Energy shot maker Bazi announced yesterday that it has entered into a merger agreement with GT Beverage Company. According to a joint statement released by the two companies, GT Beverage, which manufactures a line of vitamin-enhanced water drinks for kids, will retain 95.5 percent of the common shares outstanding of Bazi, which has received a line of credit from GT for up to $600,000. The merger is expected to close on or before October 15, 2012.
Balance Water, a line of functional waters infused with tasteless herbal extracts, pulled in investment to the tune of about $4-5 million recently, according to co-founder Martin Chalk. The funding came from a mix of sources: Emil Capital Partners supplied institutional cash, while famed investor Thomas H. Lee, the founder of Thomas H. Lee partners, put in money as an individual investor, as did Australian actor Hugh Jackman.
Lance Gentry, the well-known and well-liked former VP of marketing for Izze Beverage Co., passed away Friday following a battle with brain cancer that lasted more than a year. Gentry became a familiar and welcome presence when he visited the BevNET team during frequent trips to Boston as he attempted to open the market for Izze.
After spending months in limbo as product slowly trickled through a declining number of stores and online retailers, relaxation shot RelaxZen has been sold to a pair of Brooklyn-based investors by former CEO Brent Sonnek-Schmelz.
Latching onto growing consumer demand for lower sugar, low-calorie beverages, Snapple has launched a new line of all-natural teas lightly sweetened with real sugar. Snapple Lightly Sweetened Teas are made with a base of white tea and contain 18 grams of sugar - less than half the sugar content in other Snapple varieties.
Looking at the numbers at the seventh incarnation of BevNET Live, which finished up on Tuesday after two days of intense teaching, networking and community building in New York City, however, the event started and ended with the simplest number: one.
As of April, Sparkling Ice’s growth was up an almost-unheard-of 2000 percent, to more than $43 million, according to SymphonyIRI, which named the brand a “Rising Star” in April. And that’s not counting accounts like Wal-Mart, where the brand also thrives.
In what has become one of the most compelling parts of BevNET Live, the New Beverage Showdown once again rocked the conference, dazzling attendees with a range of innovative and on-trend products, and offering some pulsating drama to end the show. The competition, ultimately won by Grady's Cold Brew, gave companies the opportunity to showcase their brands in front of a judging panel of beverage veterans and experts, and an audience of 500 industry professionals.
A letter sent to stockholders of the long-struggling Adina beverage company seemed to indicate that the new age beverage shop's doors are about to close for good. The company is selling through its remaining stock but is also liquidating its assets in order to satisfy debt obligations.
BevNET.com, Inc. is pleased to announce the addition of BeverageSchool.com to its lineup of resources and media geared towards beverage professionals. Beverage School is an on-demand, video-based learning tool especially designed for newcomers to the beverage industry.
Rob Ehrlich, of Rob’s Really Good, has always been fast on his feet when it comes to rolling out on-trend products, but this has to be something of a record. One day after New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg launched his latest salvo against the beverage industry by attempting to severely restrict the sale of sugary beverages larger than 16 ounces, Ehrlich announced plans to release three zero-calorie Kola-nut based sparkling beverages.
Only nine months after its launch, Coco Café is going national. The company recently revealed that it will enter the Dr Pepper Snapple (DPSG) system beginning in early June, a key piece of a national DSD network that the company hopes to complete later this summer. Acute beverage watchers will note that Coco Café is mirroring the same growth path as parent company Vita Coco, which has begun transitioning most of its distribution to national DPSG houses.
BevNET has learned that former Muscle Milk marketing chief John Blair has joined shot-and-a-beer brand Bruvado as President after a slow exit from the protein drink's parent company, Cytosport.
Corn refiners suffered a defeat yesterday as the FDA rejected an industry petition to rename high-fructose corn syrup as “corn sugar” on nutritional labels. The Corn Refiners Association (CRA), sought the name change as part of an effort to reverse years of controversy and negative publicity about the health effects of the sweetener. However, the FDA decided that "corn sugar" does not "accurately identify or describe the basic nature of the food or its characterizing properties."
