Big bevcos' interest in cumbersome cold-chain drinks may be waning, as procession of shutdowns, sales and spinoffs suggests, but smaller brands continue to expand their regional footprints. Last month we profiled Atlanta juice maker Arden's Garden, which is undertaking concerted expansion up East Coast (BBI, Jan 6). In similar vein, refrigerated water-kefir brand called Sunny Culture has just started building northwards from base in St Petersburg, Fla. Visitors to last fall's Expo East might have spotted founders Patrick Whitner and Rany Bochi cavorting thru aisles in bright-yellow sun costumes that looked like they'd been made by grade-school arts & crafts class as they sought to gin up trade awareness. Why "sunny"? Because "the brand resonates with people who want to be their brightest self," Patrick assured us.

Trusted Influence, which numbers as creator-based clients the likes of MrBeast's Feastables, Emma Chamberlain's Chamberlain Coffee and Guga Foods, said its acquired Inclusion Agency LLC and Rewired Festival LLC, bringing into the fold Inclusion clients like Zoa Energy, G Fuel Energy and packaged water power BlueTriton Brands. Purchase by parent co TI Solutions was abetted by investments from PE shop Aperion Management and its partner Steven Trepp. Trusted Influence is among flock of agencies in ecosystem serving expanding array of brands founded or supported by celebs and social media influencers, helping "with product sourcing, brand activation and shopper marketing strategies that connect social media influencers, content creators and entertainment brands with leading retailers to commercialize products and increase brand value," as co puts it. Inclusion offers "retailer-backed, mission-led, celebrity-supported events" like gaming event ReWired, which last year boasted as major sponsors Walmart and Monster Energy, along with lesser sponsors like Zoa and Recess on bev side.

Last issue we described NYC's Harlem Hops as "new," but as an astute reader pointed out, it isn't. The uptown craft-centric bar opened back in 2018.

Already in the midst of a major expansion at its downtown St Louis facility (see Nov 3 issue), 4 Hands is slated to open its 2nd location this summer at multi-use complex dubbed The District in Chesterfield, MO. Co's outpost will include a 10K sq-ft tasting room with 25 draft offerings, a free arcade and a private event space, plus an "oversized patio and kitchen featuring food from the Hi-Pointe Drive-In," KSDK reports. Hi-Pointe is a local restaurant chain and co's culinary partner at the location.

Colorado craft brewer WeldWerks is "leveling up" its business plan, adding 12 states to its distribution footprint and selecting a core of yr-round and quarterly releases to augment its rotating beer program. Tho we recently noted that WeldWerks added NC with Artisan Beverage Group (see Jan 10 issue), it's also entering CA, CT, IA, MA, MN, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI and WI. "Expanding our distribution footprint is a natural evolution for WeldWerks," said WeldWerks co-founder/co-owner Neil Fisher in release. "Colorado will always be our home and our primary market," he added, "but over the years we have been humbled and overwhelmed by our popularity beyond the Colorado borders." Very few craft cos have expanded distribution at such a fast clip since the go-go years of craft growth in the first half of the last decade.

KY's Braxton Brewing is spinning off its flagship lager brand as a separate entity. It'll launch Garage Beer Co in partnership with entrepreneur Andrew Sauer, aiming to expand Garage Beer to 20 states in the next 2 yrs and possibly nationwide from there, the Cincy Biz Courier reports.

After Creature Comforts employees formed their own union, Brewing Union of Georgia (BUG), in mid Jan, Creature Comforts allegedly made efforts to prohibit union activity and declined to recognize the union. That led to BUG filing two unfair labor practice charges against their employer with the Natl Labor Relations Board last week, org shared via press release and Instagram page. The two charges: "Unlawful interference with workers' right to freely organize" and "unlawful threats to terminate a worker while engaged in concerted activities." Creature Comforts also reportedly hired high-powered law firm Littler Mendelson for legal counsel, which has worked with Starbucks and Amazon management "for their aggressive union busting drives," it noted. Possible outcomes of the investigation include: "public apologies, expanded access to facilities for union organizers, automatic union recognition," and "back pay and compensatory damages (in the case of unlawful termination)."

A year after announcing its 2nd big surprise purchase, Kings & Convicts confirmed its plans to exit the former Saint Archer facilities in SoCal. The owner of Ballast Point as well as its namesake brand will wind down operations and look for oppys to leave the large Miramar brewery when its lease expires in a few mos, CEO Brendan Watters told SD Beer News. It already closed a satellite tasting room earlier this yr, SDBN reported. It announced acquisition of these facilities from Molson Coors in early Jan 2022.

Schilling Cider was cookin' with gas again in 2022. It's now #2 cider producer in the country, behind only Boston Beer, and a top-40 beverage producer nationally in $$ sales, according to IRI data cited by co. That includes unique biz model led by Schilling Cider brand, but also contract cider production, its own non-alc bev line, Vida Maté, and other co-pack brands.