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2012 Winter Fancy Food Show – Beverage Exhibitor List

The 2012 Winter Fancy Food Show is being held January 15-17 in San Francisco’s Moscone Center. We've created a comprehensive list of exhibitors that are showcasing beverage-related products at the event. We'll be on hand to cover the show as well. If you'll be attending, please drop us a line.

CE-Yo No Mo’ — Hirshberg Leaves Stonyfield President/CEO Role

He's been a standard-bearer for the organic success story for years, as well as a mentor to Honest Tea co-founder Seth Goldman, but Stonyfield founder Gary Hirshberg announced today that he's handing day-to-day operations over to former Ben & Jerry's CEO Walt Freese. Hirshberg's sale of Stonyfield to Danone in 2003 -- and subsequent operation of the company as a unit with autonomy within that larger company -- is largely seen as a model for Goldman's sale of Honest Tea to the Coca-Cola Co. last year.

BevNET’s 2012 Functional Beverage Guide is Now Accepting Listings

BevNET is now accepting listings for the 2012 Functional Beverage Guide. To be published as a special section in the March issue of BevNET Magazine, the Functional Beverage Guide feature functional beverage brands and their suppliers. Listed alphabetically, beverage brands will be tagged with functional attributes (i.e. energy, relaxation). Brands will be indexed according to function at the start of the guide.

Jenkins, PCGA Looking for NEXT Investors

It’s an interesting play in an expanding space: NEXT Proteins, the current project of Designer Whey and Detour Bar founder David Jenkins, is attempting to sell its collection of protein-centric…

Inside Incubation: A Look at the Growing Ranks of Beverage Incubators

With institutional investors getting a bad rap in beverages these days – the National Enquirer version of the complaint is they force you to juice your projections in order to get the deal done, then steal your company when you fail to hit those unrealistic targets – a lot of early-stage beverage companies have been in a quandary as to where else to turn once they’ve reached the limits of where friends-and-family and angels can take them.

Nestea to Change Hands While Coke Grows FUZE

The Coca-Cola Co. and Nestle have confirmed that Beverage Partners Worldwide — their 20-year partnership marketing Nestea in the U.S. has been fundamentally altered to focus away from North America.…

Breaking: NWNA to take Nestea, Coke to In-FUZE Tea Biz, Report Says

The Coca-Cola Co. will be offering a new cold-filled RTD tea made under the FUZE brand to its distribution network after ceding the declining Nestea brand to Nestle, its partner in the fraying Beverage Partners Worldwide joint venture, according to a report in Beverage Digest. The move would allow Nestle Waters North America to take over Nestea in the U.S., rolling it into an expanding tea platform that includes the Sweet Leaf and Tradewinds tea brands.

From HANS to MNST

Well, considering that the energy drink business comprises about 95 percent of the company’s revenue, we don’t think there’s much of a shocker here, but Hansen’s Natural Corp. is changing…

Pepsi Cuts on the Way?

The pressure on Indra Nooyi continues to mount as the embattled PepsiCo CEO is considering plans to lay off roughly 4,000 workers and end the company’s 401(k) match in order to boost profits and increase shareholder value, according to The New York Post. The Post – which reported last month that the cola giant was preparing to lay off about 1,000 workers - noted that a final decision on the moves could come within a matter of days, citing sources close to matter.

Xyience Trucks into GNC

Xyience has landed four SKUs of its Xenergy energy drink in specialty nutrition retailer GNC, a store that has increasingly reached out to energy and fitness beverages in the past year. In an just-released announcement, the company indicated that its Mango Guava, Cherry Lime, Cran Razz and Xtreme Fruit Punch varieties would be made available to up to 1,550 GNC stores, while another 300 GNC franchise operations would also be able to carry Xenergy.

PepsiCo Launches Star Wars-Themed Marketing Campaign for Brisk

PepsiCo has introduced new Star Wars-themed advertising, social media initiatives, and packaging to promote its Brisk iced tea and juice drinks, according to an article in The New York Times. The new marketing campaign will enlist characters from Lucasfilm’s “Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace 3D,” which is set for release next month. The campaign is designed to expand upon Brisk’s strong social media presence and increase sales within its target market of young adults, particularly males aged 18-29.

Alternative Sweeteners on the Rise

Led by greater market penetration and use of the stevia extract rebiana-A (reb-A), U.S. demand for alternative sweeteners will rise by 3.3 percent annually through 2015, according to a new report by market research firm Freedonia. The report indicates that the alternative sweetener market will reach $1.4 billion in sales within three years and that despite a sluggish diet soft drink market, high intensity sweeteners, including aspartame and sucralose, will remain the largest selling products within the category.

Pepsi Tweet Explained: Street King Nabs Honickman Distribution

Pure Growth Partners' co-founder Chris Clarke has lent some context to business partner Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson's Twitter message that his company had signed a deal for Pepsi to distribute Street King energy shots. According to Clarke, Street King has landed a key independent Pepsi distributor, the Honickman Group, which is known for its powerful execution in the New York and Mid-Atlantic regions.

50 Tweets: Street King into Pepsi

We’re still chasing this, but over on twitter, the ever-tweeting rapper/actor/occasional beverage mogul Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson has told the world that his Street King energy shot has begun some…