Olipop's energetic omnichannel vp Abby Reddick, who always seems happy to dive into the data, brings more news. "Inflation closed out 2022 with a 6.5% annual reading," she posted recently. "Big soda brands' prices rose 15.4% across their portfolios in 2022. Functional soda brands maintained pricing integrity in 2022." Her point? "You read that correctly, scrappy functional soda startups maintained price integrity last year while big soda brands made you pay 15% more for their sugar, chemicals and plastic." Ouch. Attached graphic indicates that CSDs' 12% gain in dollar sales came at expense of 2.9% drop in volume while functional sodas like Olipop nearly tripled sales, +189.4%, on negligible 0.4% pricing increase. No comment from Abby on what that did to functional brands' margins but they're on general mission to ride efficiencies to close gap in price vs conventional pops whose patrons they're planning to pilfer.

Oatly Group has brought climate footprint labeling to its N Amer portfolio, starting with newly reformulated Oatgurt yogurt-alternative line. Swedish oatmilk pioneer has been doing so in Europe since 2021. In partnership with Carbon Cloud org, it's offering on-pack indication of kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e) per kilogram of packaged food product, based on life cycle assessment from grower to grocer. Included in CO2e calculation are effect of range of greenhouse gasses including carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. The resulting aggregate unit figure measures how much of each of those GHG is emitted and their global warming potential over 100-year period, Oatly explained. The Oatgurts range from 1.7 to 1.9 kg CO2e/kg of packaged food product. Other items listed on https://www.oatly.com/en-us/stuff-we-sell/climate-footprint include 32-oz carton of shelf-stable Original Oatmilk (0.96), 64-oz pack of refrigerated Original Oatmilk (0.62) and 16-oz pack of chocolate-flavored Frozen Dessert (1.4). As co noted, the numbers are relatively meaningless in isolation, so it exhorted rivals to start posting their data too . . . Boxed Water Is Better said it's received Carbon Neutral certification from Climate Impact Partners after successfully traversing an indie assessment of greenhouse gas emissions generated by sourcing, production, distribution and disposal of its core 500-ml cartons that found them to carry a significantly lower total impact than plastic bottles and aluminum cans. To meet that goal, the Grand Rapids, Mich-based brand has offset 1,950 tonnes of CO2e through internal operations and will join in financially supporting projects that foster a low-carbon global economy, as verified by the Carbon Neutral Protocol, it said . . . Vietnam's Vinamilk said its Vinamilk Green Farm and Vinamilk 100% Organic entries have become first milk products to be certified by Clean Label Project - the first milk products in the world to receive this certification. To attain that, the two entries had to undergo rigorous screening and testing processes to ensure compliance with criteria for antibiotic residues, unwanted plastic compounds, heavy metals and pesticide residues.

Gerry David, turnaround vet who helped shepherd Celsius Holdings out of the wilderness of slow sales and declining financial reserves, has taken sales job in RTD tequila segment. After coupla years in advisory role since brand's founding, he's signed on as prexy of US sales for Freshie, tequila seltzer brand that claims to be first to win USDA organic certification. By now, Chicago-area brand is out in handful of Midwest states and throughout the Southeast. At Celsius, David played key role in stabilizing situation before new leadership team put it on its meteoric growth path . . . With Fiji Kava focused again on US, including via acquisition of Leilo brand, it's recruited Jim Tonkin to board after longtime incubation specialist had earlier played key role in US launch of its core kava entry, then called Taki Mai, back in 2014. That effort had sputtered out and co restored its focus to Australia/New Zealand region before launching latest assault at time kava awareness seems to be building. Focus is built around Fiji Kava and Leilo brands this go-round. Jim will be remunerated via $40K per year paid in shares of co.

Bev super-lawyer and investor Nick Giannuzzi seems well on his way to becoming a formidable VC in his own right. NY-based operator of legal advisory firm Giannuzzi Lewendon seems to be more than halfway to what we hear is goal of $300 mil for new fund called Humble Growth Fund and has been actively in the hunt for deals. Among those participating are Orgain founder Andrew Abraham and RxBar cofounder Peter Rahal, whose names appear on SEC filing dated Sep 21 that indicated that co by then had raised $220.8 mil. It was asking for minimum of $1 mil from any who invest. Filers checked "indefinite" to denote remainder being sought, but we hear it's in $300 mil range. Given uncertain market that's depressed valuations, this is certainly good time to be scouting deals.

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Boston Beer is bringing Your Cousin from Boston back for Super Bowl 2023 via digital/regional TV ad again in 2023, this time featuring new "Remastered" Boston Lager that's now "brighter." A 60-second digital ad was released yesterday and a 30-second version will air during the Super Bowl in Boston, New York City (where remastered recipe was initially tested), Phoenix, Cincy, Philly and Atlanta. In the extended cut, while buying the new remastered brew, the Cousin amusingly imagines "a brighter Boston," where people wave to each other on the street, argue over who gets to give up a parking spot, embrace Yankee fans at Fenway, invite strangers to the ballet (w/ cameo from comedian Lenny Clarke) and go outta their way to recycle. He even imagines former Boston Celtics champion and renowned trash talker Kevin Garnett publishing a book called "Don't Talk Trash Spread Love." In the end, the Cousin snaps back to reality as the store clerk snaps, "hey genius, your card declined," and refuses to let him use the store phone to "call my Ma."

Bud Light's 5X media spend, Bud's 2X spend with "majority" of investment in summer mos, and Busch Light's 3.5X increase will mark AB's biggest media spend on mainstream segments in many yrs collectively. Neither Bud Light nor Bud turnarounds are expected to happen "overnight," mainstream veep Daniel Blake acknowledged. But big increases in media, focus and commitment can set the course for better trends to come, co believes.

Budweiser's regional/digital Super Bowl spot seeks to branch out to a more diverse and younger set of consumers with more aspirational and inclusive messaging, while also bringing back a familiar slogan for longtime fans. The longer social/digital 45-second ad starts with Clydesdales galloping and asks: "who drinks Budweiser?" The narrator (Kevin Bacon, unseen in the ad) answers his own question by stating "you know the type. The people who grind. Those who don't back down. And the ones that don't quit." All while ad depicts six "passionate, self-made Americans" with diverse backgrounds handing off Budweisers to each other in various settings like getting off of work at a construction job, a food truck, basketball court, music studio, or outdoor bbq. "The people who share the same spirit, share the same beer," Kevin Bacon states, concluding with the ol' go-to, "This Bud's for you."