Winter 2011

Welcome to part three of our video replay of BevNET Live’s special “Building Sweet Leaf Up and Out” case study.
In this installment, William Pearson, the CFO of Nestle Waters North America, gives his view of the role that the acquisition of Sweet Leaf could play in the ongoing development of NWNA. While Sweet Leaf had already begun to work with private equity group Catterton Partners in an attempt to become a national brand, Pearson said, the larger company was not yet ready to pick up the entrepreneurial brand from Texas.…

Welcome to part two of our video replay of BevNET Live’s special “Building Sweet Leaf Up and Out” case study.
While the first video featured Sweet Leaf founder Clayton Christopher talking about bootstrapping an entrepreneurial company, the second in this series takes an external look at what Christopher and partner David Smith had constructed: a growing company that was beginning to attract attention from the venture capital community.…

Building a company, balancing the way investment can help it grow, and finally selling it off – it’s a process every entrepreneur needs to consider, and one that was addressed directly during BevNET Live by Clayton Christopher, the founder of Sweet Leaf Tea, Michael Farello, a partner at Catterton Partners, and William Pearson, the CFO of Nestle Waters North America.
The three executives presented a case study on Sweet Leaf’s process to an eager audience, imparting lessons for startups and veteran companies alike. They split up the heavy lifting three ways, followed by discussion. Today we’re going to take a…

Monster Energy sees itself as a lifestyle company. Red Bull is a media empire. As for high-end CSD Izze, Co-founder Todd Woloson said that he saw it as something like an onion. Those ideas about branding – and many other off-beat ideas that are necessary to distinguish beverage companies in highly competitive times – came alive during the BevNET Live Winter event that concluded on Tuesday in Santa Monica.

BevNET Live attendees will get one last surprise as part of their attendance at the event – a “Moment with Monster” segment that will offer a brief conversation with Mark Hall and Geoffrey Bremmer, two of the main executives behind the energy drink juggernaut owned by Hansen’s Beverage Corp. Hall, the president of the company, and Bremmer, the director of marketing for the Monster Energy brand, will provide insights on the energy drink category and their company’s approach to marketing innovative beverages.…

Following the announcement of its sixth consecutive sold-out BevNET Live conference, BevNET.com is pleased to announce the return of a free, live video stream.  It which will be broadcast from the event, which will take place at the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel in Santa Monica, CA, on December 5th and 6th.
Live video of selected sessions will be streamed throughout the day; Sessions run from 8:30 AM to 12PM Pacific on Monday, December 5 and from 8:30AM to 5:30PM Pacific on Tuesday, December 6.  Included in the live stream will be the New Beverage Showdown 2…, market update

With two weeks to go before BevNET Live’s 2011 Winter event in Santa Monica, Calif., we thought it was time to pull up the curtain and introduce the slate of outstanding judges for BevNET Live’s signature competition, the New Beverage Showdown.
Collectively, our judges’ experience cover years of experience in brand building, retailing, investing, distribution and marketing:
Tom First, Managing Partner, First Beverage Group;
G. Scott Uzzell, VP and General Manager of Emerging Brand Incubation, VEB;
Ken Sadowsky, Senior Beverage Advisor, Verlinvest; Executive Director, Northeast Independent Distributors’ Association (NIDA);
Michael Quinones, District Manager, Ralph’s Grocery Company, West Los Angeles Area…