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LEHI — Swig snagged top Dutch Bros Coffee executive Daniel Batty to take the "dirty soda" chain nationwide.
Batty has more than 20 years of experience in the fast food industry and spent the last five years building hundreds of Dutch Bros Coffee locations around the country. He's also worked at McDonald's, CKE Restaurants and Dunkin Brands.
"Daniel is a real heavy hitter in the industry, so we definitely sought him out," said Alex Dunn, CEO at Swig. "We are really thrilled to have him be part of the team."
Batty had known about Swig for years before he jumped on board as the new chief development officer. He said he's always admired the drive-thru soda company's transparency and goodwill.
Swig, founded in St. George in 2010 by Nicole Tanner, is now owned by the Larry H. Miller Company. That changing of the guard opened up opportunities to franchise, Dunn said.
Turns out, Utahns don't have a corner on the soda market.
"We were able to sell almost 500 franchise units in a few months," Dunn said.
And there's demand for more — Dunn said he still gets phone calls every day from franchisee hopefuls — but Swig has put franchising on pause for a while to catch its breath and get those first 500 franchise locations on their feet.
"I think the soda market, as a whole, is just embraced nationwide," Batty said. "I think soda appeals to a lot more people than coffee does."
It's no secret that soda, with its terrific margins, is good for business, he said.
The soda business seems to do well everywhere, but especially in the Sun Belt. Texas, Arizona and Arkansas were early Swig adopters. The Carolinas and Florida will be getting locations soon, too.
Batty is excited to help Swig spread its wings. Part of the reason he's passionate about the company is because of its service-oriented, hard working culture. One of his favorite tidbits is that both Swig and Dutch Bros were founded by farming families.
"Swig has an amazing culture, and I think you can feel that all the way from the top, down to a drive-thru," Dunn said.
