Strategy
Growth rarely comes from doing more. It comes from doing what matters most.
Together, we'll identify the value gaps worth pursuing—and the distractions worth leaving behind.
Tomorrow's Growth Starts With BOLDER Thinking.
Built for beverage and CPG leaders who choose action over comfort.
NBS Growth Partners is a beverage and CPG growth firm advising founders, executives, and leadership teams tackling complex commercial challenges, accelerating growth, and building organizations prepared for what's next.
Because tomorrow's growth isn't found in yesterday's playbook.
Our Why
We believe the future belongs to organizations willing to:
- Challenge 3 tier assumptions.
- Attack the value gap.
- Simplify complexity.
- Move with purpose.
- Own the outcome.
The Value Gap
Companies are great at calculating value. Realizing it proves more challenging.
$1.4B
VALUE ERODED
Quaker + Snapple
$422M
PRETAX LOSS
Zillow Offers
$98.7B
REPORTED LOSS
AOL + Time Warner
Capabilities
Bold thinking changes nothing. Bold action changes everything.
Ideas don't create value. Execution does.
We help leaders identify and solve growth-eroding challenges. Creating measurable results where value bleeds fastest: commercial strategy and transformation, 3-tier optimization, AI human enablement, organizational design, leadership, and culture.
Commercial Transformation
Execution is where strategies succeed—or fail.
The best strategies create value when teams stay fiercely focused on executing what matters most.
We align people, priorities, and accountability to turn bold ambitions into value.
AI Human Enablement
AI won't transform your business. Your people will.
Technology doesn't fail. Adoption does.
The organizations that create the most value prepare their people for change before they introduce new technology.
We help leaders build AI-ready teams that don't resist change—they drive it.
Organization
The strongest organizations aren't built around hierarchy. They're built around accountability.
Clear accountability creates faster decisions. Faster decisions create agility. Agility creates growth.
We help leaders build organizations where ownership is clear, decisions happen faster, and people are empowered to act—because people support what they help create. From route to market decisions to mergers and aquisions, the organizational discipline provides the launch pad.
Leadership
People don't follow strategies. They follow leaders.
Great leaders aren't measured by how many people follow them. They're measured by how many leaders they create.
Leadership isn't about having all the answers. It's about creating an environment where people are empowered to think, decide, and act with confidence.
We help leaders build other leaders—because organizations grow only as fast as their people do.
Culture
Culture isn't your greatest asset. The RIGHT culture is.
The organizations that outperform their competition don't simply react to change—they build cultures that expect it, embrace it, and drive it.
We help build cultures where people seek out change, embrace ownership, and continuously create value.
About the founder
Built by someone who's sat in your seat.
Founder. Executive. Board Member. Builder.
For more than 25 years, Sarah Bakx has built businesses from the ground up, scaled emerging alcohol and non-alcohol companies, and led multi-billion-dollar global commercial portfolios within Constellation Brands and Treasury Wine Estates.
She has experienced leadership from every angle—as a founder, entrepreneur, commercial executive, enterprise leader, and board member. She understands what it means to make difficult decisions when the outcome is yours to own.
Sarah is known for building growth, creating high-performing cultures, leading transformational change, and bringing fierce honesty to the conversations that matter most. She doesn't advise from the sidelines—she advises from experience.
NBS Growth Partners was built on the belief that tomorrow's growth belongs to leaders willing to think differently, act decisively, and challenge what's possible.
As featured in
Recognition: 2024 Wine Industry Leader, Business Monthly · Top 50 Chief Sales Officers
Affiliation: Member, YPO
Founder
Built businesses from the ground up and understands the realities of ownership, risk, and growth.
Growth Builder
Scaled brands, teams, organizations, and commercial capabilities through periods of rapid change.
Public Company Executive
Led multi-billion-dollar global commercial portfolios, iconic brands, and enterprise transformation within PE backed and public companies.
Board Leader
Brings governance experience alongside operational leadership, balancing long-term strategy with accountability and execution.
Our Promise
You'll always get unfiltered truth.
Experience over theory
We've performed the jobs we advise on.
We've led beverage and CPG organizations. Built iconic brands. Reshaped teams. Answered to boards. Made the difficult decisions when the numbers didn't work.
That's why our advice is grounded in experience—not theory.
Ownership changes everything
Advice is easy when someone else lives with the consequences.
This is where NBS defies traditional advisement. We approach every engagement with the mindset of an owner—not an observer. Our responsibility isn't to produce more analysis, its to produce more value.
That's the difference between giving advice and creating real growth.
No buzzwords. No unnecessary complexity. No recommendations we wouldn't implement ourselves.
Because tomorrow's growth starts with bolder thinking.