Since Adrian has not released the name of the "beverage industry consultant" we don't know how good he is. Just because you may have worked in the beverage industry, does not mean your the most qualified. I have personally seen people go through a beverage program with a company talked about on this board, and once they are put into a certain position they are eventually fired for incompetency.
I've never said Adrian can't have a 30 pallet run, what I am saying is that the demand has to be there to justify 57,000+ cans for any start up business with limited funds. No true successful industry veteran will advise a start up company, with limited funds to run 57,000 cans, especially of one flavor without knowing how well it will sell.
As far as profit margins, Adrian will definitely not make a profit on this first run because some of the drinks produced will be used for sampling to get into the stores and distribution deals. I don't know of any store that will just set a consumable product on the shelf without trying it at some point. And what do sell will go towards overhead.
Let's now say he does run 30 pallets of one drink, takes samples around to the store(s). No one wants that flavor, for argument purposes, let's just say citrus. The store owner tells him I'm not buying the citrus flavor, but if you can bring me a Lemon Lime flavor I would put it in my store. What will Adrian do now because he spent all the capital raised producing citrus that he can't sell right away and don't have any more capital to produce a 2nd flavor???
That's what I am talking about when I mentioned a second run. Not a second run of the same flavor, but a second run meaning a different flavor.
