Jeffrey Klineman

The past two years have brought on tremendous change in the beverage industry, and products and systems of going to market that may once have been considered on the fringe will be have great influence over the future of the entire business.

In the rarified world of high-end coffee, there’s a broad discussion of whether the post-Starbucks rise of independent coffee shops and specialty roasts comprises a third wave or fourth wave of coffee culture in the U.S. Regardless of the wave number, however, there’s something gathering out there on the horizon; it’s cold brewed iced coffee, and it’s headed for a store near you, and likely sooner than you think.

One Day Boot Camp & Networking Event:  “Financing Your Consumer Products Company”
Natural, Organic, Specialty, Retail & Premium
May 23, 2013; 8:00am-4:30pm; San Francisco, CA

The Natural Products Consulting Institute announces a comprehensive seminar and networking event led by industry veterans Bob Burke and Michael Burgmaier.The seminar also will feature expert speakers: a leading angel investor; institutional and strategic investors, including 2X Consumer Growth Partners,  San Francisco Equity Partners and CircleUp, debt providers (K2 Financing) bankers; and entrepreneurs who have successfully raised capital and sold their companies, including Jean Arnold, CEO, 479◦ Popcorn and Neil Grimmer, CEO & Co-founder, Plum…

BevNET’s 2013 Natural Beverage Guide is the beverage industry’s largest guide to beverages targeting the natural channel, including juices, teas, bottled waters, CSDs, concentrates, powders, and other natural beverage enhancers. This key resource will be aimed at beverage retailers and distributors who are looking to include additional natural products.

Growing beverage companies have a new option for raising investment cash, and the Coca-Cola Co. has a new way to get involved in determining their future, taking a limited partnership stake in a new fund focused on non-alcoholic beverage brands. First Beverage Ventures has launched the new fund in collaboration with Coke’s Venturing & Emerging Brands (VEB) group — along with several other investors — to invest in small and emerging beverage brands.

Outbreaks, Decontamination Zones and Office Sweeps—Solixir Goes All In on Zombie Trend
(CHICAGO, IL)- Solixir, a new all natural functional drink brand, announces the launch of their innovative marketing and advertising campaign titled “The Working Dead,” which will hit the streets of Chicago on April 1, 2013.   A play off of the popular television series “The Walking Dead” and other recent Zombie trends in the media, including movies like Warm Bodies (February 2013) and World War Z starring Brad Pitt (June 2013), Solixir’s shock and awe campaign employs advertising dominations at Chicago’s elevated rapid transit system or the “El,” working…

Months of regulatory pounding have begun to take their toll on the energy drink category, as sales growth has begun to slow, although the category does remain one of the most vital in beverage overall.

Body Armor, the brand started by Fuze founder Collins and backed by heavyweight investor and Vitaminwater sales chief Mike Repole, announced yesterday that the nutrient-enhanced “superdrink” will be distributed by the DPSG network in New Jersey and Northern California.

According to the Atlanta Business Chronicle, the company is applying for a patent for a high-fiber concentrated product that can be made with artificial sweeteners and turned into a variety of frozen beverages, both carbonated and non-carbonated.

Catskill Mountains, NY – March 27, 2013 – New York Spring Water (NYSW), makers of innovative and functional products that begin with some of the purest water found on earth, are pleased to announce the launch of VBlast Refresh, VBlast Antioxidant, and VBlast Immunity formulas into their VBlast line. The line extensions will house three new proprietary formulas in NYSW’s patented twist cap that is designed to deliver pure liquid blends of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants to help your body regenerate, fight free radical damage, and protect itself.
VBlast, Refresh Formula is built of Choline, Vitamin E, and Zinc to…

According to Center for Public Integrity reporter Dave Levinthal, an expert on lobbying and lobbyists, the flock of nine skilled operatives from the top-tier Podesta Group represents a move that will take an “all-of-the-above” approach to trying to work the levers of power in D.C. at a time when politicians – particularly Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) have been holding regulatory agencies’ feet to the fire when it comes to investigating their concerns about the beverages.

The country’s largest supermarket company has formed a strong internal strategy under VP of Natural Foods Mary Ellen Adcock to try to remake itself in the minds of natural and organic consumers as a place where they can go to discover new, on-trend drinks and other products, partnering with L.A. Libations on the beverage end.

John Lenore & Co. – which has distributed Monster for the brand’s entire existence – will no longer carry it as of April 1. The energy drink volume sales leader is moving to a pair of wholesalers affiliated with Anheuser-Busch, including an AB-owned affiliate in the south half of the city and Markstein Beverage Co. in the north.

Officially, Debbie Wildrick, is announcing the start of my consulting practice, http://www.GrowingInnovativeBrands.com….  Our mission is helping new and emerging brands maximize their potential.  Our services and capabilities are based on Growing Innovative Brand’s 10 Pillars to Building a Successful Consumer Packaged Goods Company.  The types of clients we are able to help include new brands entering the market, emerging brands looking to grow their business, retailers looking for expert assortment analysis and new product decisions, and large companies reviewing new introductions or by-channel strategies.   Please like our Facebook page, or follow me on Twitter, where you’ll be updated on

After 13 years, Fizzy Lizzy founder Liz Morrill and her husband and partner, Aaron, have finally taken an exit, selling the company to venerable New York soda company White Rock Beverage.

There’s 100,000 bottles of tea on the wall, and Honest Tea is hoping they’ll be taken down, passed around, and are just pretty much gone, and soon.

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.

Layoffs at Neuro have taken place recently, but they are part of a realignment strategy that has been forced by the company’s growth, the company’s president told BevNET today.

“It feels crummy,” Paul Nadel said. “But from a company standpoint it was the only thing to do.”

One might imagine that there would be a focus on natural and specialty retailers among the brands working the aisles of a natural products exposition, but at Natural Products Expo West, which wrapped up on Sunday, a growing number of beverage companies have started bypassing those channels – and Whole Foods itself – altogether in an attempt to capitalize on the very same health and wellness movement that the grocer helped to launch to prominence.

The country’s third-biggest energy drink company, Rockstar, has published a white paper prepared by research and testing company Intertek that pushes back against reports that the product might be dangerous to consumers.

Distribution player L.A. Libations announced an investment in chia smoothie company Chia\Vie today at National Products Expo West.

With two days to go before the Natural Products Expo West conference opens in Anaheim, BevNET has received advance notice of four new product line introductions from different high-profile entrepreneurial beverage companies.

Soma beverage, which has made Metromint for the past several years, is being fully folded into the portfolio of Crystal Geyser, a longstanding spring water company and stablemate in the portfolio of Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co.

It had to happen: there’s a class-action lawsuit evolving in U.S. District Court, Central District of California over misleading marketing and advertising practices by functional beverage company FRS over former spokesman Lance Armstrong.

Compared to the number of times the questions get asked of Mike Kirban, the overall frequency is disproportionate, but the dimes get dropped to us a lot, nevertheless, so I decided to head down to Manhattan to ask him. So, I said, as Kirban settled behind his desk — yes, in the corner office — are you selling Vita Coco to Dr Pepper/Snapple?