Groundbreaking And Inspiring: All Market Brands, Owner Of Vita Coco Announces Public Benefit Corporation Status
All Market Brands, a leading platform of high-growth better-for-you brands, including Vita Coco, today announced its conversion to a Public Benefit Corporation (PBC), making it one of the largest independent beverage companies to do so.
As a PBC, and with a growing portfolio of natural products, All Market Brands has identified its public benefit purpose as harnessing, while protecting, nature’s resources for the betterment of the world and its habitants by creating ethical, sustainable, better-for-you beverages and consumer products that not only uplift our communities, but that do right by the planet.
This commitment continues AMB’s evolving sustainability and social impact strategy for long-term, responsible and equitable growth. I caught up with Vita Coco CEO and Cofounder Mike Kirban to find out more about this bold and commendable leap.
Michael Kirban, Co-Founder and CEO at Vita Coco
Afdhel Aziz: Mike, welcome. We’ve had the pleasure of covering the inspiring work Vita Coco is doing in the social impact space in this column before, so I know how personally passionate you are about the topic. What lead to the jump of making the decision to become a Public Benefit Corp?
Michael Kirban: Since we started the brand, Vita Coco has always believed in the democratization of health and wellness while protecting nature’s resources. It is our belief that we can create ethical, sustainable and better-for-you products for consumers while uplifting our communities and doing right by our planet.
The decision to become a Public Benefit Corp (PBC) allows us to live our purpose as a mission-driven company while delivering profitable growth for stakeholders. We are evolving our responsible business model to consider the new ‘ROI’ – in which return on IMPACT is as critical as return on investment.
Aziz: How did the board take it? What was the discussion around this topic?
Kirban: The board was generally aligned to the new proposal to convert to a PBC. There were of course questions around how this impacts the day-to-day business operations, and how we balance profit and purpose.
Ultimately, we were able to agree that leading with impact will in the end deliver a wealth of business value, such as building a stronger connection with our consumers, retaining our employees, driving our supply chain objectives and of course growing our business profitably.
Aziz: People may not know about a lot of the good work you guys do in local communities in the Philippines and Sri Lanka where you grow your products - can you tell us the latest updates on what’s going on?
Kirban: We believe that we can continue to empower and support the communities from which we source our ingredients! Through our Vita Coco Project, which began in 2014, our aim is to positively impact the lives of 1 million people in these communities.
Vita Coco Project
Our program supports farming communities to address the most pressing challenges in sustainable development for our coconut growers. We’ve focused primarily on responsible agricultural practices as well as education and economic prosperity for these localized communities.
So far, we’ve had tremendous results:
We have invested into thousands of smallholder farms;
We have facilitated responsible agricultural practices for more than 800 training programs;
30 classrooms have been built and 80 four-year scholarships have been awarded; and
30,000 people in coconut farming communities have been positively impacted including 8,000 farmers.
As a PBC, this designation will help us accelerate and scale across the globe.
Aziz: How do you balance the needs of helping people vs helping the planet?
Kirban: The support of our communities (people) and the planet are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they are interconnected and intersectional. We recognize as a business that different communities are impacted differently from environmental action.
Ultimately, by educating others first, we can help to accelerate the urgent need to also save the planet. Without education, we can’t build a movement to solve the world’s most pressing need. We’re creating a movement, not a moment.
Aziz: It’s great to see you also expanding your focus to the communities you sell the product in, not just the communities you grow in. How is that going?
Kirban: Yes, we are continuing to evolve and expand beyond our farming communities. Our ambition is to build a thriving community across our value chain, which includes our supply chain partners, employees and the communities in which we sell our products.
We’re proud to continue partnerships with organizations like No Kid Hungry. During the height of the U.S. pandemic in 2020, Covid-19 only exacerbated the critical need to support community organizations addressing food insecurity. Our ethos of democratizing health and wellness access will always be at the heart of everything we do.
In 2021, we are on track to provide up to 1.5 million meals through No Kid Hungry during our fall programming.
Aziz: Finally, what advice do you have for other leaders who are considering making this transition?
Kirban: It is truly a balance between purpose and profit. However, the cost of inaction today far outweighs the cost of action tomorrow. As business leaders, we have a duty to help reframe how business should be done and what value means to us. Stockholders, consumers and society are relying on us to be a force for good in the world.
