You’re walking down the aisle in the convenience store looking for a drink that sounds good but isn’t loaded with sugar, sound familiar? One local dad is looking to solve that problem, and he’s including his family along every step of the way.
“There’s ups and there’s downs but you don’t give up,” said Seikura Banks.
That’s just one of many lessons Seikura and her sister Beatrix have learned watching their dad Sean grow his business.
“From Amazon we bought a science kit a mixer and beakers and my wife is sitting there with a notepad taking notes on how much we used and the formulations to make sure it was good,” Sean Banks said. He’s now the CEO and founder of Krisp Drinks.
The story of his business starts while he was managing a convenience store. He would ask people buying sugary drinks at the register if they knew what was inside. A lot of times customers didn’t realize how packed with sugar drinks were that are marketed as “healthy.”
From the business idea, it’s been a family affair. Sean ordered beakers and mixers off Amazon and sat around the dining room table with his wife and kids to try out new flavor combinations.
“In the African American community diabetes and obesity runs rampant,” Banks said. “So we wanted to create something that tasted sweet for them but was healthy.”
He took his oldest daughter along with him to manufactures and found a copacker who gets water from the Locust Mountains of Pennsylvania.
“I wanted to find somebody in Pennsylvania,” Banks said. “That was important to me. I wanted to keep everything as local as possible.”
After lots of cold calling and taking initiative, Krisp water is now delivering their flavored water to grocery and convenience stores all over the U.S.
But the story doesn’t stop there. Banks is committed to establishing generational wealth for his family. He’s teaching his daughters lessons in entrepreneurship and business ownership in hopes his daughters take over the business someday.
“You’re going to have roadblocks in your way all the time nothing’s smooth and nothing’s really easy,” Banks said. “But it’s about keep pushing forward. That’s the main thing I’ve taught them.”
And while the girls say they didn’t necessarily start out with a passion for the business, now they love going to meetings and traveling for the company. It’s become something they choose to be a part of.
“I love it because I get to hang out with my family,” Beatrix Banks said. “And it’s just great memories.”
You can find Krisp Drinks in Giant stores near the other flavored water, or on Amazon. The drinks are also in some 7/11s around the area.
View This Story on Our Site