VPX Sports seems to have made considerable headway in its sprint to re-establish an indie distribution network for Bang Energy, enlisting such key partners as New England giant Polar Beverage and Arizona's Hensley as it seeks to re-emerge after disastrous PepsiCo alliance. Asked about progress to date, VPX founder/ceo Jack Owoc sent statement thru his evp Gene Bukovi that brand has "89.6% transitioned into its new best-in-class distribution system and has signed 212 distributors," even as it re-establishes extensive in-house DSD in south Florida and Southern Calif territories. Among beer partners, mix is overwhelmingly Anheuser-Busch, with Molson Coors and Constellation less heavily represented. Even as Pepsi is onboarding Celsius as its new performance-energy partner, Bang hopes to have most of its new network launched by Oct 10. That will mean co put together the bulk of its new network in less than 90 days, Gene said. More than half of those houses either already carried Bang's alcoholic extension or have negotiated to bring it on now. Recent Nielsen scanner data indicates that Bang remains #3 brand at $1.18 bil, down 15.6% in most recent 2 weeks but up 19.5% for 52 weeks.

Spirits volumes grew 1.9% in control states in Aug, with $$ up 3.4%, NABCA reported. That's a notable improvement from a few soft mos in a row. But results boosted by 4 extra selling days vs 2021 (i.e. 1 extra day in 4 of 18 states). And rolling 12-mo trend has held steady at +0.5% right along. But 12-mo $$ gain softened by 0.1-pt each mo thru the summer, now up 3.4% thru Aug. Indeed, price/mix up just 1.5% in control states last mo, tied with May for slowest mo of avg price increases tracked by NABCA in last yr-plus. Fast growth of cocktails, including spirits-based RTDs, likely contributing to that. Cocktails accelerated to volume +39.5% in Aug, almost 4 pts ahead of $$. Innovation in the segment (including growing number of vty pks) is clearly dampening avg price of prepackaged cocktails. On the other hand, tequila volume still up high-singles, +8.6%, with prices up over 4%. Avg price gains also still strong in domestic, Irish and other imported whiskeys. Vodka posted a positive tren

Without a change in thinking or internal policy of Amazon, no beer or alc bev ads will appear on the co's official streams of Thursday Night Football for 11 yrs. That's length of $1-bil exclusivity deal Amazon cut with NFL last yr, beginning earlier this mo. And the co's advertising guidelines bar it from promoting any alc bev in US, Canada and some other countries, Bloomberg reported last wk. The "highly unusual" result of a pro football game without a beer ad hasn't kept brewers from spending on NFL more broadly, natch: 70% of the $60 mil the industry spent promoting beer on tv over 2-wk period went to NFL programs, iSpot.tv data shows.

On Premise biz is healthy but there are some caution flags ahead, caused of course by economy and rising prices, per latest CGA Consumer On Premise Impact Report. Two-thirds of consumers have visited on premise for food-led occasions and 2 in 5 for drink-led occasions over past 2 wks thru Sep 14-15, according to survey of nearly 1,600 consumers in NY, Fla, Tex and Calif. CGA noted that "frequency of visits" has remained consistent over past 3 mos with 4 in 5 consumers going out 3+ times. Future visitation intentions "remain broadly positive" with 7 in 10 planning to head out for food and 2 in 5 planning to go out for drinks.

Molson Coors' core non-alc plays, ZOA and La Colombe, were each touted for their "long-term potential" during MC's distrib meeting. Total energy drink category at $18.1 bil annually, so it's still just a sliver of category share at this stage. Yet brand is making several "decisive" changes to its portfolio to break thru to next level. ZOA is shifting from 16oz cans to 12oz including all-new packaging with brighter color schemes on top of shift to "exclusively" zero sugar and "bolder, more interesting flavors," non-alc veep Kevin Nitz and ZOA co-founder John Shulman explained. Co's also leaning on The Rock's upcoming blockbuster movie, Black Adam, with movie-themed packaging by early Oct in prep for Oct 21 movie release. There's also "real potential" for this brand to become a "lifestyle" play that's "focused on healthy energy," added Kevin.

Molson Coors is making significant progress on its "eCom" biz, as segment went from nearly non-existent 4 yrs ago to being featured on the main stage, eCom director Sara Goucher highlighted at MC distrib mtg. MC's business-to-business e-commerce sales grew double digits, more than 2x faster than beer B2B category. Each distrib still "at a different point in their journey," and "a challenging one at that," she acknowledged. So "priority number one" is "supporting your eCom platform of choice," said Sara. "We want to help you" in "delivering best-in-class content and advertising" for B2B shoppers. "We're your primary source for solutions," she added, noting that co worked with over 40 distribs on building out B2B strategy.

"After more than a year of reviewing e-commerce platforms generally and extensive inquiry into BEES US specifically," the Texas Alcohol Beverage Commission (TABC) "has stated that it has not made any determination that BEES US is improper under Texas alcohol beverage law," AB region veep Elio DiCenzo wrote distribs. AB's letter in response to a short TABC letter that went to distribs Friday Sep 23.

Splash Beverage Group, a bev portfolio player across alc and non-alc segments, said it's secured $3.1 mil in gross proceeds from share offering that will allow it to build inventories of brands like Tapout sports drink as they build presence in retailers like Target. Separately, Splash said A-B house Lohr in St Louis is picking up all its brands, including Tapout, Salt tequila, Copa Di Vino and Pulpoloco . . . Ball Corp said it's completed sale of its packaging biz in Russia to personal care and household products maker Arnest Group for $530 mil. Ball has operated 3 plants in Russia since 1990s . . . LA-based De La Calle, kind of a canned hipster version of traditional Mexican tepache drink, has cracked Whole Foods nationally, entering 537 locations. Entry also is hitting 300+ Target stores across Calif, as well as 116 Kroger stores in Dallas and Houston, and 149 Fresh Market stores nationwide . . . Apple has emerged as successor to Pepsi in putting on Super Bowl halftime show, now that