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.
After CNBC reported that premium water brand Essentia was exploring a potential sale, sources close to the situation confirmed to BevNET that the company has been working with Credit Suisse for more than a year, but that there is no official sales process underway.
During last week’s Natural Products Expo West, held in Anaheim, Calif., High Brew CEO David Smith sat down with BevNET editor-in-chief Jeff Klineman to discuss the reasoning behind this latest line extension, as well as the key factors that are shaping the evolution of the cold brew category.
To suppliers, the end of the Whole Foods relationship isn’t a binary anymore, where they’re either in Whole Foods or they aren’t really in the natural channel at all.
A visit with Seth Goldman, co-founder of Honest Tea and now board chair at vegan meat brand Beyond Meat, finds him excitedly pointing out the massive expansion that’s about to take place in that emerging category.
As part of my involvement with a local community-based food business incubator, I have been asked to spend time mentoring a small beverage company, Boston Chai Party. Even better, the founders have been kind enough to allow me to write about what we're doing along the way.
At NACS 2017 in Chicago, BevNET editor-in-chief Jeffrey Klineman spoke to CEO Remmy Castillo about how the company’s growth strategy, discussing how Moonshine is building out its employee roster with industry veterans to strengthen the internal infrastructure and “put the right people in place” for success.
Following a report on Wednesday that Talking Rain and its former CEO, Kevin Klock, had been named in a lawsuit alleging that Klock had sexually harassed an employee in March, and that the company had retaliated against her even after Klock had left the company, COO Chris Hall told BevNET there was no culture problem at the sparkling water company during a brief talk at the just-concluded National Association of Convenience Stores show this week in Chicago.
A letter posted on the company's web site today explained that the company was shutting down due to the infrastructure challenges in "creating an effective manufacturing and distribution system for a nationwide consumer base."
Sports drink brand Roar Beverages announced a partnership with incubator L.A. Libations; Blossom Water picked up new placement in 750 grocery stores; Big Easy Bucha lands new distribution at Publix; Icelandic Glacial signs deal for distribution in China.
In terms of setting up direct-to-consumer marketplaces, creating “full basket” solutions with Amazon Fresh, and simply providing a place for customers to search by keywords for specific products, the e-commerce titan has begun to exert an outsized influence in the ways consumers shop.
In a deal that’s shaking the shopping experience for consumers, retailers, and food and beverage companies, Amazon’s scooping up of Whole Foods for $13.7 billion on Friday has hardened talk of large-scale disruption in the way consumers buy their groceries.
BevNET’s Jeff Klineman interviewed Thomas at Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, Calif. and found a stirring profile of a company that is balancing growth across three divisions: its largest, a retail kombucha line, as well as on-premise gourmet tea houses and a new distilling operation that repurposes the alcohol generated from kombucha fermentation
It wasn’t a sale, it was an adoption, said the Bai CEO of the $1.7 billion DPSG deal.
Sources have confirmed that a deal for PepsiCo to acquire KeVita is nearing the end stages, with the larger company paying between $400 and $500 million for the brand.
