Kevin McClafferty, who presided over a highly successful launch and rapid growth of Marley’s Mellow Mood, has resigned as president and CEO of Viva Beverages, which markets the Marley brand, according to a report in Beverage Business Insights (BBI).
Beverage School attendees will have a chance to learn what it means to get their product out into stores -- and online, as well, when they hear from social media marketing master Darrell Jursa during the Sept. 12 event.
Cocotein is a coconut water-based beverage that touts whey protein isolate as its key functional ingredient. While we've seen a few similarly positioned products on the market, it's certainly a niche category. Nevertheless, Cocotein is a well-executed beverage.
For L.A. Libations, the introduction of its Aloe Gloe brand in 2011 marked a significant turning point for the three-year old beverage incubator. Until then, the company had developed sales and distribution strategies for a host of other entrepreneurial beverage brands, including Zico and Neuro, and had little experience with manufacturing.
Arin is a brand of Thai-inspired drinks that made its U.S. debut at the recently held 2013 Summer Fancy Foods Show. The line-up includes a black tea, a hibiscus drink and lemongrass-infused beverage. While the company did a good job with the formulation of the drinks, branding and packaging is a significant issue.
While overall sales of carbonated soft drinks (CSDs) remain weak, plummeting sales of diet CSDs represented perhaps the most intriguing revelation from a rather gloomy Wells Fargo Securities report covering Nielsen xAOC (expanded all outlets combined) sales data over a four-week period ending on Aug. 13.
A finalist in the recently held New Beverage Showdown 5 at BevNET Live Summer '13, Jin+Ja is a non-carbonated beverage made with fresh ginger, cayenne, water, sugar, lemon juice, green tea and mint tea. Positioned as a product with a variety of use occasions, Jin+Ja is nicely formulated and features some pretty solid packaging.
With a deep and established presence in the Los Angeles market and having recently gained a toehold in New York City, Activate is now setting its sights on broader awareness of its cap-dispensing water brand and is prepping to launch a number of line extensions designed to reach a wider swath of consumers.
The introduction of Zola Coconut Water with Espresso follows the launch of a number of coconut water and coffee blends seen over the past year. In the case of this product, Zola has done a good job formulating a balanced beverage in which the coffee does not overwhelm the coconut water, something that offers a distinct point of differentiation from competing products.
BevNET is delighted to announce the addition of Chris Fenster of Propeller Industries as a speaker at Beverage School in San Francisco on Sept. 12. Mr. Fenster will be speaking about the best ways to structure an early-stage beverage company financially with a focus on clear record keeping, accurate forecasting and a true understanding of sales channel margins as tools for avoiding common pitfalls and improving strategic decision-making.
Arnold Ventura, the Stanford Business School-trained MBA who started the Coba line of Mexican themed drinks, has left the business to join PepsiCo's Naked Emerging Brands group as a natural product channel strategist.
Scientists have been meeting during The Use and Biology of Energy Drinks: Current Knowledge and Critical Gaps, a conference held Thursday and Friday at the Neuroscience Center Building in Rockville, Md. to try to determine the extent of research into these products, which have come under increasing regulatory scrutiny.
It seems that Ringo and the Beatles were well ahead of their time, beverage wise. Using a little poetic license, I assume they meant things should be natural. Yes, I know they didn’t really mean that, but I wanted a lead-in to the theme of natural, and I love the Beatles.
Overcrowding, and not enough differentiation between products. In recent years, we'd be talking about the energy category (which still fits the bill), but today, the same can be said about the coconut water space. And in the case of Just Coco, a new line of coconut waters from Brazil, we have to ask: why would consumers purchase this brand over whatever they're already drinking?
