That recent list of billion-dollar brands isn’t complete without Rockstar, according to information supplied by the brand today, Joey Cannata, the EVP of sales and distribution for the company, told BevNET today that he believed the brand had likely passed the $1 billion retail number over a 12-month period trailing the middle of 2011.
The Dr Pepper Snapple Group recently announced that it was expanding their "Ten" (as in ten calories) line of low calorie sodas into some of the other franchise brands. Today, we're taking a look at 7UP Ten. While the flavor is quite good (citrus and artificial sweeteners pair well together it seems), this product seems like something that will result in cannibalization rather it bringing new consumers to the brand.
Talk about a whirlwind courtship. It took just four months from organic espresso /coconut water blend Coco Café to go from independent, entrepreneurial beverage company to a strategic piece in the coconut water chess game. The company, which had its first production run in September, had bids from two different potential investors by the end of December and moved into Vita Coco's offices by the end of January.
A day after the University of Vermont declared that the school "will become one of the first institutions nationwide to end the sale of bottled water on campus," the International Bottled Water Association (IBWA) issued a statement calling UVM's decision "contradictory and confusing."
With continued momentum for new products including Rehab and Absolutely Zero, UBS is forecasting a big year for Monster Beverage Company. In a new report, UBS analyst Kaumil Gajrawala projects Monster’s revenue to grow by 18.4 percent in 2012, with new products contributing five percentage points to top line growth.
Jones Soda announced plans today to raise $3.2 million in a registered direct offering of common stock and warrants. Combined with a recently secured $2 million credit facility, the proceeds from the sale will allow Jones to "significantly enhance its financial position and will further enable the company to work towards sustainable profitability," according to Jones Soda CEO Bill Meissner.
After getting rave reviews at the December BevNET Live event -- taking home the award during the New Product Showdown -- Coco Café had to imagine that it would be getting a lot of attention and some new accounts. But apparently things have really accelerated for the Los Angeles-based espresso/coconut water blend, as Vita Coco, the country's best selling coconut water brand has swooped in to make an investment in Coco Café.
The loss of a pair of high-ranking executives at the Marley Beverage Company has forced organizational change at the fast-growing company. In September, Chief Marketing Officer Paul Fuegner left the company – and while the company has not yet filled the role, it has also not yet executed a strategy to fill the position with brand managers for its different product lines.
It has been a while since we took a look at CodeBlue and a lot has changed for the product. What used to be a single SKU carbonated beverage is now a four flavor non-carbonated line, with the function (recovery) about the only holdover from the original product. Visually, it feels like a much more complete product, while variety of flavor is something that never seems to hurt either.
The Toronto Star is reporting that Swiss packaging giant SIG Combiblock is preparing to debut chewable drinks -- cartons filled with a variety of fruits, nuts, grains, etc. -- in Canada. As anyone who has worked through bubble tea, aloe drinks, or Orbitz knows, there is so far only a small market for heterogeneous beverages. So it's really your call if you want to go into the biz.
More big news for Body Armor with news that the company has aligned itself with Big Geyser, one of the largest beverage distributors in metro New York. Big Geyser will act as the exclusive distributor of Body Armor throughout New York City, as well as Westchester, Long Island, Nassau and Suffolk Counties. The distribution deal is Body Armor's first on the East Coast.
ARMA Energy SNX, whose primary line of business is creating energy enhanced nuts (the company is owned by nut processor John B. Sanfilippo & Son), has recently moved into a more familiar medium of delivering energy: liquid. Their first offering, which is simply labeled "ARMA Energy", is a very nice product that has a clean and polished look.
After 18 months at the Coca-Cola Co., Inc., he vowed he’d never come back to the beverage game. The big sale -- $4.1 billion for Vitaminwater maker Glaceau -- was over, the transition team was largely in place, and he had other goals in mind. "I don't think any human being could put in the energy and intensity that I put into those years," Repole said of the early 2000s. "I don't think it could ever be duplicated."
On the heels of PepsiCo’s announcement that Diet Mountain Dew, Brisk and Starbucks RTD Beverages have each surpassed $1 billion in sales over the past year, Salman Amin, the executive VP and CMO of PepsiCo, penned an article for Forbes about the company’s core strategies in developing and marketing a billion-dollar brand.
