Ray Latif

In yet another indication that the beverage industry continues to recover from recent lackluster years, the 2013 Winter Fancy Food Show packed the walls of San Francisco’s Moscone Center with thousands of suppliers, attendees, and buyers. While beverage marketers represented a small component of exhibitors at the show, booths were nonetheless bustling as brand owners indicated a positive view of the event and reported a steady flow of deals and opportunities.

Hoping to swarm distributors, the maker of Killer Buzz Energy drinks is actively seeking an acquisition of one or two beverage companies – and could spend upwards of $10 million to do so. “There’s no cap and no floor,” said Jeremy Friedman, director of marketing for Killer Buzz. “It’s more about opportunity than the size of the investment. If an opportunity warranted a $10 million acquisition, that number is not too high.”

Over the last three days, the American Beverage Association (ABA) has published three separate statements countering a recent Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) report which found that the number of emergency room visits involving energy drinks more than doubled from 10,068 in 2007 to 20,783 in 2011. The ABA called the report inaccurate and “more sensational than substantive.”

Taking direct aim at the Smartwater juggernaut, Nestlé Waters North America (NWNA) announced that it is now distributing its Resource water brand nationally. NWNA test launched the premium-priced water brand, which is spring-sourced and contains naturally occurring electrolytes, last year in Southern California, and initiated new distribution of the brand across the U.S. earlier this year.

New York City’s Board of Health has announced that it will give restaurants and other on-premise food retailers a three-month grace period before enforcing its ban on the sale of large format sugary drinks. Once the 90-day grace period ends, violators of the ban will be subject to a $200 fine.

A proposal to introduce a five cent deposit on beverage containers sold in Maryland has distributors and industry groups calling the plan “ill-conceived, outdated and ineffective,” according to an article in the Baltimore Sun. State delegates Maggie McIntosh and John A. Olszewski Jr. have announced their intention to introduce a bill called “Recycle for Real,” that would add Maryland to a list of 10 other states that require beverage container deposits.

In this short video, we’ve compiled a month by month timeline of the headlines and news stories that shaped our coverage in 2012 and look to have a significant impact on ingredient trends, marketing, government regulation, and financing deals in the months to come.

Energy drinks saw a significant deceleration in c-store sales growth, according to a new report from Morgan Stanley. The investment bank today released an overview detailing a year-over-year comparison in which category sales of energy drinks rose by 11.2 percent over the four-week period ending on Dec. 22. The recent slide in sales growth appears to be tied to the sustained deluge of controversy and criticism in recent months surrounding energy drinks.

The FRS Company is facing a class action lawsuit alleging that the company is engaging in false and misleading advertising related to its Healthy Slim product line. Filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court on Dec. 5, the lawsuit states there is “no generally accepted scientific evidence within the scientific community” the active ingredients in FRS Healthy Slim, consumed “either individually or in combination,” will contribute to weight loss and appetite suppression.

The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) has reversed a published claim that energy drinks are not regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The change came shortly after BevNET contacted the organization to inquire about the validity of the claim.

Sherborn, MA-based investment bank Silverwood Partners has brought on Lynette McKee and Neal Yanofsky as Industry Advisors within its Consumer division. McKee and Yanofsky join Silverwood having both held executive roles in the restaurant, foodservice, and beverage industries, with positions at Dunkin’ Brands, Burger King, and Panera Bread.

Steaz has introduced new packaging and transitioned to a 100 percent green-tea based beverage portfolio, the company announced today in a statement. Steaz, which makes a variety of organic and Fair Trade certified drinks, has already launched its new look energy shots in stores and will begin distributing its zero-calorie sparkling tea products in new 12 oz. sleek cans sometime within the next two months.

Avitae would like you to know that the reports of its impending death are greatly exaggerated. Yesterday, BevNET – citing information from former employees of the company – reported that Avitae might be facing the prospect of a shutdown. Shortly after the article was published, however, the caffeinated water company’s social media operation took to the online world, refuting reports of its demise on both its Twitter and Facebook accounts.

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Caffeinated water brand Avitae has laid off its entire staff and is in the process of liquidating its remaining inventory, according to former employees. Brian Pitzer, who founded Avitae in 2009, was ousted as CEO in September by the company’s board of directors, the employees say. Multiple calls to Pitzer have not been returned.

The Coca-Cola Co., Inc. has acquired Sacramento Coca-Cola Bottling Company (SCCBC), the sixth largest independent Coke bottler in the U.S. SCCBC was founded in 1927 and distributes Coke products in all or part of the nine California Counties of Sacramento. The company employs over 460 people.

Drawing on an increasingly visible packaging format and the wave of demand for new health and wellness drinks, AhhMIGO is a new line of cap-activated natural drinks. Launched earlier this year, the New York City-based company boasts of a proprietary cap that keeps the brand’s “life-enhancing ingredients” fresh until mixed with water.

For most beverage entrepreneurs, the phrase “blood, sweat, and tears” is less of a motivational term as it is a realistic view of a tough and often unforgiving industry. Creating a successful beverage brand is a difficult business, and as an investor in alkaline water brand AQUAhydrate, Mark Wahlberg is starting to see its challenges firsthand.

Hoping to make a big splash in the country’s second largest market, HINT Water has signed an agreement with L.A. Distributing Co. to distribute the brand throughout Los Angeles county. HINT, which markets still and sparkling lines of unsweetened, flavored waters is looking to the upstart DSD distributor to dramatically increase its presence in the market, specifically in mainstream grocery and up and down the street retailers.

A Chicago-area business has filed a class action lawsuit against Nestlé Waters North America Inc. (NWNA) claiming that five-gallon jugs of its Ice Mountain Water brand are falsely advertised as containing spring water when in actuality the water comes from a municipal source.

An new online petition is calling for PepsiCo to stop formulating its Gatorade line of sports drinks with brominated vegetable oil, an ingredient tied to flame retardant chemicals, according to The New York Times.

In a bid to reassure shareholders and investors about safety of its products as well as the current and future growth potential of its flagship energy drink, Monster Beverage Corp. issued a recent filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that included a 61 slide presentation that began with the statement, “Monster Energy Products Are Safe.”

Eric Schnell is going Hollywood. The MetaBrand founder and CEO, who has over 15 years of experience developing and launching natural beverage brands, will appear on the reality TV show “Tia & Tamara” tonight to help advise Tia and Tamara Mowry – the twin sisters best known as the stars of 1990s sitcom “Sister, Sister” – on a new bottled herbal tea line that the pair is attempting to create.

Aiming to pump new life into its beverage division, PepsiCo is developing a range of snack-based drinks, according to The Financial Times. Speaking at Beverage Digest’s Future Smarts conference in New York yesterday, PepsiCo chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi said that the company has a “whole range of products… in the pipeline that are value-added products that can be snacks made into beverages.”

In a deal that the company calls “pioneering” in its range and scale, PepsiCo announced today that it has entered into a new multi-year partnership with pop singer Beyoncé. PepsiCo has hailed the deal – estimated to be worth $50 million, according to The New York Times – as a “true creative and wide-ranging collaboration” that will expand Beyoncé’s presence in global advertising and marketing campaigns for Pepsi and support new creative projects launched by the Grammy-winning artist.