With prior HR chief Lain Hancock taking interim spot running Bai after founder left, Dr Pepper Snapple Group has elevated the 16-yr marketing vet Jaxie Alt to evp for HR, offering another development track. Jaxie previously served as svp marketing, taking lead role on Dr Pepper trademark as well as 7 Up, A&W and Sunkist, which together comprise "core 4" CSD brands. Prexy/ceo Larry Young cited Alt for way she "blends strong business acumen and creativity with a talent for building and motivating engaged, results-driven teams." At same time, Plano, Tex-based co promoted 17-yr vet Andrew Springate to svp/cmo and made Jason Butter the point man with Coke bottlers, in new post of svp/gm of Coca-Cola Affiliated Sales Organization, the post Springate previously held. In his new post Springate reports to chief commercial officer Jim Trebilcock, who himself came up thru marketing ranks. Butter continues to report to Jim Johnston, prexy of Beverage Concentrates and Latin America Bevs . . . After org-flattening process initiated by ceo Hal Kravitz when he arrived in 2014 that saw national sales position eliminated, LA-based Aquahydrate has elevated Coke system vet Eddie Ennesser to post, where he'll supervise sales efforts in entire country as well as natl acct org. Until now, Hal has had field sales leaders in East, West and Central regions as well as national accts reporting directly to him. The elevation of Ennesser frees Kravitz up to focus more intently on longer-term strategy, int'l expansion and engagement with active board that includes Yucaipa magnate Ron Burkle, hiphop mogul Sean Combs and actor/producer Mark Wahlberg. Ennesser boasts 20 years in Coke system, on both brand and bottling sides, including supporting Glaceau biz in its crucial NY market. In another move, Aquahydrate has elevated vp finance Laarni Niro, a 5-year Aquahydrate vet, to broader role as svp finance & operations.

With Canadian rapper Drake recruited to the cause as part of Series A financing round, MatchaBar is ready to roll out in Whole Foods chain in Sep. NY-based brand launched by brothers Max and Graham Fortgang has created fair amount of buzz by bringing punk sensibility to ceremonial powdered green tea, with retail stores in NY and LA, line-drawing popup stores in Tokyo, wild flavor experimentation and new labels that turn bottles into slogan-bearing billboards. They're positioning their bottled line as "Better Energy" at time there's sense some consumers may be ready to move on from likes of Red Bull, Monster and 5-Hour. "We have been fortunate to secure the backing of such notable investors including one of the world's greatest entertainers, Drake," Graham said in statement without specifying size of raise or identity of other investors. "We feel Drake not only embodies the entrepreneurial spirit of our brand, but also our company's ethos 'Good things come to those who hustle.'"

Ingenious-seeming NY-based startup called Canvas Barley Milk is seeking to turn brewers' spent grain into "saved grain" by incorporating it into refrigerated line of bottled bevs that offers hefty payload of fiber, protein and medium-chain fatty acids. Tho co is positioned as a startup and making much of activities like $25K Kickstarter crowdfunding initiative, the entrepreneurs Ided as Canvas cofounders both seem to be Anheuser-Busch employees currently situated at co's Zx Ventures venture arm in city's Flatiron District, judging by their LinkedIn profiles. That suggests Zx may be moving beyond investments in fledgling indie brands and taking on direct brand development role, much as Coca-Cola's VEB incubation arm does. Canvas ceo Sarah Pool, described as a "food entrepreneur," is an Oregon-based natural snacks vet who joined Zx directly last Dec, while Jason Stamm, described as "innovation director in craft beer supply," was Belgium-based supply chain exec at A-B who segued to Zx this past Jan in general role of "exploration." A-B may have a lot of resources, but duo are eagerly playing crowdfunding game, seeking to raise $25K on Kickstarter by Aug 31 (they're nearly $11K of the way there so far), with view to launching glass-bottle line this fall in 5 flavors: Original, Cold Brew Latte, Cocoa, Turmeric Chai and Matcha. It's hard to enumerate how many current trends Canvas is lookin' to ride: craft beer, plant-based protein, crowdfunding as marketing tool, food waste prevention (as Ugly Juice is doing by using bruised fruit or Back to the Roots is doing by reusing coffee grounds in mushroom-growing kits), in-vogue ingredients like turmeric, coldbrew and matcha, even some marketers' efforts to turn packages into art statements, as Pepsi currently is doing with Life WTR.

Gwyneth Paltrow's advice and e-commerce play called Goop has turned into surprisingly influential arbiter of women's health & wellness issues. But on Sun, NY Times sought out SF gynecologist and obstetrician named Jen Gunter who's gotten into flame war with Paltrow and her allies over doc's efforts to dismantle some of "snake oil" proffered in stories posted on site. Bra-wearing as cause of breast cancer? It's breast size that's an indicator, not bras, doc retorted. Cleansing body with goat's milk as hedge vs parasites? "I'd just write it off as crazy except some people are going to follow this advice and waste a lot money." In her coverage, Paltrow has pushed items like Moon Juice moon dust and collagen-infused martinis, while Goop.com site offers for sale items like probiotic concentrates, reishi and cordyceps mushroom supplements, matcha tea, Raw Beauty Green Superfood Powder and even Psychic Vampire Repellent ($30 per 3.4-oz bottle). Article can be read here: 

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/29/style/goop-gwyneth-paltrow-dr-jen-gunter.html?_r=0

Starbucks' announcement Thurs that it would be closing its acquired Teavana tea chain drew scattered "Starbucks exits tea" headlines. Not at all the case, as BBI made clear: tea chain had been foundering for some time, but Teavana brand is big contributor to in-store bev biz in Starbucks and partnership with Anheuser-Busch on Teavana-branded RTD teas is just gettin' started. All told, Teavana hot and iced tea bevs comprises $1.6 bil biz at giant coffee roaster and tea generally continues to be viewed as key growth platform for future, even if Teavana chain didn't cut it. So A-B moved yesterday to make sure there's no confusion on this front: letter from Teavana gm Randy Ornstein to wholesalers, both indies and A-B-owned branch operations, assured them that "Teavana remains a priority for the organization and we continue to be committed to making Teavana Craft Iced Tea a successful and profitably addition to your Anheuser-Busch portfolio." Further evidence of partners' commitment: planned launch in Sep of first unsweetened entry, Unsweetened Meyer Lemon Black, at time some consumers are freaking out about any sugar in their drinks. Current roster of 4 flavors contains 90 calories. Citing IRI data, Randy's letter notes that just 5 months into 4-market pilot, tea line is #2 premium brand in market, selling $33 per store per week, with all 4 flavors finding spot among top 10 single-serve sku's measured by store velocity.

A few weeks after setting infrastructure for Asian launch, Celsius Holdings has announced partner to get brand on the ground in China. It's set strategic partnership with national wholesaler Qifeng Food Technology (Beijing), which CELH said is staffed by former Pepsi, Nestle and Red Bull execs. Partnership will get calorie-burning brand into all channels in all provinces via partner that boasts 500 distributors, starting in Q4. Move comes after co set up unit called Celsius Asia Holdings Ltd staffed with 3 ex-Red Bullers to serve as platform for Asia push, beginning with move into Hong Kong via AS Watson (BBI, Jul 11). It comes at time that some shareholders have been asking why entry into huge market has been taking so much time, with interim ceo John Fieldly counseling patience as Delray Beach, Fla, co sets strategy. Until now, he'd declined to put timeframe on launch. So yesterday's announcement signals it's imminent.

Nestle is going bigger on its tap-water brand, Nestle Pure Life, with global ad campaign that breaks in US on social media this week and extends to TV in Sep. Awareness-building crusade dubbed "Pure Life Begins Now" aims to emphasize to parents the importance of pure water in their kids' health and happiness. Since brand's launch in Pakistan in 1998, Pure Life "has evolved into a leading global brand, and we now have an opportunity to express the brand's purpose in a way that inspires parents and adults to choose quality water and a future full of possibilities," said evp/cmo Antonio Sciuto.

Bev exec has sent around a self-styled "rant" about inequities of bev taxes as they've been set up in cities like Berkeley, Oakland and Albany, Calif, and Boulder, Colo. Screed isn't so much inveighing against idea of soda tax itself as in way they're being set up. (Exec enclosed with his analysis a store photo showing identically sized multiserve bottles of Nestle Coffee Mate priced at $3.99 for sugar-free version and $9.03 for fat-free version.) Exec requested that neither he nor his brand be IDed, but he markets all-natural carbonated line that's packed in 16-oz cans containing 14 g of sugar and 4 g of erythritol, or 60 calories per can. Here's his argument, edited a bit for clarity: Here's an example of the price difference [showing Coffee Mate shelf shot]. Beyond that, though, the whole way they set it up is a joke. They are charging per ounce of beverage instead of by sugar content. For beverages such as mine, which are BARELY over the limit, we get charged the same as a Coca-Cola product that has 450% more sugar than we do. More ridiculousness of this law: Bruce Cost Ginger Ale has 37 g of sugar in a 12-oz can. Way more than us. But guess who gets taxed higher? We do. Because of the way they are basing it on ounces instead of sugar content. So while BC has 3.08 g of sugar per ounce, we are at 0.875 g of sugar per ounce. That's 350% more sugar for theirs. We each get taxed a penny per ounce, so the tax on our 16-oz can is 16 cents and the tax on their 12-oz bottle is 12 cents. How is that fair? So if you have less sugar, you get charged more because your can is larger? You could drink 3½ full cans of ours for the same amount of sugar as one of theirs, yet we are taxed higher! If you base it by calories, the law baseline is at a little over 2 calories per ounce. We are at a little over 3 calories per ounce, the Bruce Cost Ginger Ale mentioned above is over 13 per ounce. (We don't mean to pick on them; they're representative of lots of brands in the space.) Some of the other beverages, like ours, have calories that come from erythritol and not sugar. While there is still a lot of back-and-forth over whether or not erythritol is better for you, many experts say it is, as a zero-calorie sweetener. So if you had a large drink - say, the size of a 23-oz can of AriZona Iced Tea - and it had more erythritol and way less sugar than, say, an ordinary AriZona tea, as long as they are both over the calorie limit they are taxed the same. That's also ridiculous, since one is way lower in sugar and calories.