Eric Skae
Founder, Chairman & CEO
New Leaf Brands
White Tea:
Green Tea:
Blue Tea:
Black Tea:
Half & Half:
Natural Lemonades:
“Consumers are asking for beverages that are healthful and taste great. At New Leaf we're determined to create them and make them accessible.”
New Leaf Brands Founder, CEO and Chairman of the Board Eric Skae is a proven beverage industry veteran and visionary. He founded New Leaf in 2004, after successful service in leadership positions at beverage brands including Arizona, Hansen's, Fresh Samantha and Naked Juice. In 2002 Eric founded and served as President of Midnight Sun Brands, whose Iceland Spring bottled water grew to become a leading water brand in natural food stores.
In close contact with consumers, distributors and the retail trade throughout his career, Eric became increasingly aware of the emerging desire for healthful beverages that taste great. "Too often, consumers feel there's a tradeoff. They feel they can choose a healthful beverage or a great-tasting beverage - but can't get both in the same product. That's the problem New Leaf was created to solve."
Eric focused New Leaf product development on ready-to-drink tea, a segment he believed was poised for growth due to increasing consumer awareness of tea's healthful benefits. He emphasized superior ingredients, selecting only the choicest teas from the world's best tea fields, natural rather than artificial flavors and pure organic cane juice rather than high fructose corn syrup. He packaged New Leaf in custom glass bottles to seal in freshness and flavor. And he tirelessly conducted taste tests among family, friends, friends of friends, business associates - anyone he could get to taste his products and render an opinion.
The result: a full product line that is indeed "healthful and great-tasting." Consumer acceptance has been terrific: New Leaf is among the fastest-growing ready-to-drink teas. The product line recently expanded to include lemonades and "the Tiger," an innovative half iced tea-half lemonade beverage.