New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg officially proposed the ban during a City Hall briefing this morning, but word leaked out last night, at which time the ABA sent an e-mail to members stating it would “challenge this latest example of government overreach.”
Few brands launch with the cash and reach of the Mark Wahlberg-backed AQUAhydrate, which was featured in many public forums, including the TV show Entourage, but it has been a slow build for the electrolyte-infused water brand. Still, new CEO John Cochran has announced that the brand is re-launching and has staffed up his sales force with beer and water industry veterans to carry the load.
Following an FTC Judge’s recent ruling that POM Wonderful deceptively marketed health claims in ads for its pomegranate juice products and must end all claims about the health benefits and performance of its drinks, the company has launched a new media campaign touting "its right to legally advertise the general health benefits of its products."
BevNET is now accepting listings for the 2012 Water Guide. BevNET's Water Guide is the beverage industry's largest guide to bottled waters and powders. The guide is a key resource to beverage retailers and distributors. The guide is sent to 19,000+ subscribers in BevNET Magazine's July/August issue and made available to over 100,000 unique monthly BevNET.com readers as a downloadable PDF. The guide also contains a section for Supplier/Service companies.
In this video, BevNET Editor-in-Chief Jeff Klineman speaks with Simpli founders Mika Manninen and Helena Lumme about their brand, and how oat-based drinks have become a legitimate category for companies to invest in. Lumme also discusses how Simpli plans to increase education about the benefits of oat drinks as a way to develop a more consistent consumer of its products.
Coca-Cola CEO Mukhtar Kent told Wells Fargo Bank's senior beverage analyst Bonnie Herzog that the company is not in the market for major purchases, but he did leave the door open to what he called "bolt-on" acquisitions.
In a decision that may have far reaching implications for how beverage companies advertise and market their products, a federal judge has ordered the makers of POM Wonderful to cease making all claims about the health benefits and performance of its pomegranate drinks and products. The ruling will likely resolve a 2010 complaint filed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that accused POM and its parent company Roll International Corp of deceptive advertising.
Concerned about potential legislative proposals that limit what kinds of foods and beverages consumers can purchase with food stamps, the American Beverage Association (ABA) has hired a lobbying firm to advise Congress on “matters affecting the preservation of choice in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program [SNAP],” according to a recent article on TheHill.com.
Only eight months after launching the product, Pure Growth Partners has quietly rebranded its Street King energy shot as SK Energy. While the brand’s website has yet to reflect the name change, the product has been advertised as SK Energy on its social media pages since the beginning of the month.
New Age Beverage's XingTea Blueberry took the top spot in the Ready-to-Drink Flavored Green category at the North American Tea Championship. The beverage was judged along with 250 other iced teas, each of which was placed within 20 separate sub-categories. According to World Tea Media, which hosts the annual championship, the judging panel was comprised of professional "cuppers" who assessed the quality of each submission in a blind analysis.
With news of the upcoming Facebook IPO dominating headlines this week, Socialbakers, a social media and digital analytics firm, has released an infographic depicting the top brands on Facebook as measured by the total number of global "fans." It turns out that beverage companies are doing a pretty good job at engaging their consumers online as three of the top five brands on the list are owned by drink manufacturers.
Relational Investors, an investment firm known for taking an activist role in underperforming companies, announced that it has acquired a $600 million stake in PepsiCo – amounting to about 0.6 percent of the company - according to The Wall Street Journal. Relational began accumulating shares of PepsiCo in the fall of 2011, and has been one of several voices calling for the company to split its snack and beverage businesses into two separate and independent units.
Lifeway Foods has announced an agreement with Target that dramatically increases the number of stores that carry its Kefir line. The new distribution deal is Lifeway's first major expansion in Target in eight years and increases the availability of Lifeway Kefir drinks from 170 to 453 Target locations. The expansion covers a range of flavors and sizes of Lifeway Kefir, a probiotic drink similar to drinkable yogurt, and adds three new flavors of its 8 oz. Lifeway Kefir 4-packs to Target dairy cases.
Story jumped into the paper likely on the rumors of Coke's potential for a play for Monster Energy, but despite some analysts squawking that the company needs to take leadership in all categories, there's an equal number of claims that the company, with 500 brands, has trouble focusing as well.
