What changed in this filing

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Item 1. Business

2025-02-26 compared with 2024-03-06 · 104 added, 111 removed, 159 unchanged (57% of the section changed)

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We routinely announce material information to investors, stockholders and the marketplace using SEC filings, press releases, public conference calls, webcasts and the Zevia Investor Relations website.

We also intend to use certain social media channels as a means of disclosing information about us and our products to consumers, our customers, investors and the public (such as @Zevia and #Zevia on Facebook and Instagram).

The information posted on social media channels is not incorporated by reference in this Annual Report or in any other report or document we file with the SEC.

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Users may automatically receive email alerts and other information about the Company when enrolling an email address by visiting “Request Email Alerts” in the “Investors” section of Zevia’s website at https://investors.zevia.com/.

We are a growth beverage company that develops, markets, sells, and distributes great tasting, naturally sweetened, zero sugar beverages made with simple, plant-based ingredients.

We have been designated as a “Certified B Corporation” by B Lab, an independent non-profit organization, in addition to being a Delaware public benefit corporation.

We are focused on addressing the global health challenges resulting from excess sugar consumption by offering a broad portfolio of zero sugar, zero calorie, naturally sweetened beverages.

All Zevia® beverages are Non-GMO Project verified, gluten-free, Kosher, vegan and zero sodium, We offer a variety of flavors across Soda, Energy Drinks, Organic Tea, and Kids drinks.

Our products are distributed and sold principally across the United States (“U.S.”).

and Canada through a diverse network of major retailers in the food, drug, warehouse club, mass, natural, convenience and e-commerce channels and in grocery and natural product stores and specialty outlets.

We believe that consumers increasingly select beverage products based on taste, ingredients and fit with today’s consumer preferences, which has benefited the Zevia® brand and resulted in over 1.9 billion cans of Zevia sold to date.

The Zevia® brand promise is to offer delicious beverages that are better-for-you and better for the environment.

We market Zevia under one unified brand across multiple beverage categories, including Soda, Energy Drinks, Organic Teas, and Kids drinks.

We are a better-for-you beverage company that develops, markets, sells, and distributes naturally delicious, zero sugar beverages.

We are a Delaware public benefit corporation and have been designated as a “Certified B Corporation,” by B Lab, an independent non-profit organization, and are focused on addressing the global health challenges resulting from excess sugar consumption by offering a broad portfolio of zero sugar, zero calorie, naturally sweetened beverages.

All Zevia® beverages are made with a handful of simple ingredients which come from plants, contain no artificial sweeteners, and are Non-GMO Project verified, gluten-free, Kosher and vegan, and include a variety of flavors across Soda, Energy Drinks, and Organic Tea drinks.

Our products are distributed and sold principally across the U.S.

and Canada through a diverse network of major retailers in the grocery, drug, warehouse club, mass, natural, convenience and e-commerce channels and in natural product stores and specialty outlets.

Our products are manufactured and maintained at third-party beverage production and warehousing facilities located in both the U.S.

We believe that consumers increasingly select beverage products based on a variety of factors including taste, ingredients and fit with today’s consumer preferences, which has benefited the Zevia® brand and resulted in over 2.2 billion cans of Zevia sold to date.

The Zevia® brand promise is to offer zero-sugar, naturally delicious beverages that are better-for-you.

We believe that the foundation for our long-term success lies in creating a brand that consumers love and is known for delivering a great product with an exciting pipeline of innovation.

We market Zevia under one unified brand across multiple beverage categories, including Soda, Energy Drinks and Organic Teas.

We believe our brand has extensive consumer reach potential, as we deliver beverage offerings with a diversity of flavors and categories that we believe appeal across multiple usage occasions, need states, and times of day, for a wide range of people across age groups.

This is evidenced by our ranking among the top carbonated soft drink brands in the Natural Channel and on Amazon according to syndicated data sources SPINS and 1010data for 2023.

This is evidenced by our ranking among the top carbonated soft drink brands across multiple retail channels and on Amazon according to syndicated data sources SPINS and Circana for 2024.

Our brand has grown significantly over the past decade, which has been largely tied to an engaged and growing consumer base, broadening distribution across retail channels.

In 2023, close to 7 million U.S.

In 2024, more than 6.6 million U.S.

households purchased Zevia products across more than 37,000 retail locations.

Our consumers are our best advocates, and their loyalty is rooted in their alignment with our messaging and mission.

Our consumer base over-indexes to Gen Z and Millennials, particularly among Millennial parents.

We believe this consumer base favors better-for-you options that support a balanced lifestyle and that they are driven less by discounts than some other demographic groups.

Our consumer base over-indexes to Millennials and Gen X, particularly among Millennial parents.

We believe this consumer base favors better-for-you options that support a balanced lifestyle and that they tend to be more affluent and less price sensitive than some other consumer groups.

We believe Zevia consumers are heavily beverage engaged and migrate from other traditional full-calorie and low-calorie soda brands to choose Zevia as an incremental beverage choice to aid in supporting their balanced lifestyle without sacrificing great taste.

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Zevia drinkers have historically increased their brand spending over time and tend to spend more on average than traditional shoppers within the soft drink, energy and ready-to-drink tea categories.

According to Numerator data for 2023, Zevia households increased their spend on Zevia for the year versus 2022.

Those households who made multiple purchases across package lines were even more engaged, more than doubling their spend on the brand versus the total average Zevia households in the year.

Yet Zevia is far more affordable than many or even most better-for-you beverage options, making it more accessible and appealing to more households across North America.

According to Numerator data for 2024, Zevia households increased their spending on Zevia for the year versus 2023.

Those households who made multiple purchases across package lines were even more engaged, more than doubling their spending on the brand versus the total average Zevia households in the year.

We believe Zevia is positioned well within the total Zero Sugar/Diet Soda segment of total Carbonated Soft Drinks as an affordable naturally sweetened, better-for-you option.

Zero Sugar/Diet sodas were a $11.6 billion dollar segment, growing +12% across Grocery, Mass, Drug, Club, and Natural Channels in 2024 according to Spins/Circana data through December 29, 2024.

According to Numerator data through December 31, 2023, Zevia finished 2023 with U.S.

household penetration of 5.3% for the full year of 2023 compared to 40% - 70% penetration, respectively, of more mainstream full and zero sugar category brand leaders over the same period.

According to Numerator data through December 31, 2024, Zevia products finished 2024 with U.S.

household penetration of 5% compared to 40% - 70% penetration, respectively, of more mainstream full and zero sugar category brand leaders with higher brand awareness and time in market over the same period.

We believe Zevia has a meaningful opportunity to increase brand trial to capture more share in this growth leading segment of beverage over time.

Since our founding in 2007, we have grown from three flavors of soda to a platform brand with multiple product lines that each have several flavor variations.

Each of our product lines has been carefully crafted for consumer enjoyment, with the goal of ensuring that flavor is not sacrificed in the process of eliminating sugar and artificial ingredients, including coloring and flavors.

In addition, continuous improvement is a Zevia core value, and as such we strategically reformulate our products from time to time to further enhance taste and simplify ingredients.

Soda, our flagship product released in 2008, is the better-for-you alternative to conventional sodas and diet sodas with no artificial ingredients.

Each of our product lines has been carefully crafted for consumer enjoyment, with the goal of not sacrificing flavor in the process of eliminating sugar and artificial ingredients, including coloring and flavors.

In addition, continued improvement is a Zevia core value, and as such we strategically reformulate our products and develop new flavors from time to time to further enhance taste and simplify ingredients.

Soda, our flagship product with no artificial ingredients released in 2008, is the better-for-you alternative to conventional sodas and diet sodas.

Our Soda is available in 18 flavors across multiple packs, variety packs, and in limited time-offer flavors to drive excitement.

Our Soda sales constituted approximately 91% of our net sales in 2023.

Our Soda sales constituted approximately 93% of our net sales in 2024 and remains our primary focus as we see significant opportunities for growth in this product line.

Energy drinks are zero sugar energy drinks that contain 120 mg of organic caffeine.

We offer Energy in eight flavors.

We released our Energy drinks in 2016.

We released our Energy drinks in 2016 and this product line is focused mostly in natural and e-commerce channels today.

We believe this product line reflects a significant opportunity to expand across multiple channels in the future.

Our Organic Tea is a pioneer in the zero calorie, naturally sweetened ready-to-drink tea segment, and was released in 2018.

Zevia Organic Tea is USDA Organic and brewed with Fair Trade Certified Tea.

We offer Organic Tea in eight flavors, including two caffeine-free options.

Kids is our product line for kids, packaged in smaller cans for smaller hands, and the right size for lunch boxes and afternoon snacks.

Our Kids drinks are available in four kid-friendly flavors and were released in 2020.

We offer Organic Tea in eight flavors, including one caffeine-free option.

We benefit from sustained shifts across the liquid refreshment beverage market.

We believe consumers are becoming more health conscious and focused on reducing sugar in their diets and are increasingly averse to added sugars.

We believe consumers continue to be more health conscious and focused on reducing sugar in their diets and are increasingly averse to added sugars.

Many consumers are making choices with sustainability in mind, including plastic waste reduction.

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We estimate that by choosing Zevia, our consumers have avoided over 79,000 metric tons of sugar in their diets since 2011.

Sustainable packaging is one of our top priorities and we actively seek to minimize our environmental impact.

Sustainable packaging remains a key priority and we continue to seek to minimize our environmental impact.

We take pride in reducing plastic waste by using only aluminum cans as beverage containers.

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Through only using aluminum cans, we estimate that we have saved over 30,000 metric tons of plastic and consumption of our products has resulted in the avoidance of over one billion plastic bottles since 2011.

In addition, we reduce our use of packaging materials where possible.

For example, we no longer produce any of our products with plastic rings, replacing them with a recyclable cardboard overwrap.

In addition, we reduce our use of packaging materials where feasible.

Within our mission is the initiative to provide products that are better for the planet.

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Sales and Marketing and Consumer Outreach

Our marketing strategy from launch has been to drive product trial and customer conversion, targeting consumers as close to the point of purchase as possible, as we believe that many purchasing decisions are made in-store during the shopping experience.

As such, we seek to deploy funding to enhance our presence at shelf, including shelf tags, product displays and other means to build consumer awareness and consideration.

We also deploy marketing funds in-store, through advertising and couponing vehicles, and around the store via geotargeted digital advertising and offers.

In addition, we seek to raise awareness of the Zevia® brand through advertising programs targeted to key lifestyle segments such as families and healthy lifestyle enthusiasts.

In 2024, we expect to invest in marketing out of store to drive awareness and consideration of the Zevia brand, purchase intent, and subsequently conversion.

We aim to create authentic content that focuses on Zevia’s taste experience—flavor, sweetness, bubbles and enjoyment—without drinking sugary or artificially sweetened beverages.

We believe that combining our focus on taste with the positive sugar reduction and natural sweetener health benefits of our brand—zero sugar, zero plastic, and naturally sweetened products that are affordable to consumers across a broad range of income brackets—creates a compelling proposition that will drive both initial product trial and ongoing brand consumption.

We are undertaking a number of initiatives to increase product trial and enhance brand messaging through awareness-building tactics, which include an improved approach to digital-first marketing, innovation, sampling, and expanding distribution.

Our omnichannel approach engages with consumers over multiple touchpoints throughout their product discovery journey, stimulating trial, and leverages our brand awareness to grow cross-portfolio velocities and market share.

Our historical marketing strategy relied heavily on driving trial and conversion at the point of purchase in retail outlets.

In 2024, we shifted resources to complement our retail efforts and strategically made investments in the second half of the year to amplify our brand and to clarify our points of differentiation on taste and ingredients to help drive trial and grow customer conversions.

Our brand strategy is to position Zevia as the best alternative to artificial soda, highlighting both our product benefits (zero sugar, zero artificial sweeteners, zero artificial colors) and our differentiated brand position, celebrating “real” in an increasingly “artificial” world.

In line with our brand building efforts, our marketing ecosystem continues to scale with increased positive results in social media engagement, reaching consumers through influencers, and effective digital and audio advertising, that we expect to help drive purchase intent as well as conversion at the point of purchase.

Our ecosystem will be leveraged for future Brand content and product launches.

From an in-store perspective, we also deployed funding to enhance our presence at shelf, including shelf tags, product displays and other means to build consumer awareness and consideration.

Given our competitive repeat rates, we believe these efforts to drive customer conversion with new users will be beneficial and subsequently grow our base of loyal customers.

We maintain a website at https://www.zevia.com, which serves as the most comprehensive source of information regarding our products.

Our website is used as a platform to introduce our entire brand portfolio, promote and sell our products, provide news, share recipes, highlight nutritional facts and provide general information on where to purchase our products.

We also use social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram for online collaboration to support our brand awareness strategy.

These platforms allow us to directly engage with our consumers and publish content related to our products, activities and Company and to better connect with potential and existing consumers.

As of December 31, 2023, our sales team is comprised of 27 people.

The team works in close coordination with a national network of broker and distributor sales teams that gives us access to accounts across the U.S.

Innovation is an integral part of what we do.

We regularly look for ways to improve product taste, expand our offerings across categories and usage occasions, and improve the sustainability of our packaging formats.

Our website is used as a platform to introduce our entire brand portfolio, promote and sell our products, provide news, highlight nutritional facts and provide general information on where to purchase our products.

Our sales team is comprised of key accounts, distribution and insights professionals.

The team works in close coordination with a national network of broker and distributor sales teams that gives us access to accounts across multiple channels throughout the U.S.

Delivering a product that consumers love is an integral part of what we do.

We regularly look for ways to improve product taste and innovate to drive excitement, growth, brand awareness and trial.

Our product development team collaborates across our organization and supplier base to identify areas to improve our existing offerings and create new offerings.

Our development team coordinates the creation, testing, launch and improvement of our products in collaboration with our suppliers.

We employ in-house food scientists to help create the next iterations of our products.

Our product development team coordinates the creation, testing, launch and improvement of our products in collaboration with our suppliers.

We have refined certain formulas of our products to help appeal to and meet our consumers’ evolving taste profile and have launched line and flavor extensions within existing categories to further fulfill consumer needs.

Our robust pipeline of new category innovations is expected to allow us to continue to thoughtfully and strategically innovate within the beverage space and maximize share of stomach by offering flavors and beverages that can appeal to a variety of usage occasions.

Our product development team is also working to improve our ingredients and packaging.

Our product development team is also working to improve our ingredients.

We regularly refine our stevia blend in an effort to maintain leadership in our sweetener system and currently use a specific stevia extract product that contains a particular blend of SGs that was found to perform the best across our beverage platform, providing more rounded sweetness with minimal aftertaste commonly associated with other stevia sweeteners.

In addition, we continue to evaluate and research alternate ingredients, including plant-based sweeteners other than stevia extract, which may meet or exceed our sensory, sustainability, and cost standards.

We also assess how we can reduce our carbon footprint and plastic waste through our packaging.

We believe that by consistently offering great tasting products that are all zero calorie and naturally sweetened, with sustainable packaging under one brand, we can attract consumers to our new flavors and categories.

We believe that by consistently offering great tasting products that are all zero calorie, zero sugar and naturally sweetened, with sustainable packaging under one brand, we can attract consumers to our new flavors and categories.

Our products are produced and distributed through a network of third-party contract manufacturers, suppliers of stevia, and freight and warehouse providers that we have strategically curated.

We have valuable, long-standing relationships across our supply chain, and we work closely with our external supply chain partners to try to maximize forward-looking capacity and take a thoughtful approach to how we can leverage our existing relationships with our innovation efforts.

During the fourth quarter of 2023, we made a strategic change in how our products are manufactured.

Beginning in the first quarter of 2024, our contract manufacturers are responsible for the procurement of raw materials to produce our products, which are then sold to us as finished goods.

We believe this change should allow us to leverage the purchasing power of our contract manufacturers and further diversify, as well as enable us with the flexibility to scale the business.

We also onboarded a new global transportation management company in the first quarter of 2024 to support the optimization of the procurement of freight and associated freight management activities to improve our cost management.

We believe both of these changes will better optimize our supply chain in order to help support future growth and drive increasing returns as we scale the business.

At the beginning of 2024, we transitioned our procurement strategy to partner with our contract manufacturers.

This change allowed our contract manufacturers to be responsible for the procurement of raw materials to produce our products, which are then sold to us as finished goods.

This change allowed us to leverage the purchasing power of our contract manufacturers and further diversify, as well as enable us to have the flexibility to scale the business.

We also onboarded a global transportation management company to support optimizing freight procurement and associated freight management activities to improve our cost management.

These changes better optimized our supply chain, helped position us for future growth, and will drive increasing returns as we scale the business.

Ingredients and Ingredient Suppliers

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All Zevia beverages are zero sugar and naturally sweetened with plant-based ingredients that are Non-GMO Project verified.

Our stevia leaf extract is procured by our contract manufacturers and sourced from a large multi-national ingredient company with whom we have a long-standing relationship through a two-year agreement that was entered into October 15, 2023, which includes fixed pricing for the duration of the term.

During 2023, we also tested and approved the use of another stevia leaf extract supplier, whose stevia leaf is derived from a region different than the above supplier.

Although we do not view our stevia blend as a commodity ingredient, we continue to seek to diversify sourcing to help de-risk supply and cost shocks from potential global disruptions.

Our product development team provides ongoing sensory and cost evaluation of competing stevia extract products as well as other plant-based sweeteners as a means of planning alternate sources of supply that meet or exceed our sensory expectations.

Our stevia leaf extract is procured by our contract manufacturers and was previously sourced from a single large multi-national ingredient company with whom we have a long-standing relationship through a two-year agreement that was entered into October 15, 2023, which includes fixed pricing for the duration of the term.

In 2024, we approved and began sourcing from a second multi-national ingredient company to supply stevia leaf extract in order to diversify our source of stevia leaf extract, with the aim of mitigating price and supply disruptions.

Our product development team provides ongoing sensory and cost evaluation of competing stevia extract products as well as other sweeteners as a means of planning alternate sources of supply that meet or exceed our sensory expectations.

Flavors are developed in collaboration with our product development team and our flavor ingredient suppliers.

These suppliers produce and supply the unique flavor ingredients to our contract manufacturers, and as our contract manufacturers procure these ingredients, we do not have long-term supply agreements with these ingredient suppliers.

For flavors and stevia leaf extract, we continue to seek to diversify our approved sources in order to de-risk potential ingredient supply interruptions.

Although we do not view our stevia blend or flavor ingredients as commodity ingredients, we continue to seek to diversify sourcing to help de-risk supply or cost shocks from potential supply disruptions.

Packaging and Packaging Suppliers

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Our quality team places specific inventory on hold at all inventory locations if either the contract manufacturer or our quality team identifies any suspected discrepancy, to allow for immediate investigation and corrective action if necessary.

We believe we have created a meaningful flywheel for consumer acquisition in which shoppers are able to discover, learn about and purchase our brand online and offline across multiple channels and platforms.

Our online platforms serve as trial generating and transaction intensification opportunities, allowing for full Zevia portfolio offerings, including our bestselling variety packs, which stimulate significant consumer engagement.

We believe we have created a meaningful flywheel for consumer acquisition in which shoppers are able to discover, learn about and purchase our beverages online and offline across multiple channels and platforms.

Our online platforms serve as trial generating and transaction intensification opportunities, allowing for full Zevia portfolio offerings, including our best selling variety packs, which are intended to stimulate significant consumer engagement.

In addition to helping Zevia remain one of the top-selling carbonated soft drink brands on Amazon in 2024, our e-commerce buyers are also heavily engaged with the brand offline.

According to Numerator more than half of Zevia shoppers who purchased us online in 2023 also purchased Zevia in brick-and-mortar retailers.

Moreover, shoppers who bought Zevia products online spend 2.5x more on our brand across all channels on average.

Offline, we have strong, long-standing relationships with grocery, drug, warehouse club, mass, natural, and specialty retailers with whom we can grow distribution and sales through increased store penetration and shelf space.

We lost distribution on a temporary basis due to supply chain challenges in 2023, but we expect to regain this distribution in 2024.

We sold in more than 34,000 retail locations in 2023 according to SPINS and Nielsen data.

According to Numerator almost three quarter of Zevia shoppers who purchased us online in 2024 also purchased Zevia in brick-and-mortar retailers.

Moreover, shoppers who bought Zevia products online spent 3x more on our brand across all channels on average.

We have strong, long-standing relationships with grocery, drug, warehouse club, mass, natural, and specialty retailers with whom we can grow distribution and sales through increased store penetration and shelf space.

We sold in more than 37,000 retail locations in 2024 according to SPINS, Circana and Nielsen data.

We believe that our brick-and-mortar retailers value Zevia’s continued sales growth and higher margin profile, giving us confidence that we can expand our presence over time in terms of store count and number of items carried.

For example, we recently expanded our presence at one retailer from 800 to more than 4,300 locations in the U.S.

Beyond these channels, we believe there is significant opportunity to continue expanding distribution and total item availability in the mass, drug, warehouse club, convenience, and foodservice channels, putting Zevia at arm’s reach for consumers.

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Our competitors in the beverage market include category leaders such as The Coca-Cola Company, Keurig Dr.

Pepper, PepsiCo, Inc., National Beverage Corp., Monster Energy, and Red Bull, as well as established naturally positioned soda brands like Virgils and Reeds and emerging better-for-you functional soda brands like Poppi and Olipop.

Pepper, PepsiCo, Inc., National Beverage Corp., Monster Energy, and Red Bull, as well as established naturally positioned soda brands like Virgils and Reeds and functional soda brands like Poppi and Olipop.

Human Capital Resources

Zevia’s passion to democratize healthier lifestyles – by providing affordable, better-for-you, naturally sweetened beverages without sugar or calories and never in plastic containers – is reflected in the organization’s people and culture.

We offer a diverse, inclusive, and challenging work environment comprised of team members who are representative of the communities we serve.

Our core values – passion, respect, gratitude, learning, a positive attitude, teamwork, continuous improvement, and living our best, – are at the foundation of our strategies to drive our mission and business.

In order for us to attract and retain the best talent, we have an inclusive, strategic, and well-defined human capital planning process and a management approach that aligns to our business needs and mission.

We offer an inclusive and challenging work environment comprised of team members who are charged with delivering high performance and representative of the communities we serve.

Our core values – passion, respect, gratitude, learning, a positive attitude, teamwork and continuous improvement – are at the foundation of our strategies to drive our mission and business.

We have an inclusive, strategic, and well-defined human capital planning process and a management approach that aligns to our business needs and mission, and is designed to help us attract, retain and maximize the best talent.

As of December 31, 2024, we had 104 full-time team members in the U.S, and 4 full-time team members in Canada.

We also utilize independent contractors and temporary personnel to supplement our workforce.

None of our team members is represented by a labor union.

We also utilize independent contractors for freelance work and project-based work.

None of our team members are represented by a labor union.

We maintain a strong relationship with our team members and have never experienced a labor-related work stoppage.

Our Board of Directors provides oversight on certain human capital management matters, including through its Compensation Committee, which is responsible for governance over policies regarding human capital and compensation practices, including executive compensation, diversity, inclusion, pay equity, recruiting, retention, training and development, safety, and creating a working environment consistent with our culture, objectives and strategy.

Our Board of Directors provides oversight on certain human capital management matters, including through its Compensation Committee, which is responsible for governance over policies regarding human capital and compensation practices, including executive compensation, performance, pay equity, recruiting, retention, training and development, safety, representation and creating a working environment consistent with our culture, objectives and strategy.

Employee Health and Safety

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Specifically, we implement custom Injury and Illness Prevention Programs for our headquarters including safety training for our innovation lab, medical emergencies, power failure, bomb threat, fire safety, earthquake, and evacuation prevention practices.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging

Our commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging is focused on promoting equal employment opportunities and starts at the top with a highly skilled, diverse executive leadership team and Board of Directors in terms of both gender and race.

We promote diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging across our organization, via framework that is centered on providing equal opportunities and minimizing subjectivity via data-driven decisions to reduce the risk of bias and help ensure that everyone owns responsibility for inclusive behaviors and actions across the organization.

Zevia promotes equity through consistency and fairness with our people policies and practices that are designed to offer access, opportunity, and career growth for all team members equally.

We have best practice standards across various stages of the employee lifecycle, including performance standards.

In 2024, we launched a customized Workplace Violence Prevention plan designed to address the hazards associated with various types of workplace violence.

Company Composition:

High Performance and Representation

We focus on high performance and define it in part by initiative, excellence, and hard work.

We believe performance is best delivered by individuals who represent the diverse consumer base we serve.

We define diversity considering geography, age, education level, veteran status, gender, race, disability and other characteristics.

Our commitment is focused on promoting equal employment opportunities and performance, and starts at the top with a highly skilled representative executive leadership team and Board of Directors that is representative of our consumers.

We promote representation across our organization as a matter of bolstering performance, via a framework that is centered on providing equal opportunities and minimizing subjectivity via data-driven decisions to reduce the risk of bias and help promote culture where everyone owns responsibility for inclusive behaviors and high performance across the organization.

Zevia promotes equity through consistency and fairness with our people policies and practices that are designed to offer access, opportunity, and career growth for all team members equally across various stages of the employee lifecycle, including performance standards.

We strive to make promotions, compensation, and growth opportunities impartial, just, and transparent.

We maintain a consistent compensation policy across base salary, bonus, equity in the form of Restricted Stock Units (“RSUs”) and stock options, and benefit contributions.

We maintain a consistent compensation policy across base salary, bonus, equity in the form of Restricted Stock Units (“RSUs”) and stock options, all of which are based upon performance, and benefit contributions.

We believe everyone is an owner at Zevia, and we work together as one team to deliver results and achieve performance.

Our Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (“DEI&B”) Taskforce, comprised of a diverse group of representatives across the organization, aims to give our team members a voice in DEI&B work and allows different perspectives to shape and hold accountable and transparent our people policies and practices.

In partnership with our People team, the DEI&B Taskforce prioritizes topics related to the lifecycle of an employee’s experience at Zevia and through a DEI&B lens, offers suggestions for improvement.

In the latter part of 2023, the team also worked on defining equity and developing long-term initiatives and objectives.

Team members participate in the DEI&B Taskforce for twelve-months and regularly report on its work, priorities, and accomplishments to the overall organization, to foster transparency and trust.

Culture and Engagement

Our team drives the success of our brand, and every leadership or full team engagement features a conscious effort to engage and communicate with a focus on our values.

Our People team manages themes for contests, celebrations across diverse interests through the year, mental health resources, open surveys, team communication platforms, and training on resource access.

To meet our human capital objectives, we frequently utilize internal employee surveys to understand the effectiveness of our people programs and where we can improve across the organization.

In 2023, we launched a semi-annual engagement survey and monitored employee feedback for continuous improvements in culture with a focus on high-performance and people-centric initiatives.

Our team also has access to and participated in independent third-party surveys through Comparably.com, providing qualitative results that reported a rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars for Company Culture, and 95 out of 100 for CEO Rating.

In 2023, the Company was recognized with the following three awards from Comparably.com, measured by anonymous employee surveys:

2023 Best CEO for small to mid-size companies, 2023 Best CEOs for Women, and 2023 Best Company for Career Growth.

Our team drives the success of our brand, and every leadership or full team engagement features a conscious effort to engage and communicate with a focus on our values and on high performance.

Our People team manages celebrations across varied interests through the year, themes for contest, mental health resources, open surveys, team communication platforms, and training on resource access.

To meet our human capital objectives, we utilize internal employee surveys to understand the effectiveness of our people programs and where we can improve across the organization.

In 2024, we conducted two semi-annual engagement surveys and monitored employee feedback for continued improvements in culture with a focus on high-performance and people-centric initiatives.

Talent Acquisition

We hired 25 new team members in 2024, 87.5% of which were sourced by internal recruitment.

As part of our DEI initiative, we have implemented recruitment practices designed to remove bias in the selection process and we reflect our values to candidates through job description language using gender-neutral pronouns, no video calls during the first interview, and standard assessments for applicable roles.

We find candidates through a wide variety of sources to expand diversity, we offer flexible education requirements by role, and structure interviews with consistent processes to promote equal employment opportunities and minimize bias.

We have implemented recruitment practices designed to remove bias in the selection process and we reflect our values to candidates through job description language using gender-neutral pronouns, no video calls during the first interview, and standard assessments for applicable roles.

We find candidates through a wide variety of sources to expand the talent pool of potential candidates, we offer flexible education requirements by role, and structure interviews with consistent processes to promote equal employment opportunities and minimize bias.

We conduct transparent, collaborative and panel interviews for group input on all hires.

Benefits and Compensation Strategies

We strive to attract and retain diverse, high caliber individuals who raise the talent bar by offering competitive compensation and benefit packages, regardless of their gender, race, or other personal characteristics.

Our compensation program is designed to ensure our talented team is paid fairly and equitably, and well rewarded for performance.

We strive to attract and retain high caliber individuals who raise the talent bar by offering competitive compensation and benefit packages.

Our compensation program is designed so that our talented team is paid fairly and equitably, and well rewarded for performance.

The foundation of our compensation policy is a base salary and a performance-based bonus with targets tied to the Company’s annual financial performance.

We regularly review and survey our compensation and benefit programs against market to confirm we remain competitive in our hiring practices.

We aim for equal pay for equal work and make conscious efforts to close the pay equity gap through market adjustments and new-hire offers considered via thorough and transparent analysis.

We aim for equal pay for equal work and adapt accordingly to close any existing pay equity gaps.

Every full-time team member is eligible to receive equity-based compensation, which provides a sense of ownership and next-level engagement among employees at all levels.

Zevia also offers a Fortune-500 style benefits package that incorporates a robust contribution for all tiers of coverage to include:

medical, health savings account employer contribution, dental, vision, group and voluntary life & AD&D, critical illness, hospital indemnity, accident, short-term and long-term disability insurance, flexible spending accounts, pet insurance, legal access, and individual disability (ID) protection.

We offer a 401(k) Safe Harbor Retirement savings plan with Company matching contributions and no vesting schedule.

We have comprehensive paid time off and sick policies, paid bereavement, holidays, flexible schedules, remote and hybrid work, employee assistance programs, and a generous parental leave policy.

Our policies apply worldwide, with competitive benefit packages for all team members consistently applied but tailored to market-specific practices by country.

We have competitive paid time off and sick policies, paid bereavement, holidays, flexible schedules, remote and hybrid work, employee assistance programs, and a generous parental leave policy.

Training and Organizational Development

Our team members have access to various internal and external formal training and development courses to support individual growth.

Our team members have access to various internal and external formal training and development courses to support individual growth and support performance.

We offer an annual professional development allowance for continued advancement, with focus on a team member’s career path at Zevia.

1 unchanged sentence

Our internal training includes custom content by department and role, 100% participation in unconscious bias training, and management training and development.

In 2023, we continued with our Zevia University initiative where we offer unlimited courses online for all levels of employees to enhance soft skills, professional acumen, and discipline-specific skills.

We had 185 total course enrollments with 33% of those being new learners in 2023.

Performance Management

13 unchanged sentences

We believe the protection of our trademarks and domain names is important to our success.

We aggressively protect our intellectual property rights by relying on trademark laws and other laws related to proprietary rights around the world.

We seek to protect our intellectual property rights by relying on trademark laws and other laws related to proprietary rights around the world.

Our domain name is https://www.zevia.com.

19 unchanged sentences

We are also restricted from making certain claims about our products, including health claims, claims that our products treat, cure, mitigate or prevent disease or claims regarding the effects of our products on the structure or function of the body except under certain limited circumstances.

We are required to comply with federal, state, and local environmental laws and regulations such as restrictions on certain packaging containing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), and bottle deposit ordinances.

We continue to monitor the applicable regulations and seek to create policies and practices designed to abide by all applicable environmental laws, rules, regulations, and ordinances applicable to our business and products.

5 unchanged sentences

We are also subject to labor and employment laws, laws governing advertising, safety regulations and other laws, including consumer protection regulations that regulate retailers.

In addition, we are subject to federal and state laws and regulations related to cybersecurity, privacy and data protection, including the California Consumer Privacy Act (effective as of January 1, 2020), by the California Privacy Rights Act (effective as of January 1, 2023), the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act, (effective as of January 1, 2023), the Colorado Privacy Act (effective as of July 1, 2023), the Connecticut Data Privacy Act (effective as of July 1, 2023), and the Utah Consumer Privacy Act (effective as of December 31, 2023).

Additional U.S.

privacy laws continue to be proposed.

Our business involves the collection, use, storage, transmission, and management of personal data, including payment card and other sensitive or confidential information, relating to consumers, workers, partners, and suppliers.

We are subject to federal and state laws and regulations related to cybersecurity, privacy and data protection, including the California Consumer Privacy Act, by the California Privacy Rights Act, the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act, the Colorado Privacy Act, the Connecticut Data Privacy Act, and the Utah Consumer Privacy Act.

The privacy and data protection regulatory environment is constantly changing, with additional U.S.

state privacy laws being proposed or coming into effect regularly, each raising new and increasingly rigorous requirements applicable to our business and how we can use personal data.

We continue to monitor the U.S.

privacy and data protection law landscape, evaluate the potential impact on our business, and develop strategies to maintain our privacy and data protection compliance programs and policies.

However, the patchwork approach to regulation and pace at which it changes causes implementation of these requirements to be more complex.

We will continue to monitor changes and implement and maintain compliance measures, and we recognize that these changes and measures require significant resources and costs, and failure to comply with applicable laws could subject us to fines, governmental investigations, consumer demands, and lawsuits.

In Canada, the manufacture, distribution, marketing and sale of our products are also subject to compliance with similar laws, rules and regulations.

We are actively monitoring trade policy and tariff announcements including the recent executive orders issued by the new U.S.

federal administration in February 2025 regarding new tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico and China.

We are currently evaluating the potential impact of the announced tariffs as well as the recent implementation of a 25% import tax on all steel and aluminum entering the U.S.

on our business and financial condition and actions we may take to mitigate the impact.

In addition, we are monitoring the potential impact, if any, of actions taken by these countries in response to the announced tariffs.

Compared sentence by sentence after normalising whitespace, quotation marks, case and digits, so re-formatting and restated figures do not read as changed language. Wording changes appear as one removal and one addition. The current filing and the prior one are authoritative.

What changed 10-K

Item 1. Business