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.

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.