Suja Probiotic Water

At ten calories and one gram of sugar or less, Suja Pressed Probiotic Waters offer a subtle sweetness with no additives of any kinds.

Headlined by brand of the year Califia Farms and person of the year Suja CEO Jeff Church, the awards showcase the evolution of emerging beverage categories and companies that most effectively marketed cutting edge innovation in 2015.

From a comparative look at financial models for growing beverage companies to a special session seeking to address ongoing challenges to diversity at the upper reaches of the beverage industry, BevNET Live’s Breakout Sessions continue their tradition of offering depth and variety for beverage entrepreneurs to consider and enjoy.

The brands are arriving at the drug store chain by way of Dari Farms, a Tolland, Connecticut-based DSD distributor that services more than 5,000 retailers throughout Southern New England.

BevNET Live Winter ’15 is less than 30 days away! Hundreds of beverage industry professionals, including investors, distributors and retailers, are already signed up for the conference, which is being held on Dec. 7 and 8 at the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel in Santa Monica, Calif. Seats are filling up fast, and if you haven’t already, now is the time to reserve your seat.

As for the hefty challenge of competing with Harmless Harvest or any of its distant second place contenders like UNOCO, Invo or Pure Brazilian, Sri Lanka Gold is looking to separate itself from the pack by hanging its hat on Sri Lanka’s orange (or “gold”) king coconut, indigenous to the island country.

Many beverage exhibitors at the 2015 NACS show indicated that convenience store operators are — like their counterparts in grocery and club — increasingly looking to add natural and better-for-you beverages to their shelves and coolers. It’s a trend that, for C-stores, has been bubbling at the surface for years, but appears to have achieved significant traction over the past 12 months.

Perhaps more than any particular hot new trend, what stuck out at last week’s Natural Products Expo East trade show at the Baltimore Convention Center was the visible growth and continued maturation of beverage categories and brands which were in their infancy just a few short years ago.

As demand for cold-pressed juice continues to expand, Goodnature, one of the largest manufacturers of commercial cold-pressing equipment, sees opportunity to make production simple and feasibly available for a wide range of retailers, particularly neighborhood cafes and small, independent grocers, with the launch of a new machine designed to fit on most commercial kitchen countertops.

“Since we started, we’ve shipped over 40 million bottles of Suja,” Church said. “With Coke and the right construct of an arrangement, we could go from 40 million to a billion. It just gets us super-excited about the pathway to building a much bigger business.”

Suja Life LLC. (Suja), named the #2 Most Promising Company in 2015 by Forbes, is pleased to announce an investment and distribution partnership with The Coca-Cola Company.

The manufacturing, shipping, and distribution capabilities for Campbell’s new Fresh division will depend on Bolthouse’s strong cold-chain capabilities, but the brand also plans to keep innovating.

BevNET has learned that the Coca-Cola Company will invest $90 million in Suja as part of a deal that will give the soft drink giant a path to owning the juice maker in three years.