our go-to-market strategy, which remains our largest opportunity to create long-term value. As we discussed on our last call, we see three primary levers to improve reach and productivity: Building our singles platform, expanding distribution, and driving stronger instore execution. Starting with singles, a top priority and representing one of the most compelling growth opportunities in our business to drive trial and household penetration.

With an improved singles offering across format, price point and flavor assortment, we see an opportunity to accelerate trial, attract new consumers and expand use occasions. During the quarter, we worked closely with retail partners on plans to meaningfully expand singles distribution over the next several quarters, including additional grocery doors across the U.S. and Canada, while increasing visibility within the natural channel.

We plan to support this expansion with improved merchandising, strategic promotions, and cold placement.

Our objective is clear: make Zevia easier to find, easier to buy, and easier to choose. We believe this can accelerate consumer trial and use occasions as well as drive higher conversion into larger multi-pack purchases.

The second component of our go-to-market strategy is distribution expansion. We continue to see meaningful whitespace opportunities across mass, club, value, foodservice, and e-commerce channels. We are re-entering both Target and Sam's Club with test programs. At Target, we will launch a national limited edition offering that will include end-cap placement in more than 900 stores beginning in February. At Sam's Club, we will participate in a three-month rotation beginning in March across 80 locations. Beyond traditional retail, we recently partnered with DOT Foods to expand Zevia's reach into non-traditional channels, including foodservice. We believe that increasing availability wherever consumers shop and consume beverages with food creates additional opportunities to build awareness and drive trial.

Our third priority is improving productivity within existing doors. We have ample opportunity to drive improved productivity through better and more consistent in-store execution. This includes strengthening our approach to merchandising, category management, and retail oversight.

First, we are building upon our DSD initiatives with a deeper internal team and more robust engagement with our Western DSD network.

Second, we have entered into new partnerships with merchandising agencies to strengthen shelf placement and display execution across the most important regions outside of our DSD network. We believe that through enhancements to our DSD strategy, paired with these new partnerships, we can drive higher velocity over time.

Moving to our second strategic focus area, sharpening our brand identity and scaling our brand. We have made meaningful progress in executing a disciplined, ROI-driven marketing strategy, using a full-funnel scorecard to connect brand-building activity with consumer engagement and sales.

Looking ahead, we plan to place greater emphasis on retailer activation and engagement, with more investment in digital platforms such as Amazon, Walmart, and Instacart, and the launch of our new flavor in collaboration with Cardi B in January. Building on that, we are pleased with our partnership with Cardi B. Although the campaign is still in its early stages, its initial awareness-focused phase delivered strong top-of-funnel results, including more than 1.8 billion impressions, 63% increase in daily active Zevia.com users, a 13% increase in net new social followers, and more than 70,000 email sign-ups.

We are encouraged to see the improved brand awareness metrics with a five-point increase to 25% as of September 2026, post the Cardi B campaign, versus the same period last year within the 18-34 year-old age group. Our efforts to appeal to a younger consumer are bearing fruit. While it is too soon to quantify conversion and retailer velocity, retailers responded positively and believe the campaign will help support a successful 2027 reset. Future phases will shift toward the launch of a flavor collaboration with Cardi B, to excite fans to try Zevia and support distribution growth.

Now turning to our longer-term strategic objectives: Over the last several quarters, we have strengthened our product portfolio, started to sharpen our brand positioning, improved our go-to-market capabilities, and enhanced our financial flexibility. While we still see a long runway ahead within our core better-for-you soda business, we also see significant opportunity to expand into larger, faster growing categories across the better-for-you beverage market.

With that opportunity in mind, over the last year we evaluated a range of strategic options and ultimately closed a $20 million growth equity investment with GP Investments. The partnership brings not only capital but also access to strategic resources and operational expertise at the board level that can help accelerate our growth agenda over the coming years.

Our strategic plan is centered on three growth levers.

First, accelerate product innovation. We see a meaningful opportunity to build upon our core better-for-you soda business to reach more consumers, more usage occasions and new channels. With additional capital, we believe we have the potential to triple the size of our business over time. Going forward, we intend to be more proactive and faster in bringing complementary products and brands to market, leveraging the learnings from the Zevia reboot, our existing distribution network and scalable supply chain infrastructure. At the same time, we will continue to strengthen our core better for you soda offering. Taken together, we believe these initiatives can meaningfully broaden our addressable market, diversify our growth drivers, and position us to respond more quickly to evolving consumer demand.

Second, scale a digital-first consumer ecosystem. Supplementing brand level investments in new product offerings, we will build a targeted digital marketing plan to drive consumer engagement and demand creation across the portfolio. We plan to prioritize spend in lower- and mid-funnel digital channels where we believe we can gain greater efficiencies and strong ROI. This includes increased use of creators and microinfluencers to reach our target audience. Through deeper cultural relevance and expanding our share of conversation, we believe we can drive engagement across a broader consumer set, particularly among younger consumers. By pairing a stronger innovation pipeline with more effective demand generation, we believe we can accelerate awareness and trial, deepen engagement and create a more powerful platform for long-term growth.

Third, execute a hybrid go-to-market model. We believe sustainable growth requires greater visibility, broader distribution, and easier purchase occasions. Building on my comments earlier, we will leverage our distribution network to build our market presence in new products. This includes continued investment in our proven West Coast DSD infrastructure, strategic merchandising support in non-DSD markets, expanded e-commerce and foodservice capabilities, and a scaled singles strategy designed to drive discovery, trial, and repeat purchase.

In closing, we believe Zevia is entering an exciting new chapter. We have strengthened our foundation, begun to see encouraging early proof points across our focus areas, and now have additional capital and strategic support to accelerate our ambitions.

Our vision is simple: to make our portfolio the most relevant and accessible better-for-you beverage brand for the next generation of consumers and maximize value to the shareholders. As we move into 2027, our focus will shift from simply being available to becoming impossible to ignore through differentiated innovation, superior taste, stronger cultural relevance, and best-in-class retail execution.

We look forward to updating you on our progress in the months ahead. With that, I'll turn the call over to Girish.

Girish Satya

Thank you, Alexandre. Good afternoon, everyone and thanks for joining our call today. Our strong third quarter results reflect growing momentum across the business and meaningful progress against our key priorities, with both net sales and adjusted EBITDA exceeding our expectations. As a result of the momentum in our business and the progress we are making on strengthening our foundation in addition to lower than previously expected fuel costs, we are raising our full year net sales and adjusted EBITDA guidance, which I will speak to in more detail shortly.

This stronger foundation combined with the equity investment in our business is expected to help us accelerate investment behind our next phase of growth. The additional resources position us to more intentionally accelerate product innovation with a focus on the functional beverage space, scale our digital first ecosystem and execute a hybrid go-to-market strategy.

Turning to our financial results in more detail. Third quarter net sales increased 18.4% to $48.3 million, primarily driven by our national rotation in the club channel and strength in our ecommerce channels. We were also pleased to see higher net average selling price reflecting acceptance of pricing actions taken last quarter. As expected, the reset of our club business created some fluctuations in growth over the past several quarters. However, with those transitions largely behind us, we expect the club channel to contribute more consistently going forward.

Gross margin was 46.4%, an 80-basis point increase from 45.6% in the prior year quarter. As a reminder, in last year's third quarter we recorded an $800,000 write down related to obsolete inventory associated with the package redesign.

In our third quarter of 2026, we were impacted by higher aluminum costs as previously expected. Selling and marketing expenses were $15.1 million or 31.3% of net sales in the third quarter of 2026, compared to $12.7 million or 31.0% of net sales in the third quarter of 2025.

Breaking it down, selling expense was $8.0 million or 16.5% of net sales in the third quarter of 2026, compared to $7.7 million or 18.9% of net sales in the third quarter of 2025. The increase was largely driven by higher freight expense related to increased volumes and elevated fuel costs, partially offset by savings from warehousing efficiencies. Fuel costs were lower than initially expected by approximately $900 thousand.

Marketing expense was $7.2 million or 14.8% of net sales in the third quarter of 2026, compared to $4.9 million or 12.1% of net sales in the third quarter of 2025. As anticipated, marketing expense as a percentage of sales increased year over year, reflecting targeted investments to broaden brand reach and elevate consumer awareness, particularly through the launch of our Cardi B campaign.

As Alexandre mentioned, we are seeing strong engagement and an increase in brand awareness, which bodes well for our future revenue opportunity. General and administrative expenses were $8.3 million or 17.1% of net sales in the third quarter of 2026, compared to $7.7 million or 18.8% of net sales in the third quarter of 2025. The increase was driven largely by higher compensation-related expenses, including higher accrued variable compensation, partially offset by lower professional services costs.

For the third quarter, adjusted EBITDA loss was $900,000 compared to an adjusted EBITDA loss of $1.7 million in the prior year period.

Turning to our balance sheet, we ended the quarter with approximately $29.5 million in cash and cash equivalents and have an undrawn revolving credit line of $20 million. Subsequent to the third quarter we closed the GP equity investment and will have cash on hand of approximately $50 million.

Now turning to our outlook. For the full year, we are raising our 2026 net sales guidance to a range of $177 to $179 million, reflecting approximately 10% growth at the midpoint of the range. As a reminder, the discontinuation of tea impacted our net sales outlook by approximately 2%.

Turning to profitability, we are revising our full year 2026 adjusted EBITDA outlook to a range of breakeven to negative $400 thousand. This outlook now reflects approximately $8.5 million in incremental costs related to the surge in fuel prices and higher aluminum related costs, versus our prior expectation of $11 million. We remain on track to achieve $3 million to $5 million in additional costs savings beginning in Q1 2027 that we plan to re-invest in our strategic reset.

Turning to the fourth quarter, we expect net sales of between $37.5 million to $39.5 million, reflecting approximately 2% growth at the midpoint of the range. The fourth quarter is typically the seasonal low for the business and our guidance reflects the potential impact of retailer adjustments to the timing of shipments and inventory levels. We expect fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA loss to be between $0.5 million and $0.9 million. This assumes gross margin remains approximately flat to last year.

In closing, we believe this is a pivotal moment for the company. We delivered a strong quarter, raised our outlook, and announced a growth equity investment that enhances our ability to accelerate the execution of our strategic reset. With a stronger foundation and additional liquidity, we believe we are well positioned to capture the opportunities that lie ahead and create sustainable long-term value.

I will now turn it over to the operator to begin Q&A. Operator?

Operator

[Operator Instructions]

Our first question comes from Jim Salera with Stephens.

Phần hỏi đáp

James Salera

I wanted to ask about some of the innovation you highlighted because if I'm looking in the deck here, you guys seem like you talk to a much larger TAM than maybe the company has spoke to in the past and maybe some hints at obviously, innovation outside of traditional soda. I know in the past, obviously, you have the tea lineup and you still have a relatively small energy business. Can you just walk us through the thoughts on how much we should anticipate the innovation to be outside of traditional CSD and what that might look like? And just any guardrails you can give us on the time frame? Like is that a 2027 event? Or is this just more setting the stage for that this is optional in the future?

Alexandre Ruberti

Super. Thanks, Jim, for the question. Of course, I can clarify that. First of all, I think the approach of innovation for us is going to be much more consumer led. I think developing products that can address the needs of taste, functionality and different occasions. In general, we do believe that consumers doesn't buy occasion doesn't buy functionality, right, they buy the occasions.

That's why I think that we have to diversify a little bit more. I think taking an advantage as well in terms of our brand and the clear ingredients that we have, we are growing digital engagement and expanding distribution and paired with this new innovation, we can make some kind of acceleration in the growth.

And that's one part. In the second part, what we can expect for next year, what we are doing is we're bringing between two and three new products we are planning to launch in the second half of 2027 in a digital first and then a full rollout will be in 2028.

Girish Satya

Just to be clear, those would be not two new flavor extensions or something, but something outside of traditional CSD.

Alexandre Ruberti

That's correct.

James Salera

Okay. Great. And then just as one other follow-up, encouraging to hear about reentering Target and rotation at Sam's. Can you just help us size up the opportunities? You spent a lot of time talking about singles, but maybe the balance of growth between singles and what I assume at Target and Sam's would be more kind of the traditional multipack offering.

Alexandre Ruberti

Yes, we are not in a condition now to give any kind of a guide, but I'm going to picture what we have so far. First of all, we are going to start to roll out of singles in the first quarter. We do have the confirmation of one more rotation in Costco. We have a test that we're going to run in Sam's Club in the first quarter as well. Also, we have a limited time offering that we're going to launch in Target. That's in terms of expanding distribution.

In terms of innovation, in the beginning of the year, we're going to have the launch of the collaboration with CAR-T, which will allow us a lot of execution and also execution of singles. I think if you come back to the earnings call, the last earnings call that we said in terms of the four priorities, we are walking the talk what to say and that we are creating this kind of a very, very strong foundation for 2027. And in 2027, to be very transparent, we will grow the core mainly.

Operator

Our next question comes from Andrew Strelzik with BMO Capital Markets.

Andrew Strelzik

My first one, I wanted to ask about the marketing strategy and better understand how that's evolving. So the company has been pursuing some more high-profile tie-ins and things like that to grow awareness. And now you're talking about the lower to middle part of the funnel. Should we think about that in addition to what has already kind of been going on? Is that in some ways, replacing it? And more broadly, how you think about the right level of marketing spend for the business over the next 12 to 24 months?

Alexandre Ruberti

Yes, Andrew, let me explain in terms of the strategy first. If you go back in terms of Acad, we said that we're going to use this product in order to generate more awareness and which we are delivering, right, in terms of the impressions and the increase in our user activity in ziva.com, more e-mail sign-ups and everything is coming together. And now it's time to drive this kind of awareness into the funnel. For us, we will be a little bit in terms of the new product that we're going to launch with her and also the investment in a digital ecosystem that we are calling because we need to involve much more creators and influencers in order to bring in new consumers into the brand. This is how we are planning in terms of 2027.

Andrew Strelzik

Okay. And more broadly, across the kind of holistic plan that is going to be funded by the strategic investment. How should we think about the margin implications kind of over the near term, but also more importantly, kind of over the medium term guidance, just directionally, how should we think about that?

Girish Satya

Yes, absolutely. And I think if you zoom out for a second, what we've really been focused on is driving improved unit economics in the business. And I think as we look at innovation in the future, the new innovation will be accretive from a unit economics perspective, i.e., gross margins will be accretive to our current gross margins. But of course, part of the reason we raised the capital was in order to set these new product families up for success, we need to invest behind them. So what you'll see in the short run is really more spend on marketing and support for these product launches. And in the long run, that will be accretive to margins as we'll be launching slightly more premium product families.

Operator

Our next question comes from Eric Des Lauriers with Craig-Hallum.

Eric Des Lauriers

I wanted to just drill in a bit more on singles. So I appreciate the call out of launching more singles in Q1. Just wondering if you feel like you sort of have all the capabilities, operations that you need to sort of get singles to where you want them to be? Or what kind of investment or sort of change in operations is required for you to get singles capabilities to where you want it?

Alexandre Ruberti

No, that's a great question. I think in terms of singles, as we mentioned before, singles is the entry point for new consumers into the brand. And we were a brand that we launched products with a multipack since the beginning, and we didn't have the opportunity to have a singles. We define a big number of activities in how to put this into place. One of those, it is category management, right, showing that what volume we are losing not having those products on the shelf. I think we are getting some very, very good strikes in general.

We have some confirmations already for 2027, but it still is not 100% there. 2027 is going to be the year that we're going to improve the singles in order to roll up a little bit faster. And of course, I think I mentioned before, the size of the opportunity, when you compare a place that we have a singles and multipack, we have a better share than place that we have just multipack. I think that's our main motivation, and this is the approach that we are taking in convincing retailers that we must have a single on the shelf.

Eric Des Lauriers

All right. That's helpful. And then just on the hybrid go-to-market strategy. So you mentioned continued investment behind the West Coast DSD operations and then utilizing some third-party merchandising partners. I was wondering if you could expand on both of those a bit. Like what is changing here compared to what you guys have articulated in the past? Is this essentially just more dollars behind DSD and testing a wider net with these third-party merchandising partners? Or I guess if you could just kind of add a bit more color to that strategy and what's new, that would be helpful.

Alexandre Ruberti

Sure. When we say the hybrids now, it is, yes, we have to have a better capability in terms of a Western DSD network that we have, and that's going to come from within. We have to have the people to manage those DSDs. I think we will invest a little bit more, nothing huge, but a little bit more in terms of giving more guidance and training those teams in Western.

When we say in place that we don't have our distributors, it is important to have execution store because in the end of the day, we need to have a more visibility in store. And then we are partnering with those third-party agencies in order to help us on that. And then this is an extra investment that we're going to do in 2027. Third, I think that we cannot lose sight of that, it is in terms of e-commerce. I think everything that we are doing in the last quarter, we did a lot in terms of e-commerce. It's working very, very well from the awareness to conversion to have people trying and then all the indicators are very, very positive in terms of retention and a very good ROI. So if you take those three levers, this is how we are thinking in terms of a hybrid go-to-market moving forward.

Operator

Our next question comes from Eric Serotta with Morgan Stanley.

Eric Serotta

First, Alexandre, can you talk a bit about parameters or criteria as you evaluate adjacent categories to enter better-for-you beverages can encompass a lot of different things. How are you thinking about where Zevia has the right to win from a capability standpoint? What are some of the characteristics of categories that you would find attractive? And then to Girish, can you talk a bit about the sales upside in the quarter? I know you talked about strong performance from the club rotator, e-comm pricing? How would you sort of rank those, the club rotation, having that, I presume, was in the guidance. So I guess what of those factors really was the upside surprise on the top line in the quarter?

Alexandre Ruberti

Yes. Sure. Let me start with the first one, and then Girish takes the second one. I think in terms of the category, how we are evaluating, I think, as I said, we are going to take the approach much more led by consumer. I think we want to develop products that can address specific needs in terms of taste, functionality and occasion. As we speak, we are testing one or two products already to try to understand how big will be this opportunity and how can we address everything, right?

We are taking the approach much more, I would say, practical. We will test, we measure, we iterate and we scale. And of course, if the product is not going through the gates, we are not going to launch. It's going to be much more a data-driven approach. That's what we are looking for. In terms of the consumers, which kind of category we choose or not, I think consumers, as I said, they shop beverage by occasions, right, not by category.

So we see a lot of opportunity in terms of a functional and a wellness beverage. And then combining all together in terms of the brand, three ingredients or growing digital engagement as we're doing right now, we have this platform of distribution available and having those innovation driven by discipline can position us to deliver a real, relevant and differentiated product. I think that's the approach that we are taking in terms of the innovation. But we are testing already the products.

Girish Satya

And then Eric, in terms of the fourth -- or excuse me, the third quarter, if you break down the 18 points of growth, 14 points of that is related to volume, four points of that is related to price. As we think about what was sort of the upside surprise, I think two things on the volume side were, one, we actually saw stronger sell-through on the rotation than we had planned, which is a positive sign for the future.

Two, we saw continued strength and more so than we thought on our digital channels. And then, of course, pricing did play a factor. We had anticipated having to get a little bit more promotional and that did not come to pass. And so we were able to hold back some dry powder for that. So I'd say it was uniformly a strong quarter from a top line perspective.

Operator

We have reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the floor back over to Alexandre for closing comments.

Alexandre Ruberti

Yes. Thanks, operator. I think, first of all, many thanks for joining us today. I think that we are trying to take you through this journey. If we step back a little bit, thinking about '24, '25 was the year that we set up the foundation in terms of financial and operational transformation, the way that we built with this very, very well set up foundation. I think 2026 now, we are setting up the company for the growth, the foundation for the growth.

When you're talking about hybrid go-to-market strategy, we're sharpening the current Zevia brand with strong financial and operational discipline as well and then this performance-driven culture and now with the new capital, I think we are setting up this foundation. 2027, I think in terms of [Indiscernible], we're going to see a solid growth and product innovation. Everything that we are seeing this year, we are going to harvest next year. And plus, we will test out those innovations, the new customer demand that we're calling generation engine in digital and also the go-to-market. And then I think this is going to setting us up for tripling this business because this is what we think that's possible in the coming years. Again, thanks for joining us today. It is exciting times for us here, and I'm looking forward to update you on our progress in the next couple of months.

Operator

Thank you. This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.