John Craven

…

…

…

…

…

…

Whether a first-time attendee or grizzled veteran of Natural Products Expo West, there was a singular feeling felt throughout: the 2013 show was simply mind-boggling in size and scale. Within the cavernous halls of the Anaheim Convention Center, a keen sense of excitement and opportunity filled the air as beverage companies, retailers, distributors and investors looked to take advantage of the rising tide of consumer demand for natural products.

…

…

While Natural Products Expo East often gets overshadowed by its massive sister shows, this year’s edition, which featured dozens of entrepreneurial beverage brands, certainly held its own. Offering a mild glimpse of post-recession recovery for natural beverage brands and the industry as a whole, Expo East featured a strong showing from beverage suppliers, distributors, and manufacturers, with many showcasing innovative ingredients and sweeteners seen for the first time at the show.

This morning, The Wall Street Journal said that The Coca-Cola Company was in talks to acquire the Monster Beverage Company in what would be the company’s largest acquisition to date (Monster has a market cap of over $11 billion). However, at 4PM Eastern, Coke issued a statement denying that there are any acquisition talks and simply chalked it up to standard communication that the two parties have over their existing distribution relationship. Sorry folks, no deal today……

Breaking news as the Wall Street Journal has reported that Coca-Cola is in talks to buy Monster Beverage. The energy drink giant has a market capitalization of more than $11 billion and would be the largest brand acquisition for Coke. Shares of Monster Beverage have skyrocketed on the news, fluctuating between $75 and $79 per share.

In celebration of their 20 year anniversary, AriZona is offering the chance for their fans to vote — via Facebook — on one of three new flavor concepts that they’ve created. Since it would be impossible to have every fan that votes try the flavor samples (and what fun would it really be to just vote based on the name of a flavor?), AriZona asked a variety of people, including food writers, celebrity chefs, random consumers on the streets of New York, and yours truly, to work as “Flavor Panelists.”

The latest Expo West show turned out to be the biggest on record with more than 60,000 attendees and over 160 beverage-related exhibitors packing the event. Marching through the vast halls of the Anaheim Convention Center, BevNET’s John Craven and Andrew Guard examine new and continuing trends seen at the show including new uses for coconut water, the growth of alkalized waters, natural energy, “refined” refreshment, and the increasing use of chia and oats in wellness drinks.

This morning, PepsiCo announced that it would be trimming 8,700 employees — 3 percent of its global workforce — as part of a cost-saving program intended to recoup $1.5 billion in projected expenditures over the next three years. News of the cuts confirmed expectations reported over the past month, and came as the company reported its fourth-quarter and full-year 2011 results.

We’re pleased to announce that as of December 2011, we are changing the name of Beverage Spectrum to BevNET Magazine. The start of a new year seemed an appropriate time to extend the BevNET brand, which you already know from our digital offerings and from BevNET Live, our conference series, to include the print side of our business. We also plan to enhance BevNET Magazine to offer expanded coverage of the supplier and product development components of the beverage business, as well as the growing craft beer industry, while maintaining our focus on new product coverage, trends and innovation.

…
Today, I’m pleased to announce the official launch of the mobile version of BevNET.com. With over 10 percent of BevNET.com’s traffic in 2011 coming from mobile devices (and we suspect much more in 2012), we decided that it was time to give mobile readers an optimized version of BevNET.

If you operate a new beverage company (meaning your brand is less than 1 year old), the New Beverage Showdown 2, which is taking place at BevNET Live Winter 11 on December 5 and 6, is your chance to get your brand in front of the industry (What is the New Beverage Showdown 2?).  However, the deadline to apply is rapidly approaching, with applications due by this Wednesday, November 9.  Aside from exposure to our audience of investors, distributors, and other industry professionals, there’s $5,000 in cash going to the winner.  Click the link below to apply now.  Questions?  Feel free to contact me via email.

With more than 100 beverage-related exhibitors and over 20,000 attendees, Natural Products Expo East returned to Baltimore after a three year stint in Boston. While Expo East lacked the thunderous atmosphere that Expo West enjoyed earlier this year, the show did feature a number of new and innovative beverage companies introducing products in growth categories like tea, coconut water and aloe juice, as well as several rebrands and repackaging efforts – most notably by Honest Tea.

Back in October, Harmless Harvest showed off their USDA Organic coconut water at the 2010 Expo East Show in Boston.  They created quite a buzz for themselves — so much so that they had to go back to the drawing board and figure out how to launch this product in a way that would scale.  Now, several months later, the wait is over.  Fortunately, they put the time to good use, having come up with something that’s even better than what they showed at Expo East — 100% Raw Coconut Water.  Instead of using heat to pasteurize the product (they…

This morning, BevNET received the very sad news that Ed Slade has passed away after a battle with cancer. Ed’s time in the industry will not be forgotten, having worked with a host of food & beverage companies both big and small, including ConAgra, Group Danon/Evian, FIJI Water, Twelve Beverages, and Owater. His biggest and most impressive feat came during his tenure at FIJI, where, as President and COO, he led the brand from being its startup roots into what eventually became the number one bottled water in the US.

The most talked about segment at our recent BevNET Live Summer 11 event in NYC was the “New Beverage Showdown”, a new beverage brand competition that we developed in partnership with our sponsor, Coca-Cola’s Venturing and Emerging Brands Unit.
We were so proud of the way it went – adding a bit of drama to the second day and all – that we’ve decided to post the presentations, as well as the debrief of the winner.…

An exciting competition at this summer’s BevNET Live in Manhattan will allow one new beverage brand to win $5,000 in cash and other prizes valued at $15,000 – as well as gain valuable exposure and advice – as part of the New Beverage Showdown, a two-day live product and plan review debuting at this summer’s BevNET Live in Manhattan. Sponsored by VEB, a business unit of Coca-Cola North America.

It’s been a big couple of years for husband-and-wife team Theo and Kara Goldin. Their company, Hint, which produces unsweetened essence waters, has doubled year-over-year sales, is nationwide in Starbucks, and has a product that’s well positioned at a time when more and more consumers are seeking natural, low-sugar beverage options. But that wasn’t always the case for Hint.

The new product season got off to a blazing start at Natural Products Expo West. Whether they were real introductions, re-introductions of products from earlier in the year, or soon-to-come products being poured from jugs, this year’s Anaheim-based show featured a veritable flood of new beverages for attendees to consider. We’ve created a video tour of some of the most interesting ones – and will be reviewing as many as possible in the days and weeks to come.…