Wave, the “politely” caffeinated canned sparkling water line launched by Odwalla and Green Shoots vet Nat Noone in San Diego a year ago, is beginning to step on the gas up and down West Coast.  And word on the show floor at Expo West was that co had quietly landed minority investment from Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Zx Ventures investment fund, tho Nat declined to confirm rumor, politely of course.

At booth, Nat told us that, with concept vindicated in San Diego, co had begun to broaden geographic footprint to include Northern Calif and Pacific NW, as well as parts of Texas, using hybrid distribution scheme of broadliners UNFI and KeHe working the chains and agile independents like Seacoast in San Diego and Waterloo in SF seeding the up-&-down-the-street channel.  Brand has been picked up in some Whole Foods stores as well as such influencer outlets in NorCal as Nugget Market, Rainbow Grocery and Berkeley Bowl; Pacific Northwest’s Market of Choice, and HEB, its Central Market banner and some Safeway stores in Texas, where it’s teamed up with Texas Tea to get distribution in areas like the Univ of Texas campus.  As reported last year (BBI, TK), Wave attempts to offer modest upgrade on La Croix by offering 15% juice hit, for more robust flavor at modest calorie tradeoff in 15-25 range per 12-oz can, and 45 mg of natural caffeine.  In every flavor, the juice named in the flavor is the #2 ingredient on label, after water.  Blackberry was latest to join lineup last month. 

Viewing it as underexploited “diamond in the rough,” in words of one Expo West booth staffer, Nestle Waters North America has revamped its Acqua Panna Italian still-water import, setting $30 mil marketing campaign that includes national TV component.  Effort will flag history and heritage of brand that percolates for 14 years thru Tuscan terrain, elevating it from past role as convenient add-on in sales calls for San Pellegrino sparkling brand. 

Meanwhile, co continues to expand its San Pellegrino sparkling import in intriguing ways.  Latest extension adds hint of tea to flavored waters under names like Limone & Te.  At NACS c-store show last fall, it had added Essenza flavored extension (BBI, Oct 9).

Long Blockchain Corp seems to have finally found a taker for the Long Island Iced Tea unit that originally was its core biz. Local paper Newsday said Farmingdale, Long Island, unit will be run by former Royal Crown chief John Carson, now at InteContinental Beverage Capital, and his IBC partner William Hayde, following what seems to be sale to Vancouver investment shop ECC Ventures 2 Corp. Philip Thomas, founder/ceo of Long Island Brand Beverages before the co’s swerve into blockchain, will serve as prexy. Once the transaction is completed, the bevco’s stock is expected to replace ECC2's listing on a tier of Toronto Stock Exchange, which has to approve terms of sale, Newsday said. Citing news release that we haven’t seen, Newday said ECC2 had agreed to terms of private placement for at least $2 mil to finance deal. IBC colleague we encountered at Expo West told us it’s interim role for Carson to get things rolling.

Plant water co Sap! of Burlington, Vt, is offering more robust-flavored, nutritional take on La Croix with 12-oz canned line called Sap! Sparkling Water that blends birch water with fruits and herbs but keeps the calorie count to 15 calories or less per can.  New line heralded at top of can as “made from birch tree water” debuts in Cranberry with Goji Berry, Tangerine with Chamomile, Strawberry with Habanero and Ginger with Lemongrass flavors, using birch water that co says is sustainably harvested in Vermont.  Tho sales sheet indicates SRP of $1.49 ($4.49 per 4-pk, $7.49 per 8-pk), founder/ceo Charles Smith said it should be found on shelf at $1 in many locations, offering competitive La Croix alternative that avoids stigma of “natural flavors” that’s proved sticking point with some label-readers.  Tho Sap! initially went out as maple water brand, he said new line picks up on vogue for birch that’s occurred in beauty products among female millennials, while harnessing ingredient’s status as offering more nutrition at lower calories than alternatives like coconut water.  It should also plug into Nordic cultural trend, he said.  Line had done well in modest test for a few months and now will roll out mainly in Northeast to retailer roster that includes Shop Rite and Hannaford Bros. 

Nestle Waters North America, which has been undertaking sweeping transformation initiative, has cut as much major portion of its marketing ranks while also winnowing sales staff thru buyouts and layoffs, per sources with connections to Stamford, Conn, bottled water giant.  “They decimated the marketing team,” said one former NWNA exec who’s still in close contact with staffers there.  “Also gave a lot of sales people packages” and may move to merge bottled water sales force with that behind Nestle’s bev portfolio in quest of further scale and efficiencies.  An NWNA rep said she was in meetings this morning and hadn’t gotten back by press time.

On Glass Door employer-rating site, whose anonymous comments should be taken with grain of salt, exec who claims to be 15-year NWNA vet posted on Mar 6, under headline “Company transformation,” that he or she “was recently told that in 2-3 weeks I will find out if I still have a job.  Pushing out all tenured people.”  Another recent poster, with more sanguine view or recent developments at NWNA, wrote that “company is changing in the right direction.  Focused on high performance culture development, transparency, brands, and aspirational vision to be the #1 beverage company,” amid “some unfounded resistance from remaining old guard.”

Anheuser-Busch InBev’s organic Hiball brand, on deliberate buildout via A-B distribution network, has landed big retail partner, Walmart, which is picking up 4 of brand’s energy sku’s and all 3 of its new iced coffees for its ambient shelves and for coolers at checkout, said Beyond Beer sales chief Randy Ornstein.  The energy sku’s include pair of the zero-calorie sparkling waters and pair of the juice-based entries.  As indie co, Hiball had only penetrated handful of Walmart stores via its broadline distributors, so this could augur dramatic pickup in sales and awareness for brand. 

Randy disclosed retail win at expansive Expo West booth where Hiball unveiled its revamped coffee line, but where there was no sign of Alta Palla Organic Sparkling Waters, which show rumors had on the way to discontinuation once inventories are bled out of market.  (A-B execs wouldn’t confirm that, reiterating only that they currently have ample inventories available to sell.)

The coffee line removes all the dairy and much of the sugar from earlier expression that had enjoyed limited launch in Whole Foods before industrywide capacity crunch in retort production truncated effort.  In intervening years, consumers have become much more attuned to sugar, to point where even Starbucks’ Frappuccino megabrand has seen erosion.  So consumers won’t be getting a liquid donut from Hiball, joked Dan Craytor, who cofounded Hiball with Todd Berardi.  In new guise, Hiball’s shelf-stable cold-brewed line is packed in 11-oz slim cans in unsweetened Black entry with 120 mg of caffeine, and pair of sweetened entries using organic Fair Trade cane sugar: Vanilla (70 calories, 100 mg caffeine) and Mocha (80 calories, 105 mg caffeine). ABI will be intensifying market effort behind Hiball in 3 markets this year: LA, where brand moves via indie houses Straub and Ace as well as A-B’s wholly owned branch operations; Austin, via Brown Distributing, and Portland, Ore, via Maletis and branch operations. 

Meanwhile, ABI continues to build out its Teavana iced tea collab with Starbucks, which has quickly become dominant superpremium tea and represented fastest-growing tea at any price tier last year, Ornstein noted.  Latest addition to core 14.5-oz glass-bottle line is brand’s first white tea, Blood Orange Mango.  And anticipated canned format, in 12-oz slim units, has launched in pair of herbal entries, Passion Tango and Pineapple Berry Blue, along with Strawberry Apple Green Tea and Mango Black Tea, priced at $15.99 per 12-pk.  Variety pack quickly sold out on Amazon.com, Ornstein noted, which suggests brand has built broad base of converts in its couple years of existence so far.

Back when we last visited with Coco5 sports drink founder Scott Sandler, Chicago entrepreneur told us everything but the brand name was under review as he sought to finetune concept in segment awash in newer entries trying to crack hegemony of Gatorade.  As it turns out, his new ceo, the former MillerCoors cmo David Kroll, told us last week that conclusion was that there wasn’t much that needed fixing, beyond minor tweaks like following upgrades in Reb-A sweetener available in market these days.  So, with brand’s better sku’s even outperforming Zico in a couple of Midwest accounts, it’s time to pull in some growth capital, give brand a stronger voice and develop localized marketing plans that can continue velocity build.  A significant investor whom he couldn’t identify could come thru with significant tranche in coming weeks, Kroll indicated, and quite a few well-known athletes are considering investments.  That would follow last spring’s $1.5 mil round co-led by local investment fund Spiral Sun Ventures and Loop Capital ceo Jim Reynolds, with participation from Boston Celtics forward Marcus Morris, his brother the Washington Wizards forward Markieff Morris (now OKC Thunder) and Montreal Canadiens right winger Andrew Shaw, who won Stanley Cup with Blackhawks in 2013 and 2015.

Coco5, recall, is coconut-water-based brand that was devised a decade ago by Chicago Blackhawks trainer Bob Gapski, who was seeking better alternative than Gatorade for his players (BBI, Sep 15 2016).  By now, brand is used behind scenes in about 70 pro teams in range of sports, and has been making inroads into college teams too.  Like other entrants under names like Nooma and Greater Than, Coco5 must contend not just with the shelf presence and relentless promos of Gatorade and Powerade but with the waves being made by Body Armor, lately a sibling brand of Powerade at Coca-Cola.  Still, Kroll feels Coco5’s authentic back story, higher coconut water content and complete absence of any artificials should allow it to carve out distinct niche.  (Racing fan Kroll acknowledges he didn’t know much about Body Armor cofounder/ceo Mike Repole before coming to Coco5 beyond Mike’s activities running stable of thoroughbred horses.)  Tho brand has kept its focus on Midwest, where it’s been expanding thru Whole Foods chain, it also has built significant Canadian biz via Sobey and Metro Mart thanks to passion for NHL there, and could start to appear on West Coast via retail partners like Sprouts, David indicated.  He said sales more than doubled last year and should triple this year.  (Crain’s Chicago Biz mag had pointed to sales on track for $4 mil last year.)  “It’s a massive opportunity,” said Kroll, who spent his career managing big brands at big cos like MillerCoors, Dyson, Unilever, Wrigley, Procter & Gamble and Cargill.  “It’s pretty rare to find a brand with this authentic a back story.”

In terms of the org, there’s been some backtracking.  Co a year ago brought aboard such seasoned talent as Pepsi innovation vet Leslie Butler and Groupon vet Brad Downes before concluding that was more firepower than brand could support at that stage.  (Coco5 came on Kroll’s radar when Butler’s husband, who worked for him at MillerCoors, brought a bottle in; intro to Spiral Sun Ventures managing partner and Coco5 board member Mark Thomann followed, and eventually he made leap to entrepreneurial world.)  Coco5 “overengineered things,” Kroll said of now-departed mgrs.  “We need to be scrappy.”  He’s hopeful of ramping up talent hunt again later this year.  Also on horizon are developing partnerships with philanthropic partners involved in activities like youth athletics.  With staff still lean, co has brought aboard FDM Business Solutions for selling assistance and Impact Group to support biz at Kroger grocery chain. 

Fresh off a promotion to svp sales for Keurig Dr Pepper’s extensive array of emerging brands, former Bai Brands prexy Ken Kurtz appears to have abruptly left the co to rejoin Bai founder Ben Weiss in his new venture, Crook & Marker canned alc bev line. We hear Ken tendered his resignation via email following his last day, just a month or 2 after getting bumped up to key sales post reporting to chief commercial officer Derek Hopkins in wake of departure of his Bai colleague Laine Hancock (BBI, Feb 1). Super-salesman Kurtz, a vet of Gallo, Boston Beer and Fiji Water, joins Crook & Marker as coo, amid team already built out with formidable sales and mgmt resources, including former Heineken exec Ray Faust running sales. So Ken’s role there is a bit of a puzzle to outsiders. Crook & Marker, recall, attempts to offer a more richly flavored take on spiked seltzer boom, kind of like Bai is to La Croix (BBI, Oct 29), and brand seems to have had little trouble recruiting major beer houses to the cause . . . It’s end of an era at Verlinvest family office, which counted Vitaminwater marketer Glaceau as its biggest score: chmn Frederic de Mevius is moving on after nearly 24 years with stewards of Stella Artois fortune. Following announcement he’d made in Nov, Frederic has exited firm, tho he’s continuing on several projects for a few months longer. In internal email, he reminisced that “the journey started nearly 24 years ago when I founded the firm, and I am very proud to have led Verlinvest through this fantastic journey, first as CEO and more recently as chairman. This would not have been possible without the support of our board and the fantastic contribution of our teams in Brussels, New York and Singapore, and last but not least, the awesome partnerships with inspiring entrepreneurs.” Over the years, those entrepreneurs have included the ones behind Glaceau, Vita Coco Coconut Water, Hint Water, Leblon Cachaca and others – currently 30 participations with collective asset value of 1.6 bil euros spread across “verticals” in food/bev, healthcare services, education and digital, across US, Western Europe and Asia, per Frederic’s accounting. He said Verlinvest board is recruiting a new leadership team.