Episode summary
TikTok Provides Boost for 100-Year-Old Food and Beverage Manufacturer | Bloomberg Businessweek
Bloomberg Businessweek Daily
· · 11 min · Hosts: Carol Massar, Tim Stenovec · Guests: Ken Wegner
Summary
Jel Sert is leaning into both its century-old manufacturing base and newer social-media-driven product development. Ken Wegner said the family-owned company has made dessert mixes, drink mixes and freezer bars in suburban Chicago since 1926, and now makes all of the products it sells in the United States in West Chicago, Illinois. He framed the business as resilient after surviving the Great Depression, wars, recessions and COVID, while still adjusting to supply-chain disruption and tariff pressure.
The biggest growth is in powdered drink mixes, especially single-serve sticks that modify water with flavor or function such as electrolytes, energy, immunity or protein. Wegner said recent launches show how quickly the company can scale when it catches consumer attention: a Duncan-branded refresher product reached the number three powdered soft drink mix on Amazon in six weeks and became one of the fastest-growing food and beverage items TikTok Shop has seen.
Wegner also said the company is using social data to guide flavor innovation. He pointed to Margaritaville mocktail flavors and 25 new Wilers Light flavors launched since the beginning of 2025, including cotton candy, peach ring and pickle lemonade, as examples of listening to “Water Talk” and other online trends.
Key takeaways
- Ken Wegner said Jel Sert makes 100% of its U.S. products in suburban Chicago and employs about 1,400 workers.
- The company’s fastest-growing category is powdered drink mix in single-serve format, with function-led uses like electrolytes, energy, immunity and protein.
- A Duncan-branded refresher became the number three powdered soft drink mix on Amazon in six weeks and one of TikTok Shop’s fastest-growing food and beverage launches, Wegner said.
- Wegner said Jel Sert launched 25 new Wilers Light flavors since the beginning of 2025 based on social-media flavor signals.
- He said ingredients, more than packaging, have been the biggest cost pressure from overseas sourcing and tariffs.
Notable quotes
“we make 100% of all the products that we sell here in the United States and here in suburban Chicago”
“the category that's growing the most right now is in powdered drink mix and it's in a single a singles to go format”
“In six weeks of launching that item, it became the number three powdered soft drink mix on all of Amazon”
“We in the past year and since the beginning of 2025, we launched 25 new flavors of our Wilers Light brand that were all social media influenced”
How the episode opens
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio, news. — You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Tim Stenc on Bloomberg Radio.
In the meantime, we continue to talk about the Friday decision by the Supreme Court pushing back on President uh Trump's tariffs. We know over the weekend and since uh President Trump seems to be figuring out some workarounds, right? uh and is not done in terms of imposing tariffs.
So, we're kind of finding our way through that. In the meantime, it's great to talk with business owners, some public, some private, some smaller, some bigger, in terms of how they are thinking about this business environment. And for that, we do head to Chicago and to Ken Wegner, president of the family-owned business, the Jelsert Company.
He, by the way, is the grandson of the founders and has worked at the company since 1985. If you're not familiar, you will be when he starts talking about the company. They are makers of dessert mixes, drink mixes, and freezer bars and more and do some really interesting collaborations.
Um, Ken, great to have you here with Emily and myself. Broaden out for us and tell us a little bit about your company. You've been around for a while.
You've seen some different business cycles, but tell us exactly what you guys do.
Well, thank you both for having me on. I I really appreciate it. Very excited about this opportunity.
As you said, the Jelster Company is a family-owned business. My grandparents started the company uh in 1926 and we have um always been based in the Chicago area and are in the suburban part uh the western suburbs of Chicago. We are a 100-year-old company.
We're celebrating our 100th anniversary this year and we're very proud of the fact that that we've been able to achieve a 100red years.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- food and beverage innovation
- brand partnerships
- social data and flavor development
- workforce expansion
- west chicago expansion
Companies and tickers mentioned
- Jel Sert Company
- TikTok
Watch the episode
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
More from Bloomberg Businessweek Daily
-
Bloomberg Businessweek Weekend - November 13th, 2026 | Bloomberg Businessweek -
Inside Jensen Huang’s Final Hours as Nvidia CEO | Bloomberg Businessweek -
Jensen Huang's Exit Kicks Off Nvidia Strategy Reset | Bloomberg Businessweek -
Special Episode: Bobby Jain on Why He Chose Millennium Again | Bloomberg Businessweek -
Bloomberg Businessweek Daily Podcast: Jensen’s Nvidia Departure -
Take-Two Releasing Long-Awaited Grand Theft Auto VI Next Week | Bloomberg Businessweek
Bloomberg Businessweek Daily, this episode and its artwork belong to Bloomberg. Octagon is not affiliated with the show; this page is an independent summary.
