Calling it "the best of times and the worst of times for the beverage market," Ross Colbert, global beverage strategist for Rabobank, stressed the importance for retailers and vending operators to take advantage of current trends in the beverage industry to create new sales growth. Colbert explained that consumer demand for healthier and vitamin-fortified products is fueling the growth of "better for you" beverages, particularly in ready-to-drink teas, bottled waters, and functional drinks.

For the second time this year, the FDA has warned a beverage company that products labeled as supplements must be sold and marketed as supplements, not beverages. It was revealed today that the agency sent a letter to Rockstar cautioning that, despite being labeled as supplements, its Coffee & Energy products are represented and sold as beverages. And because the products contain Gingko, an unapproved food additive, the agency deemed the line to be “adulterated.”

Slow and steady is helping at Zola, which will follow a 60 percent sales increase last year with between 70 and 80 percent this year, according to CEO Chris Cuvelier.

In the midst of a significant shift in its sales and marketing strategy, Celsius has announced a new partnership with fitness infomercial icon Tony Little, most often known for his work promoting the Gazelle Exercise Machine. Celsius, a manufacturer of calorie-burning drinks and powders primarily consumed before workouts, has tweaked its positioning and marketing in the hopes of broadening its target use and consumer base to include individuals on weight-loss programs.

Late yesterday, Standard and Poor's announced that Monster Beverage will be added to the S&P 500 index next week. Monster will replace Sara Lee, which is splitting its North American business and international beverage business into two publicly traded companies. Monster, which has been publicly traded since 1995, will join the three major beverage companies - Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Dr Pepper Snapple - on the S&P 500.

CSD share might be slipping as a percentage of total beverages consumed, but there’s a Zero-sum gain out there – Coke Zero, that is. After a long period of double-digit growth, the brand continues to be the growing star of the company’s sparkling portfolio. Over the past year, the brand grew a little over 4 percent, according to A.C. Nielsen Scantrack numbers in Food, Drug and Mass retailers to push it into third place in the diet drink category.

Calling PepsiCo’s lack of bottling flexibility “hard to believe,” PepsiCo Americas Beverages CEO Al Carey said that the company has begun working with some of its more creative bottlers to create new package sizes for its beverage business. Speaking at Deutsche Bank’s Global Consumer Conference, Carey said that it PepsiCo was focused on “holding or improving value share” by the end of 2012, but that it was unsustainable to continue lowering prices to improve its position.

Today we’ve added videos from Day 2 of BevNET Live Summer 12 to BeverageSchool.com.  For a nominal fee, you can watch all of BevNET Live Summer 12 on-demand as many…