<<There lies your problem. Any good Rep myself included have already planned to maintain the space that RockStar has as of now. I'm talking about cold vault. No rep is going to leave foriegn product in there cooler but vault space is a daily fight as we all know. For me my job is half done cause any spcae Rockstar currently has remains the same. More space more cases. Win Win for Pepsi. >>

Not sure how it's done around your parts my friend, but Monster is on a seperate contract, therefore in 95% of the accounts space was maintained when it when from Pepsi to us. It was a lose for Pepsi. Rockstar on the other hand is not(around here at least) is incorporated into our energy set. Being a good rep like myself I've already made plans, and it started Friday by stopping the ordering of the junk, and it will be empty by the time they begin to distrubute it,to make more room for other skus. If not it will come out of the set. It was real easy to maintain Monster space because of sales, but most store owners could care less if Rockstar was in their store or not. It was buried in our 09 sets anyway because we knew this was coming.

Pepsi bottlers are going to have a lot of work on their hands, I can tell you that.

This is letter that was sent to all customers earlier this year from CCE. As you will see, CCE is legally obligated to maintain Rockstar space in all accounts through end of 2009, EVEN IF THERE IS A DISTRIBUTOR CHANGE. You don't think Rockstar was prepared for this??

DATE: November 7, 2008

TO: Chain Customers of ROCKSTAR/Coca-Cola Enterprises

FROM: Mark Thomson, CCE NABU VP Sparkling & Energy Category Joseph Cannata, ROCKSTAR, Inc. EVP of Sales & Distribution
RE: Extension of Rockstar/CCE Distribution Agreement

As you may be aware, on October 3, 2008, Coca-Cola Enterprises and ROCKSTAR, Inc. announced an extension to their distribution agreement through December 31, 2009. This agreement affects CCE’s distribution territories for Rockstar in the United States and Canada. The parties are examining opportunities for CCE to continue distributing Rockstar in certain portions of their territories after 2009. However, under the current agreement, Rockstar has the right to terminate all or a portion of its distribution agreement with CCE before December 31, 2009.

This letter is to inform you that CCE will honor your allocation of space to Rockstar products, and thus, CCE has agreed that it will not place any other products in such existing ROCKSTAR space, position and ROCKSTAR owned equipment, through December 31, 2009, regardless of whether Rockstar changes distributors. In addition, CCE will not place any other products in such existing ROCKSTAR space in CCE owned equipment where CCE continues to distribute ROCKSTAR products in that portion of the territory.


---I will also add to BMAN, what you are doing in your accounts is a violation of your contract and could result in the loss of your company's termination buyout.

The letter above was sent to all Chain customers but the same obligations have been contractually agreed to IN ALL accounts (both independant and chain).

Originally Posted by Ron Swedelson

I am incredibly excited over the move. Back when Coke signed their Monster agrement, it was made very clear that Rockstar can leave at any time if they felt they were on the back burner. The second I saw that, I thought it was a perfect set up for Pepsi to jump into the system and grab one of the top energy drinks. We got it. Does this change the landscape of the business? No. I have not noticed much change for Monster here in Northern California, except for more POS durring trade tours. But, they have used Monster to leverage more space for their Full Throttle and Nos lines. Rockstar is huge to us. Obviously, a profitable case sale in a slower economic time. A tool for us to gain more space in the cold valt. A HUGE moral booster for all my sales reps., and extra padding in their pay checks. More cooler in the field, more sponsorships. I love it. Great for Pepsi, Great for Rockstar. Hopefuly in many areas it will help were there are 3 or 4 different houses that carry the brand. (Here 7-up, Southern Wine and Spirits, and a couple Grocery Distributors).

Couldn't agree more.

Originally Posted by Red Sox fan

This is letter that was sent to all customers earlier this year from CCE. As you will see, CCE is legally obligated to maintain Rockstar space in all accounts through end of 2009, EVEN IF THERE IS A DISTRIBUTOR CHANGE. You don't think Rockstar was prepared for this??

DATE: November 7, 2008

TO: Chain Customers of ROCKSTAR/Coca-Cola Enterprises

FROM: Mark Thomson, CCE NABU VP Sparkling & Energy Category Joseph Cannata, ROCKSTAR, Inc. EVP of Sales & Distribution
RE: Extension of Rockstar/CCE Distribution Agreement

As you may be aware, on October 3, 2008, Coca-Cola Enterprises and ROCKSTAR, Inc. announced an extension to their distribution agreement through December 31, 2009. This agreement affects CCE’s distribution territories for Rockstar in the United States and Canada. The parties are examining opportunities for CCE to continue distributing Rockstar in certain portions of their territories after 2009. However, under the current agreement, Rockstar has the right to terminate all or a portion of its distribution agreement with CCE before December 31, 2009.

This letter is to inform you that CCE will honor your allocation of space to Rockstar products, and thus, CCE has agreed that it will not place any other products in such existing ROCKSTAR space, position and ROCKSTAR owned equipment, through December 31, 2009, regardless of whether Rockstar changes distributors. In addition, CCE will not place any other products in such existing ROCKSTAR space in CCE owned equipment where CCE continues to distribute ROCKSTAR products in that portion of the territory.


---I will also add to BMAN, what you are doing in your accounts is a violation of your contract and could result in the loss of your company's termination buyout.

First off sir, we are not CCE. We were done this way by Buffalo Rock when Monster came out, and turn about is fair play as we say around here. Customers around here finally put their foot down when they were pretty much coming in, crating Monster up, and trying to take Monster our of the stores. Out of the around 90 stores I service, 1 let them do this. There was a seperate contract for one, and the name Monster alone helped us keep space. Rockstar just doesnt do that. Trust me my man it was a 3 month battle between Buffalor Rock and Monster on cooler, space, etc.. and I'm not sure if it's still resolved. Now we are putting out Monster contracts, seperate mind you from our contract. Nowhere in our contract does it allocate energy space to Rockstar, therefore that is our space, and we do what we want to do with it. It will be up to Pepsi on where to work it in now, but I know where it will not go.

Also I havent saw a Rockstar rep in the 5 or so years we've had it now. Since November a Monster rep you see usually once every 2 weeks at least. They even come in and ride when sales reps at times.

Not to mention that some of those trade letters aren't worth the paper they're printed on. If a Coke rep has a strong relationship with an account, they're going to leverage that to maintain their existing space, no matter what Coke-distributed brand they're putting there. Let Pepsi put the Rockstar in their space, or in a Pepsi-owned machine. Somehow I doubt we'll see Rockstar reps riding around to every account enforcing this letter.

Like bham said, all's fair...

In our area, we really didn't have too much problem with Monster. Philadelphia Coke carries it in the bulk of Canada Dry Honickman's NJ/DE territory, so it was more of a secondary brand to them outside that territory. We just went in and maintained existing space, and started putting it in coolers and stores that hadn't seen a case of Monster probably in years. Same thing happened when we picked up Evian from them.

Honickman in Baltimore, that's a different story. Reps were dumping stacks 2 hand-carts at a time in some accounts, to get their commission - higher ups probably ok'd some sort of incentives, and would get a higher payout than the buyback from Monster.

Sometimes I'm glad I work in bulk...lol.

Originally Posted by BhamCokeman

<<There lies your problem. Any good Rep myself included have already planned to maintain the space that RockStar has as of now. I'm talking about cold vault. No rep is going to leave foriegn product in there cooler but vault space is a daily fight as we all know. For me my job is half done cause any spcae Rockstar currently has remains the same. More space more cases. Win Win for Pepsi. >>

Not sure how it's done around your parts my friend, but Monster is on a seperate contract, therefore in 95% of the accounts space was maintained when it when from Pepsi to us. It was a lose for Pepsi. Rockstar on the other hand is not(around here at least) is incorporated into our energy set. Being a good rep like myself I've already made plans, and it started Friday by stopping the ordering of the junk, and it will be empty by the time they begin to distrubute it,to make more room for other skus. If not it will come out of the set. It was real easy to maintain Monster space because of sales, but most store owners could care less if Rockstar was in their store or not. It was buried in our 09 sets anyway because we knew this was coming.

Can you clarify this comment.....(Not sure how it's done around your parts my friend, but Monster is on a seperate contract, therefore in 95% of the accounts space was maintained when it when from Pepsi to us. It was a lose for Pepsi.) This comment does not make sense. I would like to respond but unclear as to what you are trying to say.

All areas are different. You can't really compare say Buffalo to like my area Los Angeles. Different schematics, Franchisees, owners. In my accounts which is about 170 stores include independent, convenient and gas, carnicerias, Big lots, 99 cent only stores, all discount stores and many more RockStar sells well. Just cause Monster is distributed by Coke doesn't mean that RockStar space goes directly to them for more monster. Monster sell well but no store have said they really need more then 2 shelves of monster. Corporate stores don't even give more then two shelves for monster. Really in small format it all comes down to the relationship with the owners and managers. It's a battle day in and day out. A fight to maintain space and a fight to gain space. Any Rep who let's a competitor take space from them needs to be let go. Period. As far as Contracts thats another story. Contracts don't fly in independent store like your corner liquor store. I mean do you really think someone will come to Inglewood where there is hookers in front gangbangers outside and a clerk behind 3 inch plexi glass is going to care about a paper that says one company gets this space in their store. Think again. Happy Hunting.