Long an industry heavyweight through his position as V.P. of marketing and immediate consumption sales for the giant independent bottler and distributor, Polar beverages -- symbolized by its Polar Bear mascot, Orson -- Gerry Martin told BevNET he is leaving Polar to help lead of Al’s Beverage Co., Inc., one of the country’s largest manufacturers and distributors of fountain soft drink concentrates.
5-Hour Energy stands at more than $1 billion in sales. That, however, is pretty much where it’s been mired for the better part of the year. In fact, since last October, the brand has largely stagnated, hitting a ceiling of about $1.19 billion, and inching back and fortth. The found sales that have powered the brand’s five year ascension seems to have tailed off. So what could be sapping 5-Hour Energy’s energy?
Sambazon’s Peppermint + Mocha Energy is a limited release product for the 2013 holiday season. The product blends acai, soy, coffee, yerba mate, vanilla, mint and a few other ingredients, and is packaged with a playful seasonal-themed label. As far as holiday-themed beverages go, this one is pretty good.
In the midst of growing consumer concerns about ingredients made from non-genetically modified organisms (GMO), a new report projects U.S. retail sales of non-GMO food and beverages to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 12.9 percent over the next five years.
One of the most enjoyable parts of my work is that I get to visit with so many beverage marketers. They open up their offices, share their visions, and let me catch a glimpse of the drawing board. We talk to assess the trends, past and present successes and failures, and where to go next. Bringing out new brands and SKUs, and upgrading packaging efforts, make for key aspects for competing, envisioning the next great thing, and staying solvent.
Popeye Energy is an energy drink that is made with 75 percent juice and labeled as an energy supplement. While juice-heavy energy drinks have been tried before without much success, it seems like something that fits well with the Popeye brand.
Signups for BevNET Live Winter 2013 (Dec 9 and 10 in Santa Monica, CA) are coming in fast. As a result, BevNET’s discounted room block at the Loews Santa Monica…
Talk about premium. The juice category keeps getting closer to fresh-squeezed, and improving price points as it does. By constantly raising the ceiling on process technology, the top end of the juice category continues to allow the development of new brands and a new definition of fresh.
IQ Energy is a liquid supplement that is marketed as one that will boost energy and enhance memory capabilities. Formulated with caffeine and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide + hydrogen, which the company promotes as a “NASA tested” ingredient, the product is, in our opinion, likely to face the same stumbles as others that touted "memory-enhancing" functionality.
If you’ve got lemons, make lemonade. For companies trying to get a leg up in the grab-and-go world of the juice cooler, that’s been exactly what’s been going on. While ersatz “fruit drinks” have been in decline for years, the lemonade category has been one of the few flavors that drink makers can turn to when they want an inexpensive winner.
Phancy’s “Soda Chanh” is a packaged version of the classic Vietnamese drink of the same name. Unlike the original, which is made with salted, pickled limes, this product appears to be a fairly run-of-the-mill lemon-lime soda (with perhaps a bit more lime flavor than usual).
Three weeks after the resignation of its president and CEO, Kevin McClafferty, Marley Beverage Company (MBC) announced today that it has adjusted its growth strategy and will hire additional staff to support strategic regions.
The new product will launch exclusively at Target and is packaged in squeezable, 1.76 oz. containers, each with 26 servings per bottle. Initially released in three flavors -- Iced Tea with Lemon, Iced Tea with Peach and Half & Half Iced Tea -- NWNA will release a Green Tea Citrus in November at other locations including convenience and grocery stores.
The stock market has hit all-time highs, private equity has over $320 billion of capital looking for a home, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have more than $27 billion of cash on their combined balance sheets, carbonated soft drinks continue their seemingly perpetual, long-term decline and the robust move towards healthier and functional beverages continues. What does that mean for the beverage capital markets? Good things.
