What Blackeye Beverage does

Blackeye Beverage, LLC is a privately held craft beverage contract manufacturer headquartered and operating from a single facility at 705 Vandalia Street in St. Paul, Minnesota. The company provides end-to-end beverage development and production services for emerging and established consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands, with a stated production envelope of 500 to 50,000 cases per run. Its capabilities span four beverage categories: cold brew coffee and ready-to-drink lattes, natural energy and functional beverages, tea/infusions/kombucha, and sparkling water. The company markets a "6 months or less" concept-to-shelf timeline as a direct counter to the 9–12 month industry standard, positioning speed and low minimum run sizes as its primary commercial differentiators.

The company's technology stack rests on a proprietary thermal processing platform and a proprietary extraction system, both operated in-house and supported by a dedicated in-house process authority who validates thermal processing and regulatory compliance. Service delivery is organized as a four-stage pipeline — Formulation, Thermal Process Development, Scalability and Pilot Plant, and Commercial Production — that takes a brand from concept through shelf-ready product without requiring third-party flavor licensing or outsourced pilot work. The firm is led by CEO Patrick Simmons, a 27-year General Mills marketing and sales veteran (Nature Valley, Yoplait, Chex, Yoplait Gogurt, Betty Crocker Whipped Frosting, and a beverage platform joint venture).

The business model is sales-led B2B contract manufacturing: the company website drives a structured intake form that qualifies prospective CPG brand customers, followed by consultative, founder-led sales engagement. Revenue is generated through per-project and per-case contract manufacturing fees (transaction-based), professional services tied to formulation, bench-to-pilot scale-up, and process authority work, and recurring managed production runs from brands that re-engage Blackeye after a successful initial launch. Pricing is quote-based and not publicly disclosed, and distribution is exclusively direct-to-brand from the St. Paul facility with no reseller, marketplace, or consumer-facing channels. The company is privately held with no disclosed investors, funding history, or revenue figures.

Name

Blackeye Beverage

Legal name

Blackeye Beverage, LLC

Website

https://blackeyebeverage.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2019

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Blackeye Beverage is a craft beverage contract manufacturer in St. Paul, Minnesota, providing formulation, thermal processing, and production services for emerging and established CPG brands producing 500 to 50,000 cases of ready-to-drink beverages.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Saint Paul

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Supply Chain, Infrastructure, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Beverage Contract Manufacturing: Primary revenue stream: per-project and per-case contract manufacturing fees from CPG brands producing 500-50,000 cases of ready-to-drink beverages. Pricing is engagement-based (quote-driven) reflecting formulation complexity, run size, and packaging requirements. Mix of one-time project engagements with potential for repeat/long-term production runs as brands scale.
2. Product Development & Scale-Up Services: Professional services revenue tied to formulation development, bench-to-pilot scale-up, process authority work, and regulatory support that precedes full production runs. Often bundled with the first manufacturing engagement and supporting pull-through to ongoing production contracts.
3. Managed Production Runs: Recurring production revenue from brands that re-engage Blackeye for repeat manufacturing runs after a successful initial launch, creating a managed-services style recurring relationship on top of the core contract manufacturing capability.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Blackeye Beverage is a craft beverage contract manufacturer that provides end-to-end development and production services for ready-to-drink beverages, from formulation and thermal process development through pilot scale-up and full commercial production. It serves emerging and growth-stage CPG brands producing 500 to 50,000 cases, using proprietary thermal processing and a proprietary extraction system backed by an in-house process authority to deliver shelf-stable beverages in approximately six months or less.

Product overview

Blackeye Beverage is a single, unified craft beverage contract-manufacturing service (not a platform with separately licensed modules) delivered through a sequential four-stage process: Formulation, Thermal Process Development, Scalability and Pilot Plant, and Commercial Production. The company's in-house capabilities are organized around four beverage product categories — Cold Brew Coffee & Ready-To-Drink Lattes, Natural Energy Drinks, Tea, Infusions, & Kombucha, and Sparkling Water — which are the end products that the Formulation, Thermal Process Development, Scalability and Pilot Plant, and Commercial Production service modules produce, package, and scale for partner brands from bench top to commercial launch in six months or less.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Cold Brew Coffee & Ready-To-Drink Lattes Non-dairy cold brew and ready-to-drink latte capability delivered through full extraction of ground roasted coffee paired with custom-designed creamer systems, or via in-house extraction services on Blackeye's proprietary system, for partner CPG brands.
• Natural Energy Drinks Formulation and production of natural energy drinks, supplement beverages, nutraceuticals, and fitness beverages, developed and produced in-house by Blackeye for partner CPG brands.
• Tea, Infusions, & Kombucha Development and production of tea-, botanical-, and herbal-based beverages, including kombucha, using Blackeye's in-house extraction capabilities for partner CPG brands.
• Sparkling Water Sparkling water beverages, made with or without natural flavors, formulated and bottled through Blackeye's in-house production capabilities for partner CPG brands.
• Formulation First-step product development service in which Blackeye works with a brand to translate a beverage idea into a physical product by selecting ingredients, flavors, and chemistry, without requiring flavor or raw material licensing from the customer.
• Thermal Process Development In-house heat penetration and temperature distribution studies for low-acid canned and acidified beverages, run in tandem with formula finalization to ensure safety and shelf stability on the exact commercial production equipment.
• Scalability and Pilot Plant Small-batch pilot runs using design-of-experiment and multi-variable analysis to develop thermal processing parameters, reduce raw material and production cost, and minimize the risk of out-of-code product before commercial launch.
• Commercial Production Full-scale ready-to-launch beverage production from 500 to 50,000 cases, with retained small-batch capability and an in-house extraction, blending, and production mixing workflow that takes a product from bench top to commercial scale in six months or less.

Quantifiable outcome

• Reduces concept-to-shelf timeline to ~6 months vs. the 9–12 month industry standard
• +1 more outcomes

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• World-class container suppliers (unnamed)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerBlackeye Beverage states it partners with world-class container suppliers to package finished ready-to-drink beverages produced through its proprietary thermal process. Container suppliers provide primary packaging inputs (e.g., bottles, cans, caps) that meet the specifications of the company's RTD product formats.
• World-class ingredient suppliers (unnamed)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerBlackeye Beverage states it partners with world-class ingredient suppliers to source inputs for formulation and proprietary extraction activities. Ingredient suppliers provide raw materials that feed into the company's in-house extraction system and formulation development pipeline.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• First Beverage Group: Beverage brand development and contract manufacturing services targeting emerging beverage companies. Comparable to Blackeye in serving founder-led CPG brands with integrated formulation, scale-up, and production capabilities.
• Lyons Magnus: Large-scale contract beverage manufacturer specializing in custom formulated beverages including RTD coffee, nutritional drinks, and functional beverages. Comparable to Blackeye in providing end-to-end beverage development and production for partner brands at a larger scale.
• Sun Orchard: Contract manufacturer of juices, citrus-based beverages, and RTD products for CPG brands. Comparable to Blackeye as a B2B co-packer serving brand owners with custom beverage production, though Sun Orchard skews more toward juice/citrus categories.
• TalkingRain Beverage Company: Sparkling water and flavored beverage producer that also operates contract manufacturing services for emerging brands. Comparable to Blackeye's RTD capabilities, particularly for sparkling water, flavored water, and functional beverages.
• BevSource: Beverage development and co-packing solutions provider serving emerging and mid-sized CPG beverage brands. Highly comparable to Blackeye: also focuses on formulation, scaling, and contract manufacturing for RTD beverage founders seeking speed-to-market.
• Co-Pak Beverage Solutions: Beverage co-packing company offering custom formulation, blending, and bottling services for energy drinks, teas, and functional beverages. Comparable to Blackeye in serving emerging CPG brands with flexible minimum run sizes and end-to-end development.
• California Custom Beverages: Custom RTD beverage co-packer offering formulation, blending, and contract manufacturing for emerging and established beverage brands. Comparable to Blackeye in providing flexible run sizes and end-to-end development for cold brew, energy, and functional beverages.

Broad incumbents

• Refresco: One of the largest independent bottlers and co-packers of soft drinks and RTD beverages globally, serving major CPG brands at high volumes. Comparable to Blackeye as a contract beverage manufacturer, but operating at vastly larger scale across multiple categories and geographies.
• Keurig Dr Pepper: Major beverage conglomerate with significant co-manufacturing and contract production capabilities for hot and cold beverages, including RTD coffee. Comparable to Blackeye in the contract manufacturing portion of its portfolio, particularly for coffee and tea categories, though at much greater scale.

Emerging players

• Splash Beverage Group: Emerging branded beverage company that develops, markets, and distributes RTD beverages (including via co-pack partners) across functional, alcoholic, and non-alcoholic categories. Comparable to Blackeye at the brand-development and co-packing intersection, though primarily a brand operator rather than a service provider.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/blackeye_bev
• Facebookfacebook.com/blackeyebeverage
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/blackeye-beverage-llc

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Blackeye Beverage