The Appointment
Death Wish Coffee Co., the self-described number one Fair Trade and number one organic roasted coffee brand in the United States, has hired Sasha Auguste as Chief Marketing Officer, the Saratoga Springs, N.Y.-based company announced Wednesday. Auguste will assume responsibility for brand strategy, digital initiatives, innovation support, and integrated marketing across the company's growing retail and direct-to-consumer channels.
The Executive's Background
Auguste arrives from YumEarth, the better-for-you natural candy brand, where she led a strategic repositioning effort that sharpened the label's differentiation and expanded its shelf presence in the natural confectionery category. She also built out an omnichannel growth model spanning direct-to-consumer, Amazon, and key retail partners, and developed an innovation pipeline that pushed YumEarth into adjacent product segments. Earlier in her career, Auguste directed brand repositioning and launched the direct-to-consumer channel at children's food brand Kidfresh — a background that maps closely to the growth levers Death Wish is now pulling.
Market Context
Death Wish Coffee's retail footprint has grown to more than 25,000 stores nationwide, according to the company, and its Fair Trade and organic positioning — verified by SPINS MULO scan data through December 2025 — gives it a measurable competitive edge in premium packaged coffee, one of the fastest-growing segments in center-store grocery. The CMO hire signals that the brand intends to invest more aggressively in consumer-facing brand-building as competition in the specialty and better-for-you beverage space intensifies. The company's product roster — Dark Roast, Medium Roast, Espresso Roast, Light Roast, and its Valhalla Java blend — is uniformly Fair Trade and certified organic, a positioning that resonates with natural-channel buyers and increasingly with mainstream grocery chains.
Steve Gardiner, CEO of Death Wish Coffee, framed the hire as part of a deliberate talent strategy tied to product and distribution growth. "Sasha is a proven leader, and her experience at big and small brands will help us up our game even further," Gardiner said.
Auguste pointed to the brand's direct relationship with its consumer community as a key draw. "This is a brand that has never been afraid to challenge convention," she said, adding that she sees meaningful room to accelerate growth and broaden the consumer base without diluting what differentiates the label. Her mandate will include steering new-product innovation alongside the existing blend portfolio and deepening engagement across digital and retail environments.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
