Collagen-bev pioneer Vital Proteins said it's sold majority stake to Nestle's Nestle Health Science unit, for whom it will continue to operate independently out of its Chicago hq under founder/ceo Kurt Seidensticker. Vital Proteins, recall, offers wide range of supplements, foods, shots and bottled waters that appear to have broken $100 mil sales mark with hefty lift from adept ecomm platform (BBI, Jun 14 2019). Brand premise is that body's production of its most abundant protein, collagen, begins to decline at age 25, at cost to health of skin, hair, nails, bones and joints.

NY Times profile of entrepreneurs who've leaped into fray of pandemic challenge includes NY-based trio of software-biz recruiters who've launched side gig creating website called AllClear that lets folks know where they can get Covid-19 tests. As often happens with such ventures, what emerged was different from idea originally envisioned by trio, Joe Essenfeld, Boris Kozak and Matt Geffken. When they "set out to build AllClear in mid-March, the vision was to create a social network for people to share their experiences with the virus, including whether they had been tested," article recounts. "It was the type of half-joking, half-serious idea that the three men regularly bounce off one another, like the time they considered selling caffeinated pickles or iced coffee that smelled like hot coffee." While they're busy with AllClear, latter idea would seem to still be up for grabs. Any takers, BBI readers?

Stuart McCarroll and his team at Menu Collective in Chicago have opened food/bev-oriented shared workspace called CoLaboratory in city's West Loop nabe. Site includes commercial kitchen and 2 commercial bar areas with 12 bookable working stations stocked with essential kitchenware and tools for product development and testing, per announcement, along with rentable cold storage space and spaces that can host large events. McCarroll founded Menu Collective 4 years ago as food/bev consultancy after 15-year career at food, bev & pharma development co Kerry. Info at CoLaboratoryChicago.com.

As anticipated late last year, Super Coffee has made its entrance into plant-based segment with RTD coffee and creamer that employ pea protein base, the product of 4 years of on-&-off effort to deal with flavor tradeoffs and other technical challenges. On RTD coffee side, NY-based co is launching Coconut Mocha Super Coffee, containing 200 mg of caffeine, 10 g of plant protein and MCT oil. Diverging from 12-oz PET format of core milk-based line, new entry is packed in 11-oz slim can, at same price of $2.99-3.29 in large-format retailers. Keto-friendly entry clocks in at 80 calories and contains no sugar. Retail launch partners include Target and Sprout's, both taking it chainwide, and CVS, which has conferred hunting license for Super Coffee to sell it in at local level. Also committed are regional grocers in brand's core eastern US territory, including Shop Rite and Ahold (Giant Eagle and Stop & Shop). All told, plant entry should soon be available in 5K+ stores.

CSD volume posted strong 11.4% volume gain with avg price increase of 3.2% for 4 wks thru May 30 (which included full Memorial Day wkend holiday) in mid-cycle Nielsen all-channel data reported separately by Morgan Stanley's Dara Mohsenian and Goldman Sachs' Bonnie Herzog. Coca-Cola volume surged 11.7% (up from +10.4% for 12 wks) with a 2.3% avg price increase last 4 wks. PepsiCo CSDs were up 10.3% for 4 wks, a bit slower than 12% gain over 12 wks but avg prices swung up from -1.1% to avg of +1.9%. Keurig Dr Pepper continued to outperform its larger rivals in both volume and pricing in all-channel. KDP volume up 15.7% (vs +17.8% for 12 wks) with avg price increase of 3.9% last 4 wks. Private-label CSDs were down 0.5% (vs +5.4% for 12 wks) with avg price gain of 2.8% last 4 wks.

Sanzo, canned sparkling water that riffs off popular Asian fruits like lychee and calamansi, has recruited 2PM founder Web Smith as an investor, founder Sandro Roco indicated in social media post. NY-based Roco, whose effort behind Sanzo we recently profiled (BBI, May 7), told us this weekend that it's premature to say more about investment since it's part of ongoing modest round, but in social media post he lauded Smith, who's based in Columbus, Ohio, as one who "understands the intersection among commerce, brands and culture as well as anyone I've met." Smith founded performance menswear co Mizzen+Main, has had runs at Uncrate and Hearst Magazines' Gear Patrol but now says he's focused on investment arm 2PM "investing/advising digitally vertical native brands," per his LinkedIn profile. As reported, Roco has worked in nuclear engineering, finance and at online styling service for men called Bombfell and succeeded in getting Sanzo line placed on Iris Nova ecomm platform operated by

Not many years ago, seeing rising interest in cane-sugar-sweetened, glass-bottle Coca-Cola that was coming in from Mexico via gray market, Atlanta soda giant did what it could to squelch item, before recognizing it was accomplishing difficult feat of recruiting worldly young consumers to franchise, at premium price. So position changed to, "Maybe sell more of it!" as North American chief Sandy Douglas later reminisced to Beverage Forum audience (BBI, May 2 2017). In a sign that KO is determined to avoid such mistakes again, it seems to have blessed importation by entertainment retailer FYE of Coca-Cola Strawberry extension that's generated considerable buzz around world since its intro in Jan as Japan-only item. Judging by photo posted on BestProducts.com, it's the Japanese version in half-liter PET bottled in pink hue that's been stickered over to meet US labeling requirements, available at $5.99 at FYE.com website. As BestProducts notes, FYE last summer had gotten access to Japan-only item from PepsiCo, Mountain Dew Violet.