As the White House administration aims to avoid the so-called “fiscal cliff,” President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden met with small business representatives from a range of industries earlier this week. Cobá co-founder Arnulfo Ventura was one of those representatives and shared his ideas for change, in particular, scaled labor practices and reduced capital gains taxes.
While Sens. Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) continue to push the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for greater regulation and oversight of the energy drink category, for now, all they’re getting is bureaucratic consideration.
Undeterred by failed efforts to rename high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) as “corn sugar,” the Corn Refiners Association (CRA) has remained on the offensive to protect the integrity of the widely used ingredient. Today, the CRA released a scathing statement denouncing a forthcoming study that specifically links consumption of HFCS with Type 2 diabetes.
The makers of the most widely consumed red carbonated soft drink are adapting but not changing with the times. Big Red, the Austin, TX, based producer of CSDs among other beverages, announced Tuesday that it acquired HyDrive Energy, the Rye, NY-based company that markets 30-calorie energy drinks and a zero-calorie energy powder drink mix under the slogan “Energy Done Better.”
A few days after The New York Times revealed that 5-Hour Energy had been mentioned in U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reports linking consumption of its energy shots to 13 deaths, Living Essentials, which markets and distributes 5-Hour, announced that it was dealing with another potential loss of revenue and brand reputation: counterfeiting.
Despite the category’s decline amid growing trends of health and wellness, pricing of carbonated soft drinks (CSDs) slowed, but remains competitive, according to a consumer price index (CPI) report released by Morgan Stanley. Tracking beverage data for October 2012, Morgan Stanley found that CSD pricing grew by only 0.3 percent, well below September’s growth of 1.5 percent and the trailing twelve month (TTM) average of 2.7 percent.
Trading the traditional stoicism of a chief executive for a fiery tongue, SodaStream CEO Daniel Birnbaum bashed the business models of The Coca-Cola Co., Inc. and PepsiCo, Inc. in a Wall Street Journal interview published on Tuesday. “I think it is criminal that the industry, led by two big companies, will do anything to protect their antiquated business model,” Birnbaum told the Journal.
