More news from the front lines of Cola Wars 2012 as PepsiCo announced that it has signed a 10-year deal with DineEquity to be the exclusive provider of most soft drinks for its Applebee's and IHOP restaurants. DineEquity, which had been serving both PepsiCo and Coca-Cola products, ended a decades-long agreement with Coke and stated that the company reached more advantageous terms for its franchisees by consolidating its business with PepsiCo.
Buoyed by volume growth and new promotional pricing, sales of carbonated soft drinks are up 2.4 percent in a year-over-year comparison for the four weeks ending on April 14, according to Nielsen scanner data released in a new report from Morgan Stanley. Despite the positive news for CSDs, the report notes that the category benefited from a relatively easy comparison to the same period a year ago in which sales of CSDs were down by 8.6 percent.
They managed to hold it off last year -- partially due to an impassioned plea from resident and longtime beverage entrepreneur Tom First -- but that quirky town of Concord, Mass., finally passed a ban on the sale of single-serving plastic water bottles at its Town Meeting last night.
Phoenix-based beverage incubator Shadow Beverages has launched drinks co-developed with retailer GNC into its stores in Nevada and Arizona. The line has 14 different SKUs, ranging from sports nutrition and enhanced waters to protein drinks.
Web Site The Daily Meal has chosen Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz as the "Most Powerful Person in Drink," presumably because without Starbucks such a list wouldn't have gotten written at The Daily Meal. We, of course, are disappointed that they forgot US... but if that doesn't extinguish your burning desire to look at it, here's the list.
When it comes to brand value, consumers flock to a handful of beverage brands including Green Mountain, Coke, Gatorade, Lipton, SoBe, vitaminwater, and Poland Spring, according to the results of a new Harris Interactive poll and study. The annual Harris Poll EquiTrend study measures and compares the health of more than 1,500 brands by analyzing the responses of over 38,500 consumers on questions related to brand value and loyalty.
Labeling changes are on tap for leading coconut water brand Vita Coco, which is conducting a line refresh that will migrate across the country throughout the summer.
TSG Consumer Partners, a private equity firm known for its profitable investment in a number of food and beverage companies including Vitaminwater and Voss Water, has sold its stake in San Francisco-based Pop Chips to Verlinvest, a Belgian-based private equity group. Pop Chips has a number of beverage investors, including Rohan Oza of Vitaminwater fame.
Single-serve offerings of coffee and tea led the way for the most successful new beverage launches in 2011, according to SymphonyIRI’s 2011 “New Products Pacesetters” report. The report, which compiles the top new food and beverage brands based on dollar sales, lists carbonated, sports and energy categories as having the second-most active launches within the beverage industry.
In celebration of their 20 year anniversary, AriZona is offering the chance for their fans to vote -- via Facebook -- on one of three new flavor concepts that they’ve created. Since it would be impossible to have every fan that votes try the flavor samples (and what fun would it really be to just vote based on the name of a flavor?), AriZona asked a variety of people, including food writers, celebrity chefs, random consumers on the streets of New York, and yours truly, to work as “Flavor Panelists.”
We are pleased to announce that Brewbound.com (that’s BevNET.com’s site for craft beer) will be coming to NYC in June with its second conference dedicated to the craft beer industry.…
And there's another one in the pool... AriZona has leaped into the growing sub-segment of coconut water/coffee combos with the introduction of CocoZona Espresso. The new beverage - the first product extension in AriZona's fledgling CocoZona line - is a 100 percent coconut water and espresso blend and contains 50 mg of caffeine and 70 calories per 14.5 oz. bottle.
PepsiCo tipped its hand on its innovation plans today, advertising for a position on a still-forming team designed to work with emerging beverages out of its Naked Juice offices near Los Angeles. The Beverage Growth Ventures team will be led by Chris Lansing, the General Manager of its Naked Juice and Izze division, BevNET has learned. Naked/Izze operates as a separate, West Coast entity, although it is owned by PepsiCo.
A federal judge has ruled that a class action lawsuit filed against the makers of Muscle Milk cannot proceed until the lead plaintiff improves her claims that the marketing of the brand is false and misleading. Although U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken agrees that Cytosport's claims that Muscle Milk contains “healthy fats” and that the product is a “nutritional shake” might mislead consumers, she stated that the complaint lacks sufficient detail for the suit to proceed.
