Its brand portfolio now buttressed by broadly targeted LifeAid brand, FitAid marketer LifeAid Beverage has been quickly expanding its distribution availability, rolling out thru Whole Foods and boosting its presence within Safeway, Kroger and regional grocers.

Dunkin' Donuts has rolled out its Dunkin' Energy Punch Powered by Monster Energy to all markets except a handful operated by non-Coke distributors. New drink combines can of Monster Energy with either Blue Raspberry or Strawberry, among coffee chain's classic fruited flavors, with mélange served over ice. Mass-based chain noted that select areas including metro NY will instead offer Dunkin' Energy Punch Powered by NOS Energy Drink, reaching to different brand in market where Monster is distributed by Big Geyser. (NOS goes thru conventional Coca-Cola Refreshments bottling arm.) As reported, item was created by coupla franchisees in NH, eventually expanding throughout New England and to Miami/West Palm Beach last spring . . . Cold-pressed juice player Suja, which is allied with Coca-Cola, continues to consider adding kombucha subline if it can figure out how to effectively control alcohol and sugar content, issue that's bedeviled some players in segment, founder Jeff Church told FoodNavigator.com. "We're still considering doing a kombucha product and have been evaluating the space for some time, but if we do it we want to do it in a way that we can control the alcohol and sugar and be consistent with our brand and be very transparent, as we'd want to do something non-alcoholic," he told e-letter. He made comments as co is getting a lift from probiotic water launched a year ago and drinking vinegars launched last fall. "The whole fermented beverage segment is on fire," he said.

Under pressure from regulators to divest its Stonyfield Farm organic dairy biz as condition of closing on its acquisition of WhiteWave Foods, Danone has landed another French-based co, family-owned dairy giant Lactalis, as buyer. Deal calls for Lactalis, which operates 230 plants in 43 countries, to pay $875 mil for Stonyfield, which reported sales of about $370 mil last year. Deal is anticipated to close in Q3. Jefferies analysts rated the Stonyfield "a decent exit and the removal of a potential distraction for Danone," Reuters reported. For Lactalis, which does extensive biz in markets in Africa, Asia and Middle East, Stonyfield offers firmer foothold in fast-growing premium biz in N Amer.

Fresh off an immersion in AccelFoods accelerator, Mansi calamansi juice has done a repackaging and reformulation, even as its building revenue and awareness of antioxidant- and electrolyte-rich fruit by offering private-label entry to Trader Joe's chain. For broad retail push, NY-based Vita Mansi Co has dropped brick pack for 12-oz PET priced at $3.29-3.49, moving to aseptic process to yield year of shelf life. Drinks are 15% juice and now contain 120% of daily value of vitamin C per 8-oz serving but 40% less sugar than any lemonade, founder Charles Medenilla told BBI at Fancy Food Show booth last week. It's added yellow cap to flag citrus identity of Philippines-grown fruit nicknamed Philippine lemon and golden lime. Co won't necessarily eliminate the Tetrapak: it's been embraced at corporate accounts like Facebook and Instagram. Meanwhile, co has entered Trader Joe's with private-label version in 8-oz can using 6%-juice recipe, in contrast to 15%-juice content of branded product. For time being, Charles said he's planning to stick to single flavor.

Matcha tea marketer Matchabar has just closed on final $600K+ tranche of roughly $2.5 mil Series A round and is ready to embark on Series B next, as it expands network of cafes and builds operating team, cofounder Graham Fortgang told BBI last week at Fancy Food Show. NY-based co, which has shown flair for experimentation with traditional Japanese ingredient akin to craft brewers' tinkering with European brewing traditions, has added unsweetened Mint entry to its bottled line, using spearmint. Co recently closed its flagship Brooklyn store as owner of site prepped for redevelopment, using opportunity to replace it with unit in Manhattan's Soho nabe, at heavily trafficked Prince/Crosby intersection, buttressing existing Manhattan store in Chelsea district. Meanwhile, recently opened store in LA's Silverlake district is being augmented by new store in West Hollywood. And co continues to create a stir in Tokyo, where it's opened its 3d annual popup unit. As for its expanding sales and merchandising team, don't look for any familiar faces there; Graham, who's 25 himself, noted with satisfaction that entire team is under 30. "No big-salary cats," he said.

Cook County judge on Fri issued restraining order on controversial soda tax in Chicago, with parties due back in court on Jul 12. Order from Judge Daniel Kubasiak puts on hold a penny-per-ounce tax on sweetened bevs that was to have gone into effect on Sat, in midst of major soda-selling weekend. "We appreciate the court's decision to hit the pause button on this matter," said statement from Rob Karr, prexy/ceo of Illinois Retail Merchants Assn, as reported by Chicago Sun-Times. "We are now asking for the court to rule on a preliminary injunction that will continue the status quo until we have a final decision on the legality of the ordinance." Statement from Cook County Board prexy Toni Preckwinkle said county plans to file notice of appeal before Appellate Court seeking to vacate restraining order.

American Beverage Assn said it's appointed its evp for govt and public affairs, Kevin Keane, as interim prexy/ceo while it undertakes search for permanent successor to Katherine Lugar, who's heading back to hotel industry via evp job at Hilton (BBI, Feb 7). Kevin has served in leadership roles at ABA since 2005. A rep wasn't able to say whether Kevin is under consideration for permanent job . . . Peet's Coffee enjoyed strong growth both in its stores and on grocery shelves in 2022, even as it added 47 new cafes in China to bring total to 117 stores. The JDE Peet's unit scored 26.3% sales increase to €1.14 bil; netting out 14.2% foreign exchange benefit, its organic growth came to 12.2% built on 9.4% in price hikes and 2.8% in volume/mix. The US stores delivered high-single-digit growth as pandemic lockdowns were eased while In-Home biz delivered low-teens sales growth via its bagged coffees, pods and other formats (tho its RTDs are a very small part of mix). Adjusted EBIT increased organically by 9.8% to €147 mil.

Brian O'Byrne, who began his career in spirits before becoming a fixture on the new-age bev side, passed away unexpectedly yesterday morning at age 74 after a short illness. The Dublin-born exec, whose old-school approach assumed that any meaningful discussion was far more likely to be productive over a meal than just over the phone, had worked early in his career at Irish Distillers before heading to Pernod-Ricard USA, where he managed its US-based wine & spirits brands that were sold internationally. From there he segued to Pernod's non-alc Yoo-hoo and Orangina brands, his entrée into the world of NA bevs from which he wouldn't stray for the rest of his career, aside from ancillary roles like board seat on Ole Smoky Distillery. From Pernod he went on to Cadbury Schweppes North America, the predecessor co to Dr Pepper Snapple Group (now KDP) that had acquired Yoo-hoo and Orangina. Among his roles was executive prexy of global innovation, involved in both Cadbury's confectionery and bev arms, including Cadbury's eponymous chocolate brand, Dentyne, Halls, Dr Pepper, Snapple and 7 Up. It was there that he hooked up with Mike Weinstein, who'd led turnaround of Snapple brand that exited to Cadbury, and the two Westchester-based execs teamed up to create the incubation consultancy Inov8 Beverage, whose internally devised brands included Hydrive Energy, which exited to Big Red Ltd, which was controlled and ultimately acquired by DPS. "A great friend and business partner for over 20 years," as Mike recalled Brian today. "He was always upbeat, with a terrific sense of humor and an amazing work ethic." O'Byrne eventually headed to full-time job at a client co, Treo Brands, birch water infusions created by Bobby Golden, the son of one of Snapple's 3 founders. In his 70s by then, O'Byrne retired from Treo a couple of years ago, tho he'd informed us in recent months that he was keeping his hand in the game as an advisor to early-stage brands and expected to have some news for us soon. He lived in Rye, NY, with his wife Mary, who survives him along with 6 children: Ronan, Darragh, Klara, Aoife, Conor and Michael.