By BuzzBallz, LLC/Southern Champion, a proud sponsor of the 2024 WPO Entrepreneurial Excellence Forum
Since its founding in 2009, Southern Champion has been fortunate to continue growing in higher
increments year after year. But along with this comes challenges of managing high growth, firstmost
being an ever-expanding infrastructure. Whether it’s regularly hiring individuals who seamlessly
fit in with our culture, scaling up warehouses, facilities, machinery, and capabilities, or coming
up with new ways to sell and market our products, we are constantly looking to the future and ideating what we need and when we’ll need it. While we try to make sure we are keeping up with our
current production demands and essentials, we are also making sure we’re well-equipped to leave
room for expansion. This is a delicate balance of foresight and adaptability we’ve learned to
embrace.
No “I” in Team
As we grow, collaboration between our teams and with other agencies becomes crucial for how we
operate. With countless meetings and regular analyzing of reports, we can stay on top of market
trends and make sure production for all of our different brands and products works together. This isn’t simply a strategy, but a necessity. We need all of our teams to work seamlessly for our success, and we need to be aligned on all fronts when partnering with others to help our marketing efforts.
Another key element of managing high growth is to set goals. Even though we aren’t sure how much we are going to grow at any given time, we can look at our data and industry trends to take our best
shot when it comes to goal-setting. Often it’s said “Fail to prepare, prepare to fail,” and we
believe in this statement every day. We won’t get it right 100% of the time, but we do everything
we can to be prepared for anything predictable or unpredictable that may happen.
Roll with the Punches
Learning to always be prepared has happened over time, and we’ve certainly had our unexpected
moments of needed adaptability. Around 2013, a new partnership with Walmart doubled our revenue,
but our lack of preparation for it threw us into a 24/7 operations cycle. Once we finally got this
constant production in motion, changes in Walmart’s floor plan left us scrambling to change again.
This was a tough lesson for us, but reminded us of the importance of adaptability, resilience, and
asking questions. Now we are fortunate to need 24/7 operations again, and this experience from the
past taught us how to handle and maintain it better.
Review, React, Recalibrate
When high growth does happen, change is inevitable, and often in significant and transformative
ways. In the past few years, we’ve created several new flavors, expanded to international sales,
added our products to countless new accounts and markets in grocery and convenience channels, and seen a huge influx in social mentions. With around 50% year-over-year growth, everything must scale in sync, from how we handle production to how we layout our offices. This constant recalibration is necessary to sustain growth without compromising who we are as a company. Managing high growth requires a balance of looking ahead, adapting, and collaborating. As we continue to grow, our successes and challenges alike will help shape our strategy as we aim to remain on top of the RTD industry.
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About the Author
BuzzBallz/Southern Champion is a certified women-owned Distillery/Winery in the United States. Founded in 2009, BuzzBallz/Southern Champion is based in Carrollton, TX, and makes ready-to-drink cocktails called BuzzBallz, which are sold nationwide in convenience stores, liquor stores, casinos, arenas, and airlines. The company is family-operated, and home to over 100 employees in the Dallas area. They are rated the #1 ready-to-drink cocktail segment in the United States according to Nielsen data. To learn more, visit: www.buzzballz.com.