Publisher’s Toast: Looking Back

I’m about to enter my 33rd year publishing a beverage magazine, so I often like to take a look back. Chronicling the industry has been the joy of my life, workwise. The years have flown by so fast. When I started, it seemed there were only the big brands and big companies, as well as smaller, local offerings. I met and worked with legends of the industry. (In those days, I was able to have access to them much more easily than now, but that’s a rant for another day). The dynamics of business were personal connections and relationships. I got to see their creativity close-up. It was an exciting, yet kinder and gentler, time.

Brands were stable then, and most of the fighting came from the “rock n’ roller cola wars.” Innovation was marginal and risk taking minimal.

Then the world opened up with Snapple, Gatorade, and Perrier. “New Age” beverages, as coined by Michael Bellas, of Beverage Marketing Corp., changed the industry forever. Now there were hundreds of brands entering the market, the ones we chronicle daily.

We all know the numbers on the failures of beverage brands. For every Arizona, Snapple, Monster, Red Bull and the like, there are thousands of brands that don’t make it. New categories draw new players, and short-term, they might grow based on category heat before settling back into small-time, marginal brands. I have always admired those who continued on and realized that they didn’t have to hit a home run, but could sustain a comfortable living with a double. After all, it’s the consumer who benefits from these brands sticking it out and offering variety.

We also saw the acquisition monster from the big guys that swallowed up the brands that had achieved great success, to add to their portfolios. For the principals cashing in, it was better than winning the lottery, but for the brands, it was often a slow and painful death. The industry is littered with the bones of great brands that languished under corporate neglect. The growth of these brands was due to the entrepreneurial spirit of their founders. The acquirers simply didn’t have the passion to sustain that success, and the consumer was the loser in the proposition.

It has been an exciting ride. I’ve seen the highs and lows, but through it all, I’ve loved every minute of it.