Matt Casey

The FRS Company’s distribution partnership with PepsiCo will bring the quercetin-fueled beverage to large-format stores east of the Rockies beginning around September, when the brand will also debut improved flavors and new packaging, said president and CEO Carl Sweat.
“We wanted to land on the new distribution in the fall,” Sweat said, “[with] better tasting and better looking product.”
The agreement, which will funnel FRS through PepsiCo’s Quaker/Tropicana/Gatorade grocery distribution system, will help get the brand’s concentrate, powder and chew forms into more areas of grocery and drug stores, Sweat said. The product – especially its ready-to-drink form – has…

An opinion published Wednesday by the European Food Safety Agency could have a ripple effect on U.S. food and beverage products, stevia production insiders report.
The opinion will likely trigger the EU to confirm World Health Organization guidelines for the safety of stevia-based sweeteners, according to Dave Bishop, vice president of international affairs at stevia-sweetener producer GLG Lifetech Corporation. The WHO deems safe all stevia sweeteners that are at least 95 percent steviol glycoside (the collection of chemicals that give the stevia leaf its taste).
That will have no direct impact on the U.S. market, Bishop said, because, while early…

FUZE veteran Bill Meissner this week left his job as president of TalkingRain Beverage Company to take over as president and CEO of Jones Soda Co. While the move swaps Meissner’s Preston, Wash. office for one just 20 miles west in Seattle, the financial distance between the two independent beverage icons could hardly be larger.
TalkingRain, owned by a quiet group of diversified investors, has endured as a Northwest staple for more than 20 years and hired Meissner 18 months ago to push its brands into national distribution. While the company has tinkered with its products, it has displayed no…

BAWLS will continue – without Hobarama.
The brand’s investors, who have yet to find a buyer, will infuse cash into the energy soda to stabilize BAWLS while they continue to search for an exit strategy, according to Kevin Coyne, a partner at Canal Mezzanine Partners.
“We’re optimistic that the brand’s not going to die,” Coyne said. “We’re not going to walk away from it.”
Coyne said Michael Moecker & Associates, the firm handling BAWLS’ restructuring, filed papers in a Florida court to turn over the BAWLS brand and its associated intellectual property to its secured investors. Completing that process, Coyne…

In another sign that the regulatory environment has changed, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently sent letters to 16 firms – including five RTD beverage companies – citing ingredient and health claim violations.
The agency’s letter to POM Wonderful said POMs expansive health claims – including boasts that it may help with blood pressure, prostate cancer and erectile function – elevate POM to the level of unapproved drug rather than a food product.
The agency chastised the brand, a leader in the trend toward more-prevalent antioxidant claims, for using its web site to bring attention to scientific studies and…

The American Beverage Association announced plans Tuesday to simplify calorie information and make it more accessible, attracting the praise of one of its most vocal critics.
“I don’t often find myself in the position of saluting this industry, but, in this case, I think they’ve done well,” said Kelly Brownell, director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale. One of the leading voices encouraging taxation on sugared beverages, Brownell said a tax is still “absolutely necessary,” but added that the ABA’s plan – which would increase the standard serving size from eight to 12 ounces and…

Rockstar Energy has found a home with PepsiCo, Inc. and plans to spend the bulk of 2010 pushing four new products, including two that could expand the brand’s reach, and one that returns Rockstar to old ground.
The company will soon begin the national roll out of Rockstar Roasted Espresso, said executive vice president of marketing Jason May, and this week began distribution of Rockstar Energy Gum (the company’s first non-beverage product), Rockstar Energy Cola and Rockstar Recovery.
Rockstar Recovery, a 10-calorie per-serving energy and electrolyte drink, will target active consumers who frequent the energy door, May said. Aimed at…

Beverage brands seeking to reach consumers in a world of rapidly-shifting media habits may be overlooking their most reliable line of communication: cell phones.
“The most ubiquitous communication device the world has ever known is the phone,” said Anthony Risicato, CEO of New York-based Mobile Commons.
His company connects brands with consumers through text messages, an advertising vehicle that Risicato said boasts a 95 percent “open rate” – a measure of how often they are read by the recipients. The catch with Mobile Commons and other reputable firms is that they only send messages to users who opt in to…

and Jeffrey Klineman
As a group of investment bankers attempt to firm up a deal to sell struggling Hobarama LLC, maker of the energy drink BAWLS Guarana, the company’s creditors have put a restructuring firm in place with a mandate to slash costs and prepare the company either for sale or for operation at drastically reduced staffing levels.
Michael Moecker & Associates, a Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based company that specializes in the restructuring and liquidation of bankrupt companies, began working on a plan for BAWLS that involves cutting overhead while maintaining the company’s product delivery to retailers and distributors. That overhead…

After 23 years of producing and airing the kinds of soft drink commercials that people talk about for months (or years), PepsiCo will keep its beverage brands out of this year’s Super Bowl.
The company reported that it will instead promote its core brands through The Pepsi Refresh Project, a program that will divvy out at least $20 million for community renewal initiatives. The program will begin in mid-January, when the company opens a web site where consumers can submit grant proposals and later vote on which proposals should receive funding.
The decision, which the company said was not due…

Coconut water, a product category currently surging as a result of the intense marketing efforts of three highly motivated firms, is poised for change in 2010.
Vita Coco founder Michael Kirban told the crowd gathered at this week’s BevNET Live conference that he expected to see “bastardizations” of coconut water in 2010. Those products, he said, may take the form of sports drink or other functional beverages using coconut water as an ingredient. Specifically, he said, he wouldn’t be surprised to see a Gatorade product with coconut water in it.
One of his competitors may have something similar in mind.…

In a further sign that coconut water is maturing as a beverage category, ZICO LLC announced Tuesday that it received a minority investment from the Coca-Cola Co.’s Venturing and Emerging Brands Unit as part of a $15 million round of financing that also included brand-builders Suite 850 and other individual investors.
Despite an investment for the beverage giant the arrangement won’t alter ZICO’s immediate plans, according to Mark Rampolla, the company’s founder and CEO. He said the company will stick to its DSD network – which includes Polar, Big Geyser and Haralambos – and continue to target coastal markets through…

Big Geyser brought Polar Beverages’ Black Jack Teas to New York City in July, according to Gerry Martin, vice president of marketing for Worcester, Mass.-based Polar.
Martin said the distributor created 16 oz., 88 cent pre-priced Black Jack to take advantage of the trend of putting teas in bigger cans – both rising at the time of the product’s introduction – and capture the value segment of the tea market.
He said he was thrilled to be working with a company as respected as Big Geyser, and called the partnership a good fit – both because the firms have a…

PepsiCo announced its intention Wednesday to purchase Brazilian coconut water giant Amacoco, and American coconut water marketers praised the move as lending validity to their chosen category – though it could create a difficult competitor in the future.
“I think the best of my initial response is that it was inevitable,” said One Natural Experience (O.N.E.) co-founder Rodrigo Veloso. Amacoco, said the Brazil native, had grown too large selling a single product to remain independent.
Veloso said his company sources product through Amacoco, as does its competitor Zico, though Vita Coco, a third player in RTD coconut water, does not.…

The recent acquisition of Bossa Nova Beverage Group by Beverage Holdings LLC will mean more Bossa Nova products in the near future, and more Bossa Nova-influenced beverages further down the line, according to Bossa Nova founder Alton Johnson.
Johnson said he will play dual roles at Beverage Holdings. He will remain the head of Bossa Nova – which, he said, will continue to operate independently – and will also play a creative role at the acquirer, which also owns Very Fine, Elations and Sunny Delight.
Beverage Holdings, he said, recently invested in infrastructure to allow it to better create, produce…

Steaz, with its tea-based sodas and energy drinks, has long been a mainstay in the natural foods channel, but – suddenly – it’s a conspicuous participant in mainstream grocery stores.
The brand announced last year a new line of organic, fair-trade iced teas in 16 oz. cans, and has recently pushed that line into mainstream grocery stores. The introduction employs imposing floor displays and a price point that rivals that of category leader AriZona. Cans sell at 10 for $10, and 64 oz. multi-serve jugs sell for 2 for $5.
“We sacrificed some margin to introduce these lines as an…

With CytoSport signing a distribution agreement with Pepsi Bottling Group for Muscle Milk and competitors VPX and Labrada expanding their distribution in mainstream channels, nutritional companies are becoming a force in the beverage industry. With that in mind, we took a look at each company’s recent U.S. Trademark Office filings to see what plans it might have for the near future.
CytoSport: CytoSport’s Muscle Milk represents the biggest crossover success from nutrition shops to convenience stores, and the company has made no secret of its intent to extend that success. CytoSport briefly pushed its kid-targeted Mighty Milk, then switched focus…

Guayaki, a pioneer of yerba mate tea, will add a new kind of package to its all-glass line-up: an aluminum can.
According to Guayaki vice president of marketing Pierre Ferrari, the new package is not an attempt to wedge the product into the cooling energy drink category. Instead, Guayaki intends for the aluminum package to expand the places and occasions at which Guayaki can be consumed.
The glass bottles “simply can’t be in places where our audience hangs out,” Ferrari said.
For example, he said, the company was in talks with Bonaroo. The four day music and arts festival represents…

The International Bottled Water Association borrowed a stunt from the exciting world of CSPAN this week, issuing a skin-tingling slide show to make you feel better about consuming bottled water.
The 18-slide presentation, entitled “The Real Facts About Bottled Water,” revisits familiar arguments in support of the industry – it’s convenient, the bottles are fully recyclable and the product is calorie-free – and packages them all together in one place.
But, if the slide show doesn’t calm your eco-conscience sufficiently, you could buy the AquaSafeStraw…, a new personal, water-filtration tube that charitably resembles a kazoo.
The bottled water wars:

Red Bull has made it no secret that it includes coca leaves – the botanical origin of the drug cocaine – in the beverage’s all-natural formulation, but insists that there’s none of the naughty stuff left behind. German officials aren’t too sure, and they have banned the sale of Red Bull Simply Cola in six states.
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For those of you thinking about stocking up, don’t get too excited. At 0.13 micrograms per can, you’d have to drink enough Red Bull Cola to fill a small tanker truck before feeling anything that resembled a drug-like effect.
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And that’s if the substance…

A federal judge has barred VPX Sports from making, selling or marketing its Muscle Power protein drink because its appearance is too similar to that of a competing product.
In granting a preliminary injunction requested by VPX competitor Cytosport, Judge Frank C. Damrell, Jr., of the United States District Court of the Eastern District of California, wrote that Muscle Power was so similar to CytoSport’s Muscle Milk as to indicate a “desire to confuse the marketplace” and profit on Muscle Milk’s “goodwill and brand name.” The injunction indicates that the judge believed VPX would likely lose were the case to…

It’s not the third gunman on the grassy knoll, but this week’s dispute over a yellowed ledger with a formula marked “D Pepper Pepsin Bitters” may leave us with a mystery that can, sadly, only be resolved by opening a vault that’s likely to remain shut.

Snapple might have once given Wendy Kaufman – better known as “Wendy the Snapple Lady” – a Fifth Avenue parade, but the former spokeswoman this week gave current Snapple management a big ‘ole raspberry.
“The people who run it now…. they are morons and they do not care about this brand and its history,” she said. “I love Snapple… Just not the people… and the memory of Snapple…. It’s weird, I know.”
Kaufman spoke Wednesday in a live online chat at AdweekMedia Connect that centered on how a spokesperson can make it into the mainstream media. But she spent part of…

Gatorade’s recent rebranding left one corner of its business untouched – the Gatorade Performance Series. The sub-brand aimed at serious athletes contains four product-lines for pre-, post- and during-workout uses, as well as a meal replacement. None of the products’ packages currently beam the giant Gs that have taken over the rest of the brand. Instead, the series still boasts a lightning bolt as its most prominent brand element.
At a time when Gatorade has increasingly pushed its product at casual users and Muscle Milk has cut a place for serious nutritional products in 7-Elevens, this represents an interesting (non-)development.…

PepsiCo recently filed trademarks for two new varieties of Mountain Dew – Diet Mtn Dew White Flash and Diet Mtn Dew Ultra Violet. Both trademarks were filed at the end of 2008, suggesting that they may be a pair of pending flavor expansions. As a twist, PepsiCo did not file a trademark for a non-diet version for either flavor.
Very interesting, indeed.
Steve over at Bevreview… got ahead of us on this one, so I decided to do an exhaustive search of Coke and Pepsi brands and see what they might be up to.
Here’s what I found:
-Coca-Cola
glaceau: