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.
Premium water is growing fast, there’s a void in the distribution market, and, just as nature abhors a vacuum, Lance Collins can’t stand a chance to go after white space in the supply chain.
In just its second year, but growing, the top floor experience is still relatively new to the ever-expanding Natural Products Expo West, which concluded on Sunday, March 8 in Anaheim, Calif. Nevertheless, a tour of its lower-priced, smaller booths easily lent insight into some of the bleeding-edge trends in the entrepreneurial beverage business, as well as key ingredients as well.
With a specialty in handling the kinds of emerging brands that are typically found sampling out of their booths at Natural Products Expo West, the more than 100 different fundraising rounds handled by food-and-beverage specialty law firm the Giannuzzi Group alone should serve as a fine indicator of the investment buzz that surrounded the event.
There were hundreds of new beverage brands, re-branded products, new sub-lines and changed formulations at Natural Products Expo West, which concluded its three-day stand in Anaheim, Calif. on Sunday, March 8. In the report below, BevNET correspondents John Craven and Ray Latif point out some of the most important and impactful new products.
Made in Nature is trying to zig while others are zagging, introducing a new set of nutritious, premium juices called Telula in the shelf-stable juice aisle, long considered something of a center store backwater.
Renamed as Temple Turmeric, the brand's new label that emphasizes and centers the mandala artwork on the labels of the high pressure processed, juice-and-nutrient-rich product line.
Today Suja revealed that its latest investment round had included some of the best-known actors on the planet.
Rubenstein said he was recruited to WTRMLN WTR by marketing ace Rohan Oza, his former boss at the Coca-Cola Co., Inc.
Last October, Runa opened its doors to a much bigger cash infusion from MetaBrand Capital, a newly launched investment arm of MetaBrand’s food and beverage consulting firm.
Meaty sales for a company stocked with beverage business veterans.
During its three-year run, Naked Emerging Brands created one partnership, but has not developed as a VC shop and struggled to define itself within the Pepsi system.
Coconut water companies are responding to a recent report that the category has gone flat. In short, they aren’t buying it.
A pair of discussions from BevNET Live's second day underscored that no matter how brilliant a product idea might be, it needs to provide the consumer with a strong experience that will draw them back.
“In earlier stage companies, there’s a lot of excitement around what we might be creating -- but you have to channel some of that into what the world’s ready for,” said Califia Farms CEO Greg Steltenpohl.
