With the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) show returning to Atlanta for the first time since 2010, executives from the Coca-Cola Co. didn’t have to travel very far from the company’s downtown headquarters to the show’s location at the Georgia World Congress Center. That was probably a good thing considering that they certainly had their hands full with a heap of new products and packages that Coke unveiled at the event.
It’s been a good year for Celsius, a brand that, once mired in an unmanageable distribution system, now benefits from simplicity.
We extended the submission deadline for BevNET's Best of 2013 Awards + New Beverage Guide until the end of Wednesday, October 23. That means you have just two days left to submit your product for BevNET's "Best of" Awards and inclusion in BevNET's New Beverage Guide, the most comprehensive collection of non-alcoholic beverages compiled annually.
Having recently tweaked the formulation in its line of organic fruit drinks, we decided to give Wild Poppy, which we first reviewed in 2011, a second look. And while we were fans of the brand back then, we think that the updates have elevated Wild Poppy's flavor profile; the products taste (and look) really great.
The brand’s parent company, Talking Rain, has cobbled together a national network for reaching convenience stores, CEO Kevin Klock told BevNET Editor Jeffrey Klineman during a wide ranging interview on the floor of the NACS (National Association of Convenience Stores) Show.
No, the 2013 NACS show in Atlanta may not have been a hub for innovation as it was in years past. Nevertheless, here was a significant number of new product announcements and brand updates seen at the 2013 NACS show, most coming in the form of line extensions and packaging revamps. After three days on the floor, we located almost 60 new products and brands that were featured at the event, all of which are included in the following photo gallery.
Suja has released two new varieties to its recently launched Suja Elements line: Mango Fuego and Blutrients. As with the first round of Elements, the products are organic, cold-pressed and high-pressured processed, and, in our opinion, very well-executed in formulation and packaging.
What a difference a year makes. Yes, most of the big beverage players were present at the 2013 NACS (National Association of Convenience Stores) Show; The Coca-Cola Co., PepsiCo, Dr Pepper Snapple, Red Bull and Monster Energy all featured the usual mega booths that attendees are used to seeing at the event. But unlike years past, the NACS show in Atlanta was notable for what it was missing: many of the natural and functional brands that we saw in 2012.
Bai is currently distributed in 14 states, mostly in the Northeast, but with distribution from the Dr Pepper Snapple Group, the company plans to enter the other 36 via 12,000 new retail outlets by the end of 2014. They call it “hyper-growth” and claim it’s a pace that hasn’t yet overwhelmed them.
A couple days ago, we reviewed a couple products from Found Beverage Co.'s line of juice drinks. Today, we take a the a few of the brand's sparkling water varieties. Packaged in the same sleek-looking 11.2 oz. glass bottles as its juice products, we like the attractive and polished look of the brand, although we wonder about the positioning of the drinks as “infused sparkling waters."
Did you or your company launch a new beverage (for you or a client) in the past year? Have you revamped your brand or introduced new packaging? Either way, it's time to enter your product into BevNET's Best of 2013 Awards, which will be announced at BevNET Live Winter 13. Don't delay -- TOMORROW, OCTOBER 18 is the deadline to signup!
ITO EN, VOSS, Balance Water and Ayala's Herbal Water, to name a few, hope to spearhead what they believe is the gradually changing inventory of C-stores, and they did so in the halls of the Georgia International Convention Center, tucked between rows of companies peddling e-cigarettes and microwaveable fried chicken.
On the floor of NACS, it was clear that companies are handling the issue of a letter to 17 of them from the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, which had set a deadline of Monday, Oct. 14 for responses, very, very delicately.
For all you stragglers out there, we've extended early registration pricing for BevNET Live Winter’13 until Friday, October 25, which means that you've got just a little more than a week to take advantage of a significant discount from the full price of the event. BevNET Live Winter '13 takes place on December 9-10 in Santa Monica, Calif., and is expected to sell out well before the actual event. Don’t delay — register now and save.
