Beer Marketer's Insights
Green Bee, small natural-soda marketer in Maine, is latest to migrate into sparkling realm, joining others like NY's Seriously brand in offering entry that doesn't rely on mysteriously formulated "natural flavors." New unsweetened sparkling water line is launching in Lemon (at 5 calories per bottle), Ginger (5 calories per bottle) and Maine Wild Blueberry (15 calories per bottle). Green Bee is making much of fact that, as in its sodas, its ingredients are completely transparent - just carbonated water and juice from farm-sourced fruit, "while competitors use the conveniently meaningless black box of 'natural flavors,'" per launch announcement. "Each sip of Green Bee delivers the true taste of actual fruit, not just the hint of factory-derived 'essence.'" (Plaintiff bar has gone after some purveyors of essence waters on these grounds in class action suits in recent years.) Said founder/prexy Chris Kinkade, "We thought it was time to bring The Green Bee Way to the sparkling water world." Brunswick-based co launched in 2010 with Lemon Sting flavor and by now has become available in retailers around US, including all stores of Luke Lobster chain whose founder, Luke Holden, we're told, has been investor in Green Bee. Statement from Holden predicted: "The new sparkling waters will be a huge hit with our guests, who are clamoring for an unsweetened beverage where they can taste and pronounce everything on the ingredients list." Info at DrinkGreenBee.com
Starbucks had telegraphed move earlier this year and again in Aug, but when Starbucks shut down its online stores Oct 1 it still caught many customers by surprise and struck many observers as odd move in e-commerce world that's burgeoning for most other brands - we just gave rundown Wed of Starbucks' RTD partner PepsiCo in this realm (BBI, Oct 4). "You can purchase your favorite coffee and Starbucks merchandise in your local Starbucks," read notice online, with caveat, "We cannot guarantee availability of any product in stores, but we know you will find many choices to enjoy." SBUX merchandise will still be found in grocery aisles as well as its own stores. "It's a bold move, and one that has already caused a bit of backlash," wrote Barron's, referring to many stunned consumers who were used to ordering their fave SBUX syrups online. "Social media filled up with protestations and laments," noted NY Times. Back in April, chmn Howard Schultz declared retailers need to be "experiential destinations," recalled Barron's. "Your products and services for the most part, cannot be available online and cannot be available at Amazon," Schultz told investors at the time. Barron's summed up his bet on in-person shopping this way: "By forcing customers to actually walk into stores, Starbucks is making it harder for them to casually buy a pound of coffee from home. But in the long run, forcing people to make that effort could forge a deeper connection."
Dry Sparkling marketer Dry Soda Co has been augmenting its exec team as it reels in promising new retail partners like CVS and Costco and apparently advances to closing another financing round later this year. Ed Lilly, a PepsiCo, Muscle Milk and Speedway vet who'd joined co 2 years ago running western regional sales, has been elevated to evp sales as co starts to scale more aggressively. He'll be working with new recruit Jim Flood, a Pepsi vet who also spent past 4 years at Chobani Yogurt, who joins as vp of sales strategy. (Flood also played key role in $750 mil capital raise at yogurt maker, experience that may be relevant to Dry Soda Co's own current capital raising efforts.) Former Starbucks exec Anna Johnson, who was trained as chemical engineer, is in as vp operations charged with pushing limits on products and packaging at co that's gotten surprising lift from innovations like its 750-ml "Celebration Bottle" for holidays. Co has brought in dir for central US and is in hunt for eastern dir, founder/ceo Sharelle Klaus told us in conversation this week. Asked about capital raising activities, she demurred, only saying there may be news later this year.
Coca-Cola Bottling Co of Northern New England, a unit of Japan's Kirin Holdings that's celebrating its 40th anniversary as a Coke bottler this year, has closed on massive addition of new territory that is seeing it triple its workforce and boost its sales volume from 27 mil cases to 82 mil cases. Bedford, NH-based CCNNE now will operate across 8 states in Northeast, including such metros as Boston; Providence, RI; Hartford, Conn; and Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Albany, NY. Public affairs dir Nick Martin told Union Leader newspaper in NH that workforce now jumps from 1,380 to nearly 4,000. It recently opened new office space down street from Bedford hq to support bigger biz. Deal brings it 2 additional production facilities as well as 19 distribution centers previously operated by KO's Coca-Cola Refreshments distribution arm, including one in Tonawanda, NY, at which production has been discontinued (at no loss in employment, new owner has assured city). CCNNE already was producing in plant in Londonderry, NH, often touted as zero-waste bottling plant, along with East Hartford, Conn, and Needham Heights, Mass. Deal might have been even bigger, withCCNNE widely believed to have been among bottlers approached by Coca-Cola to pick up challenging NYC/Philadelphia territory, logical possibility in view of KO's move to keep its franchised territories as contiguous as possible. Ultimately, tho, KO found no takers among CCNNE or other incumbent bottlers, particularly as implementation of soda tax in Philadelphia hit that biz hard, and it ended up moving territory to pair of former execs, Paul Mulligan and Fran McGorry. Besides managing broad portfolio of Coca-Cola products and allied brands like Monster Energy and Fairlife dairy, CCNNE also distributes brands from Dr Pepper Snapple Group and regional CSD brand Moxie, which it acquired from Monarch Bev about a decade ago.
Peet's Coffee is maintaining robust innovation pipeline for this year's holiday season, bringing back Holiday Blend of whole-bean coffee to grocers, prepping pair of new in-store offerings and augmenting fast-growing RTD cold-brew line with Peppermint Mocha flavor. The grocery-oriented offerings are hitting store shelves imminently, and the entire lineup should be available in Peet's own stores on Nov 1.
San Diego-based Sol-ti has taken coupla steps toward offering items with longer shelf life, launching quartet of cold-brewed teas that sport shelf life of up to 105 days and an entirely shelf-stable Remineralized Water. Its current line has only 65-day shelf life. New Coldbrew Tea line launches in brand's trademark 15.5-oz square-footprint glass bottles in caffeine-free Arctic Chaga and Rooibos Chai flavors as well as mildly caffeinated Jasmine Pearl and Dragon Oolong flavors, all using organic, Fair Trade tea and containing under 2 of sugar. As with core line, they employ co's UV light filtration process. The Remineralized Water, in same glass pack, per key credo of co to avoid hydrocarbon-based packaging, is reverse-osmosis water to which have been added 72 ionic trace minerals and silica, fulvic acid and Himalayan sea salt. It has pH of 6.8. "Remineralized for hydration, neuron electricity, skin elasticity and cellular absorption - finally a truly hydrating water in glass," is pitch.
CSD volume declined 3.5% last 4 wks thru Sep, per Nielsen data reported by Morgan Stanley. So soft drink volume was softer in key period that included Labor Day weekend even as avg price increase eased off slightly to avg of +1.2%. Coca-Cola volume slipped 0.9% on avg price gain of 1.4% last 4 wks, generally in line with 12-wk trends. PepsiCo volume dropped 6.9% on small avg price decrease of 0.4% for 4 wks. PEP's full-calorie CSDs (-7.4%) had weaker volume trends than its diet (-5.3%) brands. Dr Pepper Snapple CSD volume went from even for 12 wks to -2.3% last 4 wks as avg prices went higher to +2.3%. Private-label brands sank 6.1% despite 0.4% avg price drop.
King Juice, the copacker and Calypso marketer that was acquired in Aug by private-equity shop Mason Wells, has recruited CPG and nutrition brand vet David Klavsons as successor to longtime owner/ceo Tim Kezman. Announcement Tues said Klavsons, most recently at Glanbia Performance Nutrition, had joined team currently headed by Calypso Brands prexy Jeff Outlaw, who's been running day-to-day on lemonade line and will stay in place. Announcement made no mention of Kezman, but it seemed clear at time of acquisition that he'd be moving on over course of next year; he's expected to stay for extended transition as Klavsons gets his feet wet. Kezman and Klavsons would be intimately familiar with one another, as King Juice was copacker for Glanbia's Isopure line.
PepsiCo this morning acknowledged stumble in its efforts to navigate shifting bev landscape in N Amer, blaming weak Q3 performance in part on too-extreme tilt toward smaller, newer brands in marketing and retail execution at expense of core CSDs like Pepsi-Cola and Mountain Dew. Also a factor: Gatorade, hammered by cooler, wetter late-summer weather and quietness in c-store channel. "In push to get healthy, Pepsi may have pushed too hard in 3Q," headlined AP. "Our performance did lag the industry, no question about it," admitted chmn/ceo Indra Nooyi on this morning's quarterly investor call.
The acquisitive Niagara Bottling LLC of Ontario, Calif, has acquired Pureau bottled water brand and related businesses from First Quality Water & Beverage LLC of Lock Haven, Penn. First Quality produces bottled waters under both private-label and Pureau brands. Move "gives us a greater presence in the Northeast and is another exciting chapter in Niagara's history," said Niagara prexy/ceo Andy Peykoff II. "We've always considered First Quality a strong competitor with an excellent product offering." First Quality Water & Beverage employees will be offered chance to move to other First Quality Group cos, including expanding tissue mfg operation in Lock Haven . . . It wasn't only coffee cos who looked to capitalize on Natl Coffee Day hoopla last Fri. NC brewer Catawba Brewing celebrated event with Dunkin' Punkin' Brown Ale, brewed in small batch of 60 kegs that were available only that day at 4 of co's tasting operations in state, per reports in Fortune and elsewhere.