NewswireToday - /newswire/ - Austin, TX, United States, 09/14/2009 - Start up, HeatGenie, heats up customer and funding development by adding industry talent from fast-growing bottled iced tea company, Sweet Leaf.

Austin-based HeatGenie, developer of a packaging technology for heating foods and beverages on the go—simply, safely, and efficiently—has tapped both the President and CFO/COO of Sweet Leaf Tea Company to serve on its advisory board. Austin residents are fans of Sweet Leaf Tea’s high quality, bottled iced teas that taste like homemade with real cane sugar—particularly as Austin battled record heat this summer with 97 days of temperatures over 90 degrees. Now key Sweet Leaf executives help another startup with plans to heat up the prepared food market.

Dan Costello relocated to Austin in April 2009 to serve as President of Sweet Leaf. Previously with Nestle Waters for over 17 years and Frito-Lay for seven years, Costello has a strong record of sales leadership success in the food and beverage industry. Brian Goldberg has been in executive leadership at Sweet Leaf Tea for nine years and currently serves as both CFO and COO. Goldberg brings proven success in driving operational improvement and increased shareholder value within early-stage private equity ventures. Sweet Leaf, an Austin-based beverage company, raised $15.9 million of investment capital from Nestlé Waters in March 2009.

HeatGenie (heatgenie.com) aims to give name brands a new way to win back market share from store brands. Name brands want to create more product usage opportunities and improve the customer experience. HeatGenie’s safe and simple self-heating packaging technology enables them to differentiate from store brands. Other self-heating packages, such as those using quicklime and water, had weight and usage drawbacks. HeatGenie is inexpensive to manufacture and integrate into normal metal packaging. With strategic advice from Costello and Goldberg of Sweet Leaf Tea, HeatGenie expects to ignite a revolution in the food and beverage industry.

Agency / Source: HeatGenie

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