Roxberry's Kid Soda Sales Jump 3,491% as It Lands in Walmart

Roxberry's dollar sales are up 3,491 percent year to date, making it the fastest-growing of 1,445 established nonalcoholic beverage brands in the U.S., according to NielsenIQ. The Ohio company behind Roxberry Fizz for Kids says it makes the first modern soda built specifically for children — 5 grams of sugar per can, no artificial flavors, sweeteners, or dyes, and bright, kid-friendly graphics.

The category label is an accident of shelf placement, not strategy. "I saw that stat—I was like, 'That's a funny way of repositioning what we are,'" CEO and co-founder Andrew Sauer told Inc. "We're not lumping ourselves into an NA space. We're a beverage for kids."

How did Roxberry start?

Sauer and Dan Haugen co-founded the company in 2022 after spotting a gap in the market for fun drinks for their own children. Sauer, a consumer goods veteran, got the idea while walking store aisles with his four kids.

"Having four kids, realizing they're asking for a lot of things, and most of them I didn't want to give to them, was how most great consumer goods ideas start," he told Inc.

The concept began as a micronutrient powder mix. The ready-to-drink version tasted better, and children in early test markets gravitated toward it. The founders pivoted.

"We just started to realize, if we're gonna do this, let's optimize for joy. Let's optimize for things that make kids really excited," Sauer said. "A generation that is used to seeing their parents drink Spindrift or Waterloo or other things [was] looking for their version of that."

In short: kids wanted their own Spindrift, and nobody was selling it.

What did the founders bring from Abbott?

Sauer and Haugen, now Roxberry's COO, previously worked together at Abbott, the global health care and medical technology corporation. Sauer said Abbott taught him how to build and commercialize consumer goods. Haugen said it also showed them what big companies can't do.

"There were innovative ideas, and they just couldn't commercialize it," Haugen told Inc. "You needed a nimble and a quick team."

Roxberry's first customer was a market near the founders' homes in Central Ohio. That market remains one of its top accounts by volume. The founders used its sales data to pitch other independent stores across the state.

Why is Walmart's Modern Soda aisle a big deal?

The founders initially targeted the children's beverage aisle. Then a retail buyer pointed them toward Modern Soda, a new section Walmart was building.

In January, Roxberry launched in more than 2,200 Walmart stores, becoming the first children's beverage in the retailer's Modern Soda aisle. It expanded to H-E-B in April.

The placement matters. Roxberry landed in NielsenIQ's nonalcoholic category only because of where it sits on shelves — and it now tops that category's growth ranking anyway.

Who is funding the growth?

Roxberry has raised $4 million of a $5 million offering from Habitat Partners and Red Hots Capital, BevNet reported in October. Sauer told Inc. the round closed in December 2025, with the money earmarked for marketing, hiring, and new products. Foxtrot founder Mike LaVitola is also an early backer.

If larger beverage companies launch children's lines of their own, Sauer said Roxberry's independence will be its edge.

"I think parents want to know kind of who's making this stuff, who's delivering this to the market," he said.

Is an exit on the table?

Not soon, according to the founders. Roxberry recently launched three new flavors and plans to add more.

"I think that's the real goal," Sauer said, "just building a brand that delivers joy for a long time, versus trying to build incredibly fast and find some exit plan."

The bet now is that Walmart's Modern Soda aisle becomes a durable category — and that Roxberry owns the kids' shelf in it before a major beverage company decides it wants that space back.