Ray Latif

Track Features GRAMMY Award Winner Mark Ronson and 2011 Mercury Prize Nominee, Katy B

LONDON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Fusing the sounds of sport and music. Anywhere in the World, the anthem for the Coca-Cola London 2012 Olympic campaign, launched globally today. Available for purchase online…, the exclusive track is the centerpiece of the brand’s Move to the Beat™ campaign.
Move to the Beat™ is designed to bring teens closer to the Olympic Games and to sport in general by engaging them through a fusion of two global teen passions – sport and music. Drawing inspiration from London’s musical heritage, the

Relational Investors, an investment firm known for taking an activist role in underperforming companies, announced that it has acquired a $600 million stake in PepsiCo – amounting to about 0.6 percent of the company – according to The Wall Street Journal. Relational began accumulating shares of PepsiCo in the fall of 2011, and has been one of several voices calling for the company to split its snack and beverage businesses into two separate and independent units.

Lifeway Foods has announced an agreement with Target that dramatically increases the number of stores that carry its Kefir line. The new distribution deal is Lifeway’s first major expansion in Target in eight years and increases the availability of Lifeway Kefir drinks from 170 to 453 Target locations. The expansion covers a range of flavors and sizes of Lifeway Kefir, a probiotic drink similar to drinkable yogurt, and adds three new flavors of its 8 oz. Lifeway Kefir 4-packs to Target dairy cases.

More news from the burgeoning world of beverage-related class-action lawsuits as Lifeway becomes the latest company to be hit with allegations that its drinks do not provide their advertised health benefits.

Yesterday, PepsiCo announced a number of leadership changes in its recently formed global groups organization, according to an internal memo obtained by Ad Age. The shake-up in executive positions is part of Pepsi’s strategy to promote greater innovation and forward thinking as a global company and will be followed by a “100-day rollout plan” designed to align employees around the new approach.

Red Bull has unveiled a new TV ad that will be the company’s first broadcast spot during the NBA playoffs. The TV ad is part of the company’s “World of Red Bull” campaign and features L.A. Clippers star Blake Griffin and celebrity skateboarder Travis Pastrana, as well footage from DJ and break dancing competitions and 1-on-1 basketball games played on Alcatraz Island. The ad will air during playoff games on ESPN, ABC, and TNT.

Last week’s reports of a possible acquisition of Monster Beverage by Coca-Cola sent shares of the energy drink giant on a colossal roller coaster ride, initially soaring into the stratosphere, only to come tumbling back to earth after Coke addressed the news as speculation. However, shares of Monster Beverage are once again surging after the energy drink giant announced record first quarter sales and profits and easily bested Wall Street estimates for the three-months ending March 31, 2012.

Beverage industry’s top soda manufacturers are having a Howard Beale moment. Tired and frustrated by New York City’s longstanding ad campaign linking soft drinks to obesity, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo are mad as hell, and they’re not going to take it anymore! Now, Coke and Pepsi are working with the ABA to roll out a new ad campaign in NYC that touts new lower-calorie beverages and smaller package sizes to show that industry is doing its part in the fight against obesity.

Melding consumer demand for healthier beverage options and a rising tide for sparkling juice drinks, Campbell Soup has introduced new carbonated varieties for its V8 V-Fusion line. V8 V-Fusion Sparkling drinks contain one 50 calorie serving of fruits and vegetables with no added sugar, artificial colors, flavors or preservatives.

KELOWNA, BRITISH COLUMBIA–(Marketwire – May 7, 2012) – Coronado Corp. (OTCBB:CRAO) is pleased to announce that it has closed the acquisition of Vampt Beverage USA Corp. (“Vampt”) pursuant to an Agreement and Plan of Merger dated December 8, 2011 (the “Merger Agreement”) with Vampt, a Nevada corporation, and VB Acquisition Corp. (“VB Acquisition”), a direct wholly-owned subsidiary of our company.
Terms of the Merger Agreement
The Merger was completed by converting all issued and outstanding common stock and common share purchase warrants into the equivalent securities of Coronado resulting in the total issuance of 10,568,751 Coronado common shares and 476,250…

Joia, a line of all-natural, mixologist-inspired sodas, is now distributed at The Fresh Market. Joia, a Best of BevNET 2011 winner, produces a number of distinctive flavors such as Lime, Hibiscus and Clove. Since its debut in 2011, the line of sodas had been primarily sold in the Minneapolis area, where the drinks are produced, though Joia will now look to dramatically increase distribution with The Fresh Market, with its 115 locations in 21 states.

Eric Foss, the former CEO of Pepsi Beverages Company (PBC), has joined ARMARK as the company’s CEO and President. Foss spent 30 years at PepsiCo culminating in his role as CEO of PBC in which he helped guide the consolidation of the company’s two largest bottlers, Pepsi Bottling Group and Pepsi Americas, into PepsiCo. Foss joins ARAMARK, a privately held food-services and facilities-management conglomerate, effective immediately.

As soccer has edged closer to the kind of mainstream acceptance that – in the U.S. – has been elusive for so many decades, Golazo, a line of all-natural energy and sports drinks targeted to the soccer community, is hoping to tap into growing interest and enthusiasm for the sport.

WOODBURY, NY – AriZona Beverages is proud to celebrate its 20th birthday as a successful, family owned, all-American company. From its humble beginnings in 1992, the brand has risen to become the number one ready-to-drink tea through hard work, perseverance, and most importantly, its dedicated fans. To pay homage, AriZona is asking those very same fans to design the 20th anniversary limited edition can – for the first time ever.
AriZona’s social media-driven initiative first asked fans to vote for its 20th anniversary flavor and today launches into a second phase to design its commemorative can. The winning design will…

More news from the front lines of Cola Wars 2012 as PepsiCo announced that it has signed a 10-year deal with DineEquity to be the exclusive provider of most soft drinks for its Applebee’s and IHOP restaurants. DineEquity, which had been serving both PepsiCo and Coca-Cola products, ended a decades-long agreement with Coke and stated that the company reached more advantageous terms for its franchisees by consolidating its business with PepsiCo.

Buoyed by volume growth and new promotional pricing, sales of carbonated soft drinks are up 2.4 percent in a year-over-year comparison for the four weeks ending on April 14, according to Nielsen scanner data released in a new report from Morgan Stanley. Despite the positive news for CSDs, the report notes that the category benefited from a relatively easy comparison to the same period a year ago in which sales of CSDs were down by 8.6 percent.

When it comes to brand value, consumers flock to a handful of beverage brands including Green Mountain, Coke, Gatorade, Lipton, SoBe, vitaminwater, and Poland Spring, according to the results of a new Harris Interactive poll and study. The annual Harris Poll EquiTrend study measures and compares the health of more than 1,500 brands by analyzing the responses of over 38,500 consumers on questions related to brand value and loyalty.

TSG Consumer Partners, a private equity firm known for its profitable investment in a number of food and beverage companies including Vitaminwater and Voss Water, has sold its stake in San Francisco-based Pop Chips to Verlinvest, a Belgian-based private equity group. Pop Chips has a number of beverage investors, including Rohan Oza of Vitaminwater fame.

Single-serve offerings of coffee and tea led the way for the most successful new beverage launches in 2011, according to SymphonyIRI’s 2011 “New Products Pacesetters” report. The report, which compiles the top new food and beverage brands based on dollar sales, lists carbonated, sports and energy categories as having the second-most active launches within the beverage industry.

And there’s another one in the pool… AriZona has leaped into the growing sub-segment of coconut water/coffee combos with the introduction of CocoZona Espresso. The new beverage – the first product extension in AriZona’s fledgling CocoZona line – is a 100 percent coconut water and espresso blend and contains 50 mg of caffeine and 70 calories per 14.5 oz. bottle.

Kohana Coffee introduces first of its kind shelf-stable Cold Brew Coffee to the Market, keeping innovation alive & taking you beyond a cup of coffee!
Austin, Texas (April 16, 2012) - Kohana Coffee… announces the introduction of their organic, fair trade “shelf-stable” Cold Brew Coffee Concentrate to the market, the first of its kind in the coffee industry.  The new Kohana Coffee Cold Brew is formulated using an innovative and unique patented technology to create a shelf-stable product.  It is extracted from the finest organic, fresh craft roasted beans without using heat, producing a naturally sweet, impeccably smooth, low acidity,

FARMINGDALE, NEW YORK (April 17, 2012) – Exclusive Beverage Distribution is now distributing MADE Organic Lemonades, MADE Organic Green Teas, and Charley’s Premium Milk in the five boroughs of New York City. MADE Organic Lemonade is available in Original Lemonade (14% fruit juice), Half and Half (14% fruit juice), Blackberry Lemonade (12% fruit juice), and Pink Lemonade (14% fruit juice).
MADE Organic Green Teas are available in Blackberry Peach Green Tea (16% juice), Blueberry Lemon Green Tea (11% juice), Pomegranate Lemon Green Tea (11% juice), Raspberry Peach Green Tea (13% juice), Strawberry Lemon Green Tea (16% fruit juice),
MADE is…

A federal judge has ruled that a class action lawsuit filed against the makers of Muscle Milk cannot proceed until the lead plaintiff improves her claims that the marketing of the brand is false and misleading. Although U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken agrees that Cytosport’s claims that Muscle Milk contains “healthy fats” and that the product is a “nutritional shake” might mislead consumers, she stated that the complaint lacks sufficient detail for the suit to proceed.

First Beverage Group has announced new details about the debut and initial distribution of its Oatworks brand of oat and fruit smoothies. Oatworks will simultaneously launch on the East and West Coast beginning in Boston through DSD distributor Blue Coast Beverage, and in San Fransisco through DBI Beverage, Inc., also a DSD distributor.

In yet another coup for the brand, Harmless Harvest has added specialty grocery chain The Fresh Market to the rapidly growing list of retailers carrying its raw and organic coconut water. The Fresh Market , known for its innovative and on-trend product mix, as well as an affluent and influential consumer base, will launch Harmless Harvest in its 115 stores later this spring.