#109 Cut Costs or Keep Trust. Every Product Brand Faces This.

Every product brand eventually faces the same decision: cut your ingredient costs and grow faster, or protect the formula and grow slower. Pierrich Picard has been refusing the first option for almost ten years. Pierrich is the founder of Gutsy, the Montreal fermented beverage brand he started in 2017 and has grown into more than 1,000 stores across Quebec and Ontario, with a ginger beer that was named best in the world last year. In this episode, he explains: - **The margin trap:** an ingredient swap can cut your costs by 90 percent, which is why so many clean brands quietly reformulate once investors get involved. - **Why "natural" means almost nothing:** natural flavour is unregulated to the point where he found solvents listed inside one. - **What refusing costs you:** protecting real ingredients has limited his growth by a multiple, and he explains what he gets back for it. - **National TV is not a sales channel:** his Dans l'oeil du dragon appearance grew in-store sales 82 percent in a week with no deal signed, and the relationships mattered more than the money. - **Clout is not revenue:** the brands with the loudest communities are often the ones without the sales, and he has stopped competing for attention**.** **Follow Gutsy:** Gutsy on the web: https://gutsydrinks.com/ Gutsy on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gutsydrinks/ **Find me here:** Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sandydedeian/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sandydedeian LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandydedeian/ **Sponsors:** **Metricool-** Schedule all your content in one place. Use code RECTIFIED for a 30-day free trial of any tier: https://i.mtr.cool/RSBQOY **Chapters:**  00:00 Intro 01:16 Did prebiotic sodas take the gut health market 02:25 Why clean brands quietly change their ingredients 04:34 Fermented versus added probiotics 06:36 The side product that became best in the world 09:39 Dans l'oeil du dragon: 82% in a week, no deal 11:12 The darker side nobody shows 14:36 How it started in Nicaragua 15:48 The investor who wanted cheaper ingredients 17:00 What saying no costs you in margin 23:55 What natural flavour is allowed to mean 26:58 Starting on tap instead of in cans 30:46 Small shops, big chains, shelf space politics 40:07 Ten years in: becoming more himself 44:02 Three things for founders in a hard season