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.
Marketing whiz Matthew Kahn, who worked closely with Glaceau marketing chief Rohan Oza in the key growth years immediately preceding the company's eventual sale to the Coca-Cola Co., Inc., is moving into a similar role at Heineken, where he will be the new VP of Marketing for Portfolio Brands.
Talk about piling on. During the same week that the New York City Board of Health passed its ban on serving jumbo sodas, a pair of developments in two other closely watched social and environmental causes are affecting the Coca-Cola Co., including calorie counts in fast food chains and a battle over Genetically Modified Organisms.
Sparkling probiotic drink KeVita has closed a round of financing. The brand is touted as a less-vinegary but still probiotic beverage co-founded by nutritional consultant Chakra Earthsong Levy and winemaker Bill Moses.
Ecuadorian energy blend Runa received a little stimulation itself recently in the form of a $3 million round of financing from a variety of investors, company co-founder Dan MacCombie confirmed to BevNET on Friday.
Here's a win for former Red Bull honcho-turned Big Red owner Gary Smith, who managed to get Big Red into Pepsi Bottling Ventures' North Carolina markets starting in July.
Expo East kicks off on Sept. 20 in Baltimore, and when it does it will be accompanied by the debut of a year-long research initiative, New Hope 360’s Next Report. BevNET had a chance to speak with New Hope editor Carlotta Mast about some of the trends that are particularly applicable to the beverage category.
The private equity company, which manages investments for the family office of a large German private label manufacturer, has made its third beverage investment in less than a year, adding fledgling premium soda brand SIPP to a group that also includes Cheribundi and Balance Water.
Remember that request for information from a state attorney general we wrote about not too long ago? According to the Wall Street Journal -- which cited unnamed sources -- the probe was initiated by New York's attorney general, Erik Schneiderman.
Eric Skae, who stepped down last year as the head of New Leaf Brands, the tea and juice company he started and ran for several years, has re-surfaced with a new beverage business consulting practice.
J. Andrew Guard, a BevNET employee who had previously worked for OWater’s Tom First as Operations Manager, is returning to the beverage business. Guard is taking an operations position at Purity Organics, a portfolio company that works closely with First and is backed by investment from First’s new employer, First Beverage Group, which was started by investor Bill Anderson.
In a letter to Sen. Durbin, (D-Ill) the FDA said that most studies have not indicated any particularly harmful effects for caffeine consumption of up to 400 mg per day. While the agency said it was in the midst of conducting a review of recent safety studies on caffeine, “the available studies do not indicate any new, previously unknown risks associated with caffeine consumption.”
A high-profile hire and the gradual working out of supply chain kinks has created what VP of Operations Luke Zakka is calling “unprecedented opportunity” on the VBlast front. If he’s right, the addition of VP of Sales Bob Miller – a well-known and well-traveled commodity – will help VBlast capitalize on its vertical efficiencies and lend some density to an already wide-ranging geographic footprint.
It happened quietly and without much detail, but TSG Consumer Partners – the same private equity company that backed Vitaminwater and that currently owns a chunk of Cytosport – took a minority position in Neuro earlier this year.
He’s kept a low profile since helping sell early acai competitor Bossa Nova to Sunny Delight Beverage Co., but REBBL CEO Palo Hawken hasn’t been completely out of the beverage business, he’s happy to say. In fact, REBBL is the "sort of the brand concept I’ve been working on for a lifetime,” Hawken told BevNET.
