IN Brief:
- Remedy has appointed Santino Luciano as managing director for the UK and Europe.
- Luciano previously led Remedy’s Asia-Pacific business after several senior roles with the company in Australia.
- The appointment comes as kombucha and functional soft drinks continue to move toward broader retail and production scale.
Remedy Drinks has appointed Santino Luciano as managing director for the UK and Europe, creating a dedicated regional leadership role for the Australian kombucha and functional drinks business.
Luciano takes up the position after six years with Remedy in Australia, where he held senior leadership roles including managing director for Asia-Pacific. He now relocates to the UK as the company looks to build on its existing position in kombucha and wider better-for-you soft drinks.
Remedy specialises in kombucha and live-cultured, no-sugar drinks. The brand accounts for around 40% of total UK kombucha sales and has a stronger category position than any single competitor. The UK kombucha market is estimated at approximately £44m and is growing at close to 23% year on year, although penetration remains below more mature markets such as Australia, Canada, and the United States.
The appointment follows the UK launch of Remedy Sodaly, the brand’s better-for-you soda range. In Australia, Sodaly has become a major part of Remedy’s growth plan and is on track to reach AUD $70m in the current financial year. The UK and Europe role gives the company a clearer structure for developing kombucha and adjacent soft-drink formats across a less mature market.
For beverage manufacturing, kombucha remains a technically distinct category because it depends on controlled fermentation. Producers must manage culture health, sugar conversion, acidity, flavour development, carbonation, residual fermentable material, filtration or stabilisation choices, and pack performance. Those variables are harder to control as volumes increase and distribution broadens.
A recent recall involving pressure build-up in kombucha packaging showed how quickly live fermented drinks can move from quality issue to safety issue when residual fermentation continues inside sealed glass. That case placed carbonation, residual sugar, storage temperature, bottle strength, and closure performance under close scrutiny.
Remedy’s growth therefore sits within a category where manufacturing discipline becomes more important as distribution widens. Small-batch fermentation can be managed with close operational oversight, but mainstream retail supply requires repeatable process endpoints, tighter microbiological and sensory testing, validated packaging, and logistics systems that protect product consistency.
The UK market still offers room for expansion. Retailers are increasing space for low- and no-sugar beverages, fermented drinks, prebiotic products, and adult soft drinks with stronger functional positioning. Kombucha has benefited from those trends, although its flavour profile and fermentation language remain less familiar to some consumers than conventional soft drinks.
That creates a difficult balance for manufacturers. Products need enough fermentation character to justify the category, but they also need consistency, drinkability, shelf stability, and pack convenience. As kombucha moves into larger retail and foodservice settings, the category cannot rely on novelty alone.
Competition is also widening. Kombucha now sits alongside functional sodas, collagen drinks, electrolyte beverages, probiotic waters, low-sugar energy drinks, and premium adult soft drinks. Remedy’s expansion into Sodaly reflects the need to compete across broader beverage occasions rather than defend kombucha as a narrow fermented-tea niche.
Luciano’s experience in Asia-Pacific gives Remedy leadership from a market where the brand has already developed kombucha and adjacent better-for-you soft drinks at greater scale. Applying that experience in the UK and Europe will require careful attention to production planning, retailer expectations, consumer education, and pack performance across different channels.
The appointment gives Remedy a clearer regional lead at a point when functional soft drinks are becoming more competitive and more technical. Kombucha’s next stage of growth will depend on brands making fermentation reliable, accessible, and consistent enough for mainstream beverage habits without stripping away the product character that built the category.