Utah-based dirty soda chain Swig announced Monday the appointment of former Dutch Bros executive, Daniel Batty, as the fast-growing concept’s first chief development officer.
In his previous role as vice president of design and construction at Dutch Bros Coffee, Batty helped the quickly-developing coffee company grow from 29 new stores in 2018 to 180 new stores in 2024. Prior to Dutch Bros, Batty held various leadership positions at McDonald’s, CKE Restaurants, and Dunkin Brands, where he built and led strategies for development, franchise growth, business acceleration, and more.
In jumping from one fast-growing beverage chain to another, Batty will help Swig to achieve its long-term goal of growing from 70 locations to 1,400 units over the next eight years.
“Daniel is a game-changer: he is experienced, strategic, and uniquely qualified to help lead Swig’s expansion across North America,” Alex Dunn, CEO of Swig, said in a statement. “Swig is more than a beverage company; we need leaders who understand our mission of fostering human connections and sharing ‘happiness in a cup.’ It’s clear Daniel is cut from the same culture cloth, and we’re honored to have him join team Swig.”
Swig is best known for being at the forefront of the dirty soda beverage trend — which combines soda, dairy creamer, and flavored syrups and is popular in Utah — and was one of the fastest growing new concepts last year. According to Technomic Top 500 data, Swig had the second-fastest sales growth rate across the beverage and snack category at 39.1%. Swig also had the third-fastest unit growth rate in the category, behind only Crumbl and HTeaO.
The company is owned by real estate and entertainment investment company, the Larry H. Miller Company, which had purchased a majority stake in the company from former Swig owner, Savory Fund, in Nov. 2022. Savory Fund maintains a minority ownership stake in the company, alongside Swig founder Nicole Tanner, and partners Chase Wardrop and Dylan Roeder.
“Dutch Bros will finish out the year with 1,000 locations in under six years, and in talking with Andrew [K. Smith of Savory Fund], he said to me, ‘Look, Swig is just at the beginning of that journey,’” Batty told NRN. “They're trying to put the all the processes and the people in place to kind of make that progression happen…. I met with the team, and we are just culturally aligned…. I’m excited to be a part of it.”
With an ambitious long-term goal of building more than 1,300 stores in mind, the company will probably be about 900 franchised shops and 500 corporate stores, with corporate growth likely to move along quicker than franchise growth. Batty is currently in talks with the Swig leadership team to put a development plan in place.
“Soda is a big part of the American culture, and dirty soda is this groundbreaking idea that Swig propelled,” Batty said. “It’s going to be really exciting to watch it grow across the nation. I think the growth opportunity is actually much higher than 1,400, but that’s something leadership will determine over time.”
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