After four years at cold brew maker High Brew Coffee, CMO Mari Lee has announced her exit from the company, effective January 15. Lee joined High Brew in 2015 after serving as vice president of field marketing at KIND, and has previously held positions at Glaceau and Red Bull. High Brew’s brand manager, Miles Aghajanian, will take over after her exit.
During its annual investor call on Thursday, Monster Energy Corp. reported solid overall sales growth, while teasing several new innovations for this year that are set to directly compete with energy products from Starbucks and Celsius.
In this episode, Matt Weiss, founder/CEO of RIND Snacks, discussed his approach to incubating the skin-on dried fruit brand while maintaining his full-time job. Weiss spoke about how he assessed the financial and opportunity costs of entrepreneurship, the importance of open and honest communication with his employer while incubating RIND and why he believes in “relentless networking.”
Founded in 2017 by CEO Ari Tolwin and CPO Joseph Savino, Numilk has developed a proprietary vending machine capable of producing nearly any type of plant-based milk. Speaking with BevNET, Tolwin, who previously served as the founder and CEO of Happy Tree Maple Water, said the fountain model allows Numilk to immediately adjust to changing consumer and market demands.
In a video recorded at BevNET Live Winter 2019 in Santa Monica, California, Dew and Perteet Spencer, VP of CPG & enterprise sales at market research group SPINS, examined Health-Ade as a case study for effectively integrating data to scale in a fast-growing category, offering insight into how the kombucha brand was incubated in the natural channel and how analytics have helped it target the specific needs of health and wellness consumers.
Aiming to triple its distribution and open up West Coast production, Oatly has partnered with Starbucks to serve as the coffee retailer’s on-premise oat milk supplier for a test run in 1,300 Midwest cafes.
Ash Crawford is the co-founder of Quivr, a nitro coffee and tea brand that aims to fuel health conscious and active consumers with plant-based energy. The company sources whole leaf teas from around the world and fresh locally roasted coffee beans to power its lineup, keeping it simple without any added sugar or sweeteners.
In this video of his presentation at BevNET Live Winter 2019, Brew Dr. Kombucha founder and CEO Matt Thomas discussed how beverage entrepreneurs can adapt and thrive as they face the challenge of scaling, sharing the importance of adopting a mindset that embraces constant growth and reflected on his day-to-day work building the company over the course of 14 years.
Facing several lawsuits from former customers accusing him and his business partner of fraud, Prabhath Kasaraneni, the owner of Texas-based copacker Optimus Fulfill, has filed for bankruptcy, placing his company and assets up for liquidation.
The Coca-Cola Company has acquired the remaining stake in dairy producer Fairlife LLC, the company announced on January 3. The soda giant had been a minority investor in Chicago-based Fairlife since 2012, holding a 42.5% stake in the brand through a joint venture partnership with Select Dairy Producers.
Josh Zad, founder of trendsetting cafe chain Alfred Coffee, spoke about how the brand’s appeal is derived from its foundation as “a creative platform” focused on customer experience, why he believes that Alfred isn’t “doing anything groundbreaking” and how he’s attempting to replicate Alfred’s success with Calidad Beer, an upstart brand of Mexican-style lagers.
On Sunday, Dallas-based Borden Dairy Co., at one point the world’s largest dairy producer, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.
Plant-based beverage maker OWYN has raised $7.5 million in a financing round led by Powerplant Ventures, the company announced today. Powerplant co-founder and partner Mark Rampolla will join the brand’s board of directors.
In this roundup of recent legal news, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth District affirmed a lower court ruling dismissing a class action suit against Dr Pepper/Seven Up, Inc. alleging Diet Dr Pepper’s use of the term “diet” implies it can help with weight loss or management. Meanwhile, a lawsuit between The Coca-Cola Company and the heirs of lemonade maker Hubert Hansen will move to a jury trial.
