Next chapter for Fresh Victor beverage arrives at Draeger’s Menlo Park

We first talked to Atherton native Ken MacKenzie in 2017 soon after he’d launched Fresh Victor, cold-pressed juice mixers made without preservatives for creating cocktails. At that time, the mixers could be found in grocery stores.

“We had great success in the epicurean retail market,” he said. “But we found what we’d created was ideal for bars and restaurants. We started getting great customers like Disney in Orlando and Loews hotels. As we continued to focus on food service in 2019, it was easy to visualize how that could scale across the U.S.”

Then COVID-19 hit.

“Multiple distributers contacted us saying they had no clue what was going to happen, or even if they could deliver what was in route,” Ken recalled.

Nine months later, Ken and Fresh Victor have come full circle with the installation of a five foot refrigerator in Draeger’s Menlo Park as well as direct to consumer buying options via the company website with free shipping.

“I’ve been told drinking is up 400%,” Ken said. “We’re shipping in 48 states. Fed Ex delivers direct to people’s homes.

“And we’re expanding to 120 markets in the Midwest and earmarked five refrigerators for the Bay Area.”

For a guy who attended Oak Knoll, Hillview and Menlo Atherton, he’s come home again, even if it was pandemic driven.

Top photo courtesy of Ken; bottom photo by Irene Searles (c) 2017