EPISODE S.6, E.13

[LIVE AT DRINKTEC 2025]

Justine Johnson (00:11):

Welcome to another episode of the BrewDeck podcast. You’re probably sitting there wondering whose voice is behind the mic today. Well, it’s me, JJ, Justine Johnson, the marketing and events person who is usually busy behind the scenes pulling the strings. But for this special episode, I went rogue. I swiped the mic, hopped a flight across the pond, and now reporting live from drinktec 2025 in Munich, Germany. Drinktec is the world premiere international trade fair for beverage and liquid food industry. On today’s episode, I get to introduce Jorge, our company’s CEO. I get to speak to our innovation team and talk about the malt developments that they have made this year, and then I get to flip the script and chat to our regular hosts. So stay tuned.

(00:50):

We are now joined by Jorge Solis. He is the CEO of Soufflet Malt. Hello, Jorge.

Jorge Solis (00:56):

Hi. Hello Justine. Thank you for this opportunity.

Justine Johnson (00:58):

I am so glad to be speaking to you today at drinktec. For those of you who don’t know, we are at drinktec this week as Soufflet Malt with all of our seven heritage brands. Jorge, what is your perspective on drinktec?

Jorge Solis (01:11):

First of all, this is the first time that I’m coming to drinktec. I’m new to this industry since one year and a half. I’m very proud first about the team and what they have put together for this drinktec. We are unleashing the power of malt. Since I’m here one year ago, one year and a half ago, it is how to bring the malt to the next level and what we are bringing today is a lot of innovations. So I’m very excited in drinktec to present this innovations to the world.

Justine Johnson (01:33):

And what would you say that your goals, Soufflet’s goals of drinktec is? You spoke about the innovations, but how do you feel about that?

Jorge Solis (01:41):

Well, first is to continue building the brand of Soufflet Malt. We created Soufflet Malt just one year ago, and now it’s how to bring Soufflet Malt to the next level. But at the same time, we have the Heritage Collection. So beautiful to have those brands in our portfolio and it is with more than 200 years of history that we want to keep unleashing the power of these brands too. The first and fundamental piece is how we can continue building out of these brands, but now as well, how can we go beyond beer and whiskey? And at the end of the day, how can you have malt at every moment of the day?

Justine Johnson (02:16):

That’s amazing. And with the Heritage Collection, we launched a number of those Heritage Collections in North America, so Durst, Tchecomalt and Castle this year, and they were also at our Craft Brewers conference booth. You also attended your first Craft Brewers conference this year. What were your biggest takeaways from that versus what you see at drinktec, which is just a different event in itself?

Jorge Solis (02:37):

There you have a lot of small craft owners, so I had a chance to meet a lot of those owners to better understand what are the real needs of what they are looking for. How do they see the future of our industry in United States and how these new brands can really serve them for this future that they see and how can we all this to them in their hands so that they can continue unleashing their power too.

Justine Johnson (03:04):

What would you say after being at all of these events and kind of traveling around and getting to meet a lot of our customers, big, small, what would you say excites you most about where the industry is heading?

Jorge Solis (03:15):

Well, I see a lot of innovations as well from our customers on what is zero alcohols, the beers. We have been tasting today a beautiful beer that is produced without the word malt at zero zero, which is great. I think a lot of improvements has been done in this.

(03:31):

I’m so proud as well that we have partnered and we have signed a contract with the largest zero producer in United States before summer. We will need to communicate more about that. And I think the trends that we’ve see in the industry are very favorable as well for us to keep growing.

(03:46):

But I see a lot of innovations on how we can unleash the power of the malt as well to cacaos, to coffees. You have been seeing this today as well with us. You have been tasting. I’m so excited. You have been eating those cookies that we have been eating together. So quite a lot of cookies as well to bring out of the new innovations of Soufflet Malt.

(04:07):

The team is working hard in order to bring all those innovations to the ground, but not stopping there. It’s just that we want the malt at every moment of the day so that we can see it from the morning to the night and have it in your mouth and in your hands so that you can enjoy it as we do it today.

Justine Johnson (04:23):

And as you said, you’ve kind of got to see a lot of different aspects of the industry over the last year with again, Craft Brewers conference, just visiting some of our plants across the world. Now drinktec. What would you say is one of the favorite places that you’ve traveled so far for the company and maybe why?

Jorge Solis (04:40):

Well, I have been visiting most of our plants now, and I think first it’s not about the place, but it’s about the people. And I love to be very close to the people. I like to be with you today so that we can be enjoying and discussing and thinking and creating together. Every time that I have the opportunity to meet each one of our employees and our customers and our partners, I learn from them and I see how we can do better as a company in everything we do.

(05:05):

I like as well when I go and visit the customers and they invite me a very nice beer or a very nice whiskey, but I want to keep trying as well new beverages as well as they are developing new beverages and we want to be with them developing these new beverages out of the alcohol, non-alcohol beverages. And I want to keep traveling and meeting each one of them, customers, employees and being close to them.

Justine Johnson (05:29):

One final question, and this is a curveball we like to throw at people. What would you say is your favorite beverage in the malt industry?

Jorge Solis (05:37):

It’s still a beer. I think that’s one of the reasons I joined this company when they called me for the first time to say, “Do you want to go out from automotive industry being 30 years there and come into the beer whiskey industry?” I say, yes, “Of course. Yes, of course.” And I love the beer and I am even happy to see now the zero zeros as we discussed before being so good because now I can enjoy it all day long. I have started this morning already with my zero. I keep drinking my zero this right now and this afternoon, so that’s really nice. So beer, I will still say with a beer.

Justine Johnson (06:10):

Awesome. Do you have a specific style or just any of them?

Jorge Solis (06:13):

IPAs. I love. When I go to U.S., I think in terms of beers, I love to be in U.S. trying in every pub different things, and that’s still what helps me out to continue there. I have not tried everything that is far to be even a little small part of it. I used to have used to drink the same beer during my very first 30 years of starting drinking age, of course.

(06:40):

But now since a few years with the craft industry in the United States start booming, I start to try many different things as well as now I’m living in Belgium since 15 years. Belgium is amazing as well to try so many different beers. There is a place that they have more than 1,000 different beers in Brussels that you can enjoy next time that you come and join us here. And it’s so nice. It’s so nice to see how different flavors, how different tastes, and how you can enjoy each one of them.

Justine Johnson (07:08):

I appreciate your time so much today. Any final words for us or anything else you’d like to say?

Jorge Solis (07:14):

I’d love to be with you today. Thank you, Justine. Great job.

Justine Johnson (07:16):

Thank you, Jorge. And I am now joined by Laurent Debande, who is our Chief Innovation and Growth Officer.

Laurent Debande (07:23):

Welcome. Thanks, Justine. So yes, I’m Chief Growth Officer in charge of innovation, business development and marketing. So my role is mostly to look after how we can accelerate, develop new businesses for Soufflet Malt. And of course all the innovation has to be malt-based innovations and solution has to be for brewers and distillers because we have a lot of things to deliver still, but of course adjacent market’s going to be our big focus in the next coming months.

Justine Johnson (07:52):

And this week at drinktec, we introduced a number of products and innovations. Can you tell us about some of those?

Laurent Debande (07:58):

Yeah, so the two big bet for the company right now and the one where we have the biggest focus was cacao replacer and non-alcoholic malt-based beverages.

(08:07):

So cocoa replacer basically is a roasted malt that we [inaudible 00:08:12], that we milled to have a powder which could replace deflated cocoa powder in many applications. And the non-alcoholic beverage is a malt-based concentrate. So it’s 99% of malt and the rest is water, which is very versatile concentrate. And you can mix with aromas, herbs, extract whatever you want, hops to formulate a very nice soft drinks without alcohol malt-based.

(08:41):

And once again with a lot of new interesting stuff around. So there is no sugar added. [inaudible 00:08:47] is quite low, sugar is easy to modulate and you can even have best sugar profile than the normal soft drinks because it’s less glucose and more maltose sugar and so on and so on. So very, very interesting positive innovation. And on top of that, once again, a very versatile one. So our client brewers soft drink producer could use it and make their own product with it.

Justine Johnson (09:14):

We actually, you submitted that to the Food Bev World Awards and we are shortlisted. We unfortunately didn’t win, but we are close and I think it just shows that the innovation is getting noticed and it has some legs to it.

Laurent Debande (09:27):

Yeah. So we are very happy to be nominated. But for me, the best award is the feedback we got from the customer. So we see many customers, big ones. I mean our Carlsberg with [inaudible 00:09:38], but also smaller ones, people from developed country, some people from developing markets. They were all positive about the products already imagining many, many potential applications. So that’s a very promising first step and a very promising first discussion with our customer. And we believe that we going to be able to make a really great and promising development.

Justine Johnson (10:02):

Even with the cacao powder replacement, we had cookies created with it. The customers who have stopped by have really enjoyed them and they wouldn’t even know that there’s no cocoa actually in it. How did you go about making the cookies and how was that your thought path for those?

Laurent Debande (10:18):

We simplify the thing. We just took an assumption where we say we are not experts in everything. So now what we try to do every time is we ask experts to help us to formulate a product we want to develop a market we want to target.

(10:34):

So for example, to make the coffee malt, we ask the worldwide champion of roasting coffee and he did a coffee, which is Waouh. He did it in a few weeks, two, three weeks where maybe going to have take us months to make it.

(10:50):

The same for cookies. We asked to craft bakery in France to make cookies with their own know-how and they did cookies. They even asked us to sell the cookies to the customers in the boutique.

(11:03):

So that was very good and we will continue to do so. So we’re going to try to, based on the ingredients we’re imagining, ask people who are really expert in their domain to help us to transform these ingredients in concrete solution products, recipes for the customer which are good, relevant and attractive for the final end user.

Justine Johnson (11:25):

And so when you’re looking at developing some of these new products, what has kind of gone into your process from start to finish?

Laurent Debande (11:32):

I’m always not full, I mean we have very strict processes in order to have a pipeline to, because we said and we want to stick to that. We don’t have thousands of resources, so we have to be very accountable of our resources to be bold and to be straightforward and to be sure to have the right resources behind the right bets.

(11:51):

Nevertheless, we start from zero. We always like to say we are a kind of startup within Soufflet Malt, so we need to bring a lot of new ideas to be sure that we’re going to have very strong, very few but strong and innovative solution at the end. So that’s why we made a lot of trials, assumptions. We are always helping the team as the R&D team to open up and come with new ideas. But very quickly what we say that, “Okay, that’s very nice, but what we can do with that?” And if we don’t see any application for the market, we’re going to deprioritize it and we’re going to just focus on the one where we see a solution and application and the markets very quickly. So that’s the case with cocoa replacer.

(12:35):

And of course coffee because that’s market where the price are booming and all player in this market are looking for new accessible solution. That’s the case for non-alcoholic product because 20% of the new generation don’t want to drink alcohol anymore, so they have to have new fancy beverages without alcohol. And that’s the case for other products we’re working on, which going to help to transition from the current food dietary today to a plant-based dietary to a plant-based food where we feel and we think and we see that malt could have a big role in this transition.

Justine Johnson (13:14):

You can definitely see how much work has gone into it to make those replacements such as the cacao powder. And it’s incredible and thank you to you and your team.

Laurent Debande (13:26):

And thank you to the R&D team because I’m really proud of the agility and the pragmatism that the team put behind all the things they have done.

(13:36):

Bear in mind that of course we had a lot of project which were already in maturation, some idea which was wrong, but they really started to work with objective to deliver innovation for malt somewhere at spring around March, April, and now we, six months after we are in drinktec, we showcase, we reveal all the product publicly with a sample with mock-ups. People are able to taste it to give us feedback on concrete products and mostly positive feedback with a lot of enthusiasm around. And that’s really great.

(14:13):

So once again, only in six to eight months being able to switch from a story, which was even just a start to something which was already running is really incredible. And once again, it’s thanks to the commitment and the engagement of the R&D team with whom I work since April.

Justine Johnson (14:32):

I’m sure a lot of people are really excited about it. And I guess on the North American and outside of Europe, what is our plan to increase and maybe continue to promote these products?

Laurent Debande (14:46):

So we of course try to foster [inaudible 00:14:49] with North America, Latin America and Asia-Pacific. So we start to have good contact with people there. I mean Abi, Dana and people in [inaudible 00:14:59] of teams, Cyril who just arrive on Asia is also a great support. And we already started to do jobs with a consultant to identify the segments and the potential customer.

(15:10):

So we are a global team, so we are not here to serve only EMEA or France. We are here to serve all the teams across the world and we are here to spread our solution, innovation all across the world. So just we’re going to try to in the coming months to move closer to the people to also communicate around the solution to find customer in America, Canada, wherever. But of course, feel free to come to us, come with your challenges, with your perspective, and it’s going to us, sorry, help them to, help you, sorry, to connect and to bring powerful workshops to seduce and convince your customer.

Justine Johnson (15:51):

I’ve seen the work on our North American team and just seeing how the different, because in the Americas it is slightly different climate and slightly different industry of what they may be looking for, but to be able to share that wealth of knowledge across the globe between our teams is certainly helpful.

Laurent Debande (16:07):

Yeah. And we see that for sure. For example, in Asia, probably blend base is much more advanced and we have probably bigger opportunity on blend base in Europe, blend base is still starting market.

(16:20):

In U.S., we have a lot of discussion around what is a better food solution about, and we see that probably we have a lot of solution to bring to the U.S. market to have clean labeling, to have products with more natural to also help the customer who are more and more cautious about the health and the quality of the food.

(16:40):

So I think we have a common platform which could travel, but then we have to discuss with the local team to adapt to the local challenge and the local consumer needs. And the idea is not to come with a one size fits for all solution. It will never work. And we are an ingredient producer, so we are here to bring in ingredient and tailor-made it to the market, the local market needs. And that’s what we want to do and that’s why we still want to listen to the customer and help the local teams to bring the perfect solution for the local markets.

Justine Johnson (17:15):

That’s fantastic, and I can’t wait to see what else you and your team are able to produce out of this. My one final question to you, and this is a curveball we like to send at people, is what would you say your favorite malt beverage is?

Laurent Debande (17:27):

I would say that’s probably the next one we’re going to invent, but I’m quite excited and even if it’s a bit a gadget, I’m quite excited about the Virgin Spritz, the Virgin cocktail we have done with concentrate malt and some other ingredients we mix together because it’s showing exactly the simplicity and the versatility of what we are inventing, which is once again an ingredients to help our customer to play with and finally formulate their products. And we’re not coming with the products that they have to use, but we’re coming with solution to help them to imagine what they want to deliver to their customer. So that’s exactly that.

(18:07):

So that’s probably the next, we’ll have many new products we’re going to come and every time we’re going to say, “Wow, I like this one, but I prefer the new one coming, etc.” So that’s what I would say.

Justine Johnson (18:21):

Do you have anything else you’d like to pass on to our listeners?

Laurent Debande (18:24):

I will say please join the movement and no, but the more we’re going to be together to link with the customer to have insight from the customer, the more we grow, the more we understand where we can play and the more we’re going to deliver high business targets.

Justine Johnson (18:41):

And to our listeners, please reach out to your local sales rep if you hear any of these that you really want to try, and we’re going to certainly try to get them across to you. Thank you, Laurent.

Laurent Debande (18:49):

Thank you, Justine. Bye-bye.

Justine Johnson (18:51):

I am now joined by your typical hosts of the BrewDeck podcast, Heather Jerred and Brittany Drennan. Hello ladies. Good morning.

Heather Jerred (18:51):

Good morning.

Brittany Drennan (18:58):

Good morning, JJ.

Heather Jerred (19:02):

Morning for us. Happy hour for you. What do you have in your hand right now, JJ?

Justine Johnson (19:07):

I currently have a Curious lager from Ashford, England [inaudible 00:19:12].

Heather Jerred (19:11):

Is it delicious?

Justine Johnson (19:12):

It is. It’s just so smooth and easy drinking and after you don’t even know what time you start anymore, so it’s just a full day.

Heather Jerred (19:19):

Yeah, I always find it so hard and I was like, “Oh, it’s three hours time difference.” I can’t imagine having to do the work stuff on your current time change that you’re working on. But you are of course in Germany right now, correct?

Justine Johnson (19:32):

I am in Germany. I am in Munich this week at the 2025 drinktec conference.

Brittany Drennan (19:40):

What is that?

Justine Johnson (19:41):

Yeah, so drinktec, it is like CBC, but crazier. Drinktec happens every four years and it’s basically for all beverages, all of the technology, the packaging, the manufacturing, the ingredients, raw materials, everything for beverages, not just beer, not just spirits that we’re used to, but the hop or sodas of the world and everything in between.

Heather Jerred (20:10):

[inaudible 00:20:10].

Brittany Drennan (20:09):

Does it change locations or is it always in Munich?

Justine Johnson (20:13):

Drinktec is always in Munich and it offsets BrauBeviale, which is in Nuremberg for three years. And then drinktec is always up on that fourth year.

Heather Jerred (20:21):

So it’s like CBC, but on steroids?

Justine Johnson (20:25):

Yes, pretty much. And it at least stays in the same-ish location for the events that they do.

Heather Jerred (20:31):

I see. At least get to see a little bit more at the town as you go there more often. We always get, I always say whenever we get to go to these cool places for CBC, I’m like, “Yes, I see the five-block radius around my hotel in the conference center. I don’t get to venture very far.”

Justine Johnson (20:45):

Well, and I think that’s what’s even about drinktec is unlike CBC, which is about two and a half, three days, drinktec is five days and every day the trade show is open from 9:00 to 6:00. So that’s already a hall. And then some stands have after parties at their booth at like 10:00, 11:00 PM and so you don’t often see the outside, but there’s windows.

Heather Jerred (21:08):

Well that’s good. Could you imagine having an [inaudible 00:21:10] at our booth at CBC? That would be so fun. Our booth’s fun.

Justine Johnson (21:15):

I’ll just start bringing some natural light into CBC and we’ll just grow all the things and have all the fun.

Heather Jerred (21:21):

We’ll be the happy booth with all the vitamin D coming in.

Justine Johnson (21:24):

I mean, you know what? There’s something to say about some good vitamin D throughout the day and the sunshine.

Heather Jerred (21:29):

We would have the dogs and we would have vitamin D. We’d be the happiest booth around.

Justine Johnson (21:33):

We’ll just start getting some walking pads and then do a virtual reality so it feels like you’re really immersed in an outdoor area.

Heather Jerred (21:41):

Well, I’m going to talk to my person that plans CBC. JJ, are you making notes for when we plan CBC?

Brittany Drennan (21:48):

She’s like, “I’ll just climb on top of the conference center and cut a hole out for a skylight.” [inaudible 00:21:53].

Heather Jerred (21:54):

She might. I wouldn’t be surprised with JJ sometimes. “How can I make this better?”

Justine Johnson (22:00):

You know what, I’m always thinking of that and I’ve got some good ideas stemming from this week, so hoping it’s just going to get better.

Heather Jerred (22:05):

Speaking about stemming from this week, I’ve got to listen to a couple of your interviews that you’ve done. You spoke with our chief innovation officer.

Justine Johnson (22:14):

Yes.

Heather Jerred (22:14):

And this is a lot of stuff that we’ve been talking about, I guess internally for a long time. Hearing about innovation, hearing about innovation in the craft brewing industry as well as some of our other aspects that our company does. Are you seeing a lot of excitement there about the new ways we are using malt?

Justine Johnson (22:30):

Yes, there has been so much interest in the items that we brought. Laurent and his team, John Charles, are insane with what they were able to create and I can’t even describe some of them to you.

(22:44):

One of the things that we brought is they developed, it’s only in its second generation. It’s still really new, but based off of the interest from this week, I would say coming to a location near you sometime in the future, but it’s like a cocoa replacer, fully malt. It’s like a chocolate malt, but it’s wild. They make a cocoa powder out of it and they were able to make cookies out of it and the smell of the malt and everything, you would have no idea that there’s no cocoa in it.

Heather Jerred (23:13):

That was actually a question that I put on here was can you tell me about the cookies and will you be bringing me a cookie?

Justine Johnson (23:21):

I don’t know if they’re going to last another two, three weeks before I see you. They might be a little hard and break a tooth, but I will definitely try to sneak some of the cocoa powder in my pocket if I can. And if not, I will definitely speak to the team and see what they’re willing to send us.

Brittany Drennan (23:38):

So you’re saying this is basically like a chocolate substitute?

Justine Johnson (23:42):

Yes. So obviously we know with the industry of how cocoa, the price of it is going and just sourcing the raw ingredient. We’re trying to find innovative ways to break into that food market and also just break into different areas of development for again what malt can do.

Brittany Drennan (24:00):

Is there anything else that we’ve released that you are allowed to talk about?

Justine Johnson (24:04):

Yeah, so two of the other projects that the R&D team were developing, one is a coffee. So a malt-based coffee. Obviously no caffeine [inaudible 00:24:17] in it. No caffeine, what’s the point? I know. I get it. But for those six eight cups a day, sometimes you need some sleep and to cut down the caffeine and they were able to create a light roast, a medium roast and a dark roast. It’s almost like drinking a wort, but there’s not the sweetness or anything that you’re typically getting off of a wort. So it’s crazy to just see the development on that one.

Heather Jerred (24:39):

We’ve been hearing pretty consistently malt every time of the day. That’s kind of something they’ve been saying. And I guess that that is what they’re talking about when they say that. That’s malt in the morning, malt in the afternoon and you’re enjoying your evening malt now, I suppose.

Justine Johnson (24:55):

Yeah. And just creating some of those more different alternatives to malt and where it’s not just alcohol-focused.

(25:01):

And that’s even one other innovation that they brought this week. It’s like a malt extract for soft drinks. So they actually entered them into the World Innovation Awards and they’re able to create iced teas and it is a liquid form and it’s like one part of the malt extract and seven parts water. And so it’s kind of like a replacement soft drink. They created a lemonade style, an iced tea style, which was a finalist [inaudible 00:25:31] in the World Food and Beverage Awards. So getting a finalist there of innovation was amazing.

(25:37):

So we’ve definitely had a lot of interest in this and just seeing where, like you said, how they’re malted every moment of the day and where you can break out of just the beer and spirits world.

Heather Jerred (25:47):

So non-alcohol has obviously been a really big focus here in North America. We’ve talked about it a lot on the podcast. How does these new innovation goals kind of fit into that sphere?

Justine Johnson (25:58):

I mean, I think the fact that those three products, not one of them has alcohol in it. It’s a coffee, it’s a soft drink without the syrup and the sugar and then a cookie or a cocoa powder that you can really turn into anything. I want to kind of sneak some of the cocoa powder and make my own hot chocolate and just really test it out that way.

Brittany Drennan (26:17):

Yeah, milkshakes. I mean, it’s endless possibilities, right?

Justine Johnson (26:22):

Yeah. I just think of the baked goods because I love a good sweet. I will never say no to dessert. And for those of you who don’t know, when Heather and I travel together, we order everything on the dessert menu.

Heather Jerred (26:36):

All the desserts. It’s our treat yourself when we get to do our little dinners together because we obviously don’t live in the same city anymore.

Justine Johnson (26:41):

You know what? I’m an adult. Why? I just have to choose one.

Heather Jerred (26:44):

I think childhood, Heather and JJ would really be proud of us for ordering all of the sweets. So you’re wrapping, drinktec is wrapping up, I guess today for you? Tomorrow?

Justine Johnson (26:57):

I know.

Heather Jerred (26:58):

For you. Got one more day.

Justine Johnson (26:59):

It’s still tomorrow. I still got another day on this one.

Heather Jerred (27:03):

Wow.

Justine Johnson (27:04):

I got, yeah.

Heather Jerred (27:04):

You should probably have another beer because I think you’re going to deserve it.

Justine Johnson (27:07):

You know what? I might have to. And this year at our booth we did kind of a wall of a bunch of our customers and such and just to show the vast products that our products that our malt and everything is in. And there’s a lot of beers, there’s hundreds of beers up there, but there’s a couple of whiskeys and gins and I might have to crack into those this afternoon.

Heather Jerred (27:28):

What’s been the highlight of the trip so far for you? And it doesn’t have to be just from drinktec. I mean you got to go over to Europe this week. So what’s been the best part?

Justine Johnson (27:36):

As we said kind of at the beginning, when you’re at a trade show, you don’t really see much of the city. And I can tell you I haven’t seen much of Munich yet and I haven’t even eaten Bavarian food yet. I don’t know how, but I got some Italian, I got some French, got some sweet.

Heather Jerred (27:52):

I saw this on your Instagram. Get in there, go get some [inaudible 00:27:55]. It’s delicious.

Justine Johnson (27:56):

I know. I’m going to have to go for some schnitzel tonight or something.

(27:59):

But I would say truly the highlight of the trip is just getting to meet our team from across the world. Obviously we have a strong presence in the European region with our sister brands, Tchecomalt, Durst, Castle, Bairds, and then we also have Barrett Burston represented here. And just getting to meet the people behind those brands and connect with them and build that global feel.

(28:22):

Our team is so amazing and they just make you feel so comfortable and welcome. And as if I didn’t travel for eight 15, I don’t remember how many hours. What day is it? Who am I? But I think the people have truly made the trip.

Heather Jerred (28:37):

I want to say thank you for taking over the podcast for us while you’ve been over there this week. I know it’s been a busy enough week. And again, like I said, got to listen to some of the interviews that you’ve done and they’ve been great. You’ve got to talk to a lot of people at our parent company, which we don’t get to do all the time. So that’s really cool. And thank you so much for giving Brittany and I guess a little bit of a week off.

Justine Johnson (28:57):

Hey, you’re welcome. And you know what, I would say anytime, but I am fully happy to pass the mic back.

Heather Jerred (29:02):

Well, we’ll take it.

Justine Johnson (29:05):

All right, ladies. Well it has been such an honor to chat to you and I cannot wait to hug you both.

Heather Jerred (29:13):

I can’t wait to [inaudible 00:29:14].

Brittany Drennan (29:14):

Get home safe.

Justine Johnson (29:14):

All right, have a good one.