CPG portfolio play Starco Brands said it's acquired meal replacement marketer Soylent Nutrition, viewing the one-time techie darling as a good fit with STCB's penchant for creating "behavior-changing technologies." The Santa Monica, Calif-based co said Soylent, now a decade in market, will continue to operate separately under its current ceo Demir Vangelov. Starco founder/ceo Ross Sklar, who came out of chemicals and sealant biz, outlined deal rationale this way: "Soylent is one of those rare brands that successfully transitioned from Silicon Valley tech startup to mainstream with mass distribution, thanks to Demir and his team's operational execution and a global mission to improve human health and nutrition. When combined with Starco Brands' portfolio of formulas, access to commercial manufacturing facilities and disruptive marketing, Soylent's potential to grow its base and expand in adjacent category whitespaces will be game-changing." Tho Starco is publicly traded, terms weren't disclosed, at least not immediately. Its portfolio includes Winona Pure popcorn, Breathe air-powered aerosol cleanser and Whipshots, alcoholic whipped cream created with Cardi B. Last Sep, Starco acquired Art of Sport grooming brand created by late Kobe Bryant and in Dec it added hypoallergenic fragrance marketer Skylar Body.

Revive Kombucha continues to gradually broaden its presence in major grocery chains, even as it phases in major packaging rethink and phases out the returnable bottles with which it's been identified over its 7-year history in core Bay Area market.

Campbell Soup has taken further steps to integrate the Campbell Fresh biz it built around Bolthouse Farms acquisition into core biz, elevating Jim Sterbenz to svp for unified US sales force and, we hear, letting go lotsa sales and merchandising folks based out of Bolthouse's Santa Monica, Calif, corporate office. It's probably inevitable evolution for unit that CPB ceo Denise Morrison had once joked would be passport-protected from incursions by corporate brass from Camden, NJ, a shift hastened by severe operational snafus that Bolthouse execs were tardy in notifying mother ship about. Since voluntary recall of protein bevs and other steps, Campbell Soup has undertaken housecleaning of Bolthouse exec team. Now it's integrating C-Fresh with soups, V8 juices and Goldfish snacks grouped under co's America's Simple Meals & Beverages and US Biscuit & Bakery divs and assigning execs from ASM&B to key oversight roles spanning whole US operation, both mature shelf-stable items and fast-growth C-Fresh brands. "Developing our supply chain capabilities for future commerce, unifying our sales teams across divisions and leveraging corporate strategy to identify and act on growth opportunities are key to our strategic imperatives," Denise said in statement during recent announcement of exec promos. It was at activities surrounding this week's Fancy Food Show that it became clear to BBI extent of upheaval occasioned by move; CPB rep allowed yesterday that "a small number of US salaried employees will be impacted across the organization, primarily in sales." Our contacts say plush Santa Monica office, situated to be not far from Bakersfield plant, is left with skeleton staff.

Sign up now for the 2023 Beer Insights Spring Conference! This year's event will be held May 17-18 at the Four Seasons, Chicago, including an evening welcome reception on May 17 and a full day of programming May 18. So far, our program includes: a fireside chat with Mark Anthony Brands' recently appointed cco David Barnett; a data deep-dive with IRI executive veep of bev alc Scott Scanlon; the latest on distributor M&A with OMAC Beverage Advisors' managing partners John O'Connor and Sean McLaren; a craft brewer panel including Stone Brewing ceo Maria Stipp and Allagash director of sales Naomi Neville; a panel of alc bev legal experts with Lehrman Beverage Law's senior counsel Art Decelle, Hinman & Carmichael partner Rebecca Stamey-White, and Christopoulos Law Group princi

Not every day that a story mostly concerned with market trends and biz decisions, quoting execs and financial analysts, heads up the Health/Science section of the NY Times. But so it went this wk as paper headlined that "Big Soda's Alcohol Drinks Worry Health Experts." It breaks little new ground, updating readers on expanding "4th category" RTDs and converging beverage categories and rehashing concerns about big NA players entering alc bevs shared throughout 2022 by industry advocates, competitors and members of the public health community. And tho it includes few specific concerns linked to these products in particular, the article relies instead on broader concerns about alcohol, its impact on health and mortality.

Mass Bay Brewing is entering the THC bev game with Harpoon Rec Weed, riffing off its Rec League beer brand. But this isn't beer. The new THC-based bev is made in partnership with cannabis RTD bev development co, Novel Beverage, described as a "hop-forward yet approachable beverage with 5 milligrams of THC, real passionfruit puree, green tea, and hops," clocking in at 25 calories and 3g sugar per 12oz can. Suggested retail price is $6.99 per can. Now that recreational cannabis is legal across much of the northeast, "we saw not only high demand for a THC-based beverage, but an opportunity to experiment in a way that would uniquely leverage our strengths in the beer world," Mass Bay ceo and co-founder Dan Kenary stated. This is Mass Bay's 2d bev in the cannabis world, including Long Trail Brewing's non-alc CBD seltzer, available at its taproom and distributed thruout MA, VT, RI, CT and NJ.

Formula 1 global partner Heineken announced a new partnership with current world champ Max Verstappen to be its official Heineken 0.0 ambassador. Collaboration will "help encourage responsible consumption, through a series of sponsorship activations including the ongoing 'When You Drive, Never Drink' campaign," co announced. With Verstappen, Heineken will release a new gaming initiative called Player 0.0, "to create a new virtual racing experience for fans culminating in winning gamers getting to race against some of the world's best drivers." "Being from the Netherlands myself, it is something truly special to partner with an iconic Dutch brand like Heineken," said Verstappen.

Diverging wine and spirits bizzes continue to tell starkly different stories. Total spirits depletions grew a solid 1.6% in 2022, Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America's SipSource data and analyst Dale Stratton shared this wk. So the category slowed, facing tuff 2021 comp (up big 8.8%), yet still quite a bit better than beer. And wine was way worse, -7.1%, per SipSource report. Total wine & spirits depletions dipped 2.9% combined last yr.