As Editor-in-Chief of BevNET, Jeff Klineman oversees the organization's reporting across all of its web sites, as well as BevNET Magazine. Jeff also plans, curates, and hosts the BevNET Live and NOSH Live conferences. Jeff previously worked as a newspaper reporter for the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune, the Boston TAB and the Metrowest Daily News, and has freelanced for publications like Slate, Boston Magazine, Self, George, Commonwealth, and the Chronicle of Philanthropy. He is a graduate of Yale University and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. A frequently-cited expert on the beverage industry, Jeff has also twice been named in Forbes as one of the 25 Most Influential when it comes to Consumer and Retail Companies.
Taking a gamble that the future of beverage – specifically, juice -- is going to include snatching meal occasions from quick-serve restaurants and soda companies alike, First Beverage Ventures has invested in Project Juice, a combination storefront and packaged fresh juice operation from the San Francisco Bay area.
From Southern California, Juiceology is two years into a marketing push that saw a cattle family from Brazil try its hand at a branded product in the U.S. Founded by Brazilian national Felipe Davila, the products include flash-pasteurized, aseptically-filled refrigerated juices that are blended with whole grain extracts for a higher fiber content to promote satiety. Another juice company, New Jersey-based Mojo Organics, recently launched behind a line of juices licensed from Chiquita Brands.
Schnell, the CEO of outsource consulting firm MetaBrand, has teamed with 6Pacific Capital, a West Coast private equity fund, to make investments in early-stage health and wellness companies doing business in food, beverage, and nutrition.
Company CEO Paddy Spence revealed to BevNET yesterday that the brand was in the process of implementing a new sweetener mix – “Sweet Smart” – which deploys a purer form of Rebaudioside A (more commonly known as Stevia) mixed with Erythritol and Monkfruit extract.
Eisner, who co-created the brand with Burke Eiteljorg as the Rising Beverage Co., Inc. in 2005, announced Friday that he was buying the company back from its current investors and that he would be taking over the position of President. Craig Berger was taking on a dual COO/CFO role while current president Reza Mirza was departing.
What does it say about the beverage business that the small companies on display at Natural Products Expo East, the little sibling of the massive West Coast show, could generate more energy than those who were attending the annual showpiece fiesta of a giant organization?
The stigma is receding. The notion of bubbles isn’t so bad. From the gourmet to the Stevia generation, fewer products are afraid to fizz. Even as sprawling soda giants like Coke and Pepsi have seen overall volume declines, existing gourmet products like Fentiman’s, Reed’s, GuS, Fever Tree, Maine Root and Q Tonic have all ridden the expansion of the natural and specialty channel to increasing sales.
Coke has finalized its purchase of Zico coconut water, purchasing the remaining outstanding shares. Zico was purchased through Coke's Venturing and Emerging Brands Group (VEB). Founder and current CEO Mark Rampolla will be moving into a role of non-executive advisor during the transition; G. Scott Uzzell will become President, rejoining Coke a year after he left VEB to become Zico's Chief Commercial Officer and EVP of Sales.
VEB President Deryck van Rensburg has tapped Chuck Muth, Honest Tea’s VP of sales, with the responsibility for leading an internal group focused on selling VEB-affiliated brands to bottlers and Coke’s own distribution network. He will move into the role of SVP, Sales at VEB on Jan. 1.
The executive team behind the launch of Marley’s Mellow Mood has teamed up with the brand’s former head of marketing to launch a company that will develop and sell a portfolio of non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverage brands.
It shouldn’t be surprising to see traditional breakfast food producers chasing the liquid breakfast market, however; that’s because it’s becoming a can’t-beat-them-so-you-join-them-proposition.
We will be offering two great seminars and networking events in Boston – “Becoming a More Effective Sales Manager” (Dec 10-11) and Financing Your Natural and Specialty Company (Dec. 12)…
After a five year run on the shelves, entrepreneur Scott Lerner and his investors have sold Solixir, a line of naturally functional sparkling drinks powered by botanical elixirs, to the owners of Eternal Beverages, Inc., the maker of a nationally-distributed brand in the fast-growing alkaline water category.
Kroger's highly anticipated entrepreneurial beverage set, Taste of Tomorrow, has become a program of the present. The supermarket giant's natural foods team activated the promotional and merchandising strategy, designed to help incubate innovative beverage brands in the supermarket giant’s retail system, earlier this month in King Soopers in Colorado.
