Asian cooking authority Bruce Cost's strong aversion to stevia as a sweetener seems to be landing ginger ale entrepreneur in court with his former partner Terry Tang: Cost has filed suit saying that launch by Bruce Cost Ginger Ale of stevia-sweetened entry called Sugar Free this year is explicit breach of agreement forged when co bought out Cost's share of co last year.

Celsius Holdings reported 47% gain in net revenues in Q4 to $6.3 mil, as its int'l biz got back on track (+48%) even as all key domestic channels scored double-digit gains (+46% overall). Tho int'l biz was boosted by pipeline fill by new distributor YHS in Singapore, it also benefited from stabilization in Europe after stumbles by Swedish/Finnish distributor earlier in year. Domestic revenue growth was balanced among 53% gain at retail, 47% growth in health & fitness channel and 12% growth in internet sales. Operating loss narrowed to $368K from $1 mil a year earlier.

Innovation engine at Monster Beverage seems to be sputtering a bit lately: Wells Fargo's Bonnie Herzog reported yesterday afternoon that much-touted clear-can Hydro noncarb launch has been beset by production issues and will suffer delay from anticipated intro this week that may cause it to miss some summer shelf resets. Separately, Bonnie's also noticed via securities filings that longtime MNST exec Mark Hall, co's creative spark on innovation side, has registered to liquidate most of his shareholdings, listing 580,500 of his total 822K total shares, amount that would gross nearly $27 mil at current trading range.

as Brown's Successor Running NWNA Nestle Waters North America has reached inside its corporate orbit for successor to Tim Brown as ceo, tapping Fernando Mercé as prexy/ceo effective May 1. Fernando comes from stint as ceo of Nestlé Purina Latin America & Caribbean, where he's being succeeded by Carlos Romano, transferring from Nestle's Argentina biz. Besides running NWNA's US and Canada businesses, Mercé will also serve as member of global Nestlé Waters board. He began his career with Nestlé in 1992 as industrial engineer with Operations Improvement Team, before heading onto marketing track that included e-business development, marketing dir for Friskies brand and global marketing dir in PetCare Global Strategic Business Unit. Mercé also served as vp/deputy of Nestlé's Americas Zone before heading to Nestlé Purina. Nestle Waters chmn/ceo Maurizio Patarnello cited his "proven leadership, passion for innovation and deep commitment to creating a learning culture" for elevation to top NWNA role. Recall, Brown exited last month for job running Chobani yogurt co, to shock of many in bev industry, where he'd been fixture at Nestle for nearly 3 decades.

Ambitious joint venture between Organic Valley growers' co-op and dairy giant Dean Foods is up and running, with sales calls anticipated to commence next month. Recall that alliance announced last Nov offers OV access to Dean's DSD-supported network of 140K retail locations, while fortifying Dean's portfolio of milk, butter, half & half and cheese. Also in mix are OV's single-serve milk items and its Organic Fuel and Organic Balance RTD milk-based protein entries. As earlier reported, Greg Schwarz is serving as gm of 50/50 jv between Dean and co-op that does biz under CROPP Cooperative name . . . LA-based Califia Farms said it's made push into Canada with its almondmilks and cold-brewed coffees, hitting 400+ stores operated by retailers like Whole Foods, Choices, Goodness Me, Thrifty Foods, Pusateri's and Nesters. Portfolio available to US' northern neighbor includes Unsweetened Almond Beverage, Original Almond Beverage, Vanilla Almond Beverage, Unsweetened Vanilla Beverage, XX Espresso Cold Brew Coffee and Mocha Cold Brew Coffee, all produced in Calif but relabeled to suit Canada's bilingual and other requirements.

Pair of upstart dairy-alternative brands that have made a splash by eschewing thickeners, stabilizers and emulsifiers reported headway at Expo West. Houston-based Malk Organics, fortified with capital round via Boulder Food Group, is heading national via Kroger, numbering 1,200 stores so far including most Ralph's and King Sooper banners. By now it's also in 3 Whole Foods regions, Southwest, Rocky Mountain and Northeast, said Joel Canada, who cofounded co with his cousin August Vega and her brother Justin Brodnax. Brand boasts of not employing binders or carrageenan, and claims 3X protein content of bigger almondmilk brands thanks to use of 1 cup of sprouted nuts per 28-oz bottle. It's available in Unsweetened Almondmilk, Vanilla Almondmilk and Maple Pecanmilk varieties.

Cactus water brand Cali Water has added its first USDA-certified organic flavor, Cactus + Lime with Fresh Ginger, joining lineup that includes core Cactus Water sku, Cactus + Peach and Cactus + Berry, all containing 200 mg of prickly pear cactus extract that's been sourced locally. Like others, new entry is available in 11.2-oz single-serve size and 1-liter, said founder Matt McKee. Intro came as co was seeking to bring in growth capital via Circle Up after entering CVS and Target chains in recent months. Next up: Whole Foods' Southern Pacific (SoCal) region, in Apr. With plant water concept offering "desert health," as McKee put it, co may segue into aloe segment next, once it pulls in new capital. It's gotten help in scaling from Cascadia Managing Brands of Ramsey, NJ.

Izze brand, which when acquired by PepsiCo in 2006 had staked out position as carbonated offering with high juice content in 70% range, has gone lighter. At Expo West, co sampled new subline dubbed Izze Fusions that's "sorta juice, sorta soda, sorta sparkling water," with just smidgen of juice allowing items to come in at 60 calories per 12-oz slim can, about half the calories of core 12-oz glass-bottle line. It breaks in Orange Mango, Lemon Lime and Strawberry Melon flavors. Recall, Izze had earlier added 10-calorie Sparkling Water subline, also in glass bottles. Fusions intro at Expo delivered on sneak peek offered at NACS c-store expo in Atlanta last fall (BBI, Oct 20). To get word out, brand has recruited singer/songwriter Shawn Mendes to host celebration called Camp Izze in NY on Apr 8 before he heads off on arena world tour, with event dubbed a "sorta music festival, sorta inspirational summit, sorta world-changing melding of the minds," with artsy vibe similar to effort that PEP is putting behind its new Life WTR bottled-water brand. Party will include young actors Yara Shahidi and Gaten Matarazzo as well as musical acts still to be announced. Tickets to Camp Izze are being offered free to consumers on first-come, first-serve basis. On tour, Mendes will auction off chances to hang with him, with proceeds going to music biz's TJ Martell Foundation backing research for leukemia, cancer and AIDS.

Barclays analyst Karen Short made some waves this week with analysis suggesting that Whole Foods has lost as many as 14 mil store visitors over past 6 quarters, with many of them migrating to increasingly robust selection of natural and organic offerings at Kroger. "The magnitude of the traffic declines . . . is staggering," as Business Insider quotes Short's report. "As most retailers know - once traffic has been lost, those patterns rarely reverse." Whole Foods has reported 3% avg store traffic decline since fiscal 2015. Short estimates that Kroger's sales of natural and organic products, including branded entries and grocer's own Simple Truth private label, came to $16 bil last year, catching up with Whole Foods' $15.8 bil in sales. Gains have been helped by prices that are estimated to be 15% lower than for comparable items at Whole Foods. As story notes, Whole Foods ceo John Mackey has conceded threat posed now that conventional grocers "have upped their game" but has vowed to win them back.