Beer Marketer's Insights
The owners of two unique craft brewers — already connected to a cadre of brands both new and familiar — have their sights set on a southeastern brewing stronghold that assembles an even larger group of brands. Faubourg Brewing in New Orleans and Made By The Water (MBTW), the PE-backed group that brought together FL's Oyster City, NC's Catawba brands and more, announced "a 50/50 partnership" yesterday, NOLA.com reported and MBTW CEO Alexi Sekmakas confirmed with CBN. Deal terms not disclosed, tho both cos describe it as a "merger." MBTW will move its hq to the large Faubourg facility as it ramps up production there, while cos promise to seek out other craft breweries to bring into the fold.
Why do nutritious plant waters have to come from halfway around the globe, like coconut waters do? That's been premise underpinning emerging segments like cactus water, maple water and aloe in recent years, tho none of those segments has broken out yet on order of their inspiration, coconut water. But the new entrants keep coming. On cactus side of ledger, entrepreneur named Sarita Lopez has thrown her hat in ring with entry called Cactus! The Desert Hydrator that unusually employs not the fruit of the nopal plant, as incumbent brands do, but the paddle.
JM Smucker rode consumers' home-huddling buying spree to 11% sales gain in its US retail coffee biz, to $581.6 mil in Q4, riding 13-point volume/mix gain on Folgers, Dunkin' Donuts and Café Bustelo brands. That was offset by 3-pt price hit driven mainly by Folgers, Orrville, Ohio-based co reported. Segment profit increased by similar 11% to $190.1 mil thanks to volume lift . . . Morgan Stanley's Dara Mohsenian views comments of Monster Bev brass at annual meeting yesterday as "cautiously optimistic," thanks mainly to improving scanner data in US, as well as signs of strength in Asia Pacific. "MNST US scanner data trends have improved sequentially in each of the last 5 weeks, with May-to-date trends (through 5/16/20) up +1.6% year-over-year and +2.3% y-o-y in the last week of data, above -7.5% in April, with improving albeit still declining trends in gas & convenience," he wrote. Meanwhile, Stackline data that co has begun to cite shows that MNST continues to boost its share of Amazon sales, hitting 41.7% for 4 wks ended May 16.
POLICY: Citing Plague of Virus-Related Claims, CSPI Urges FDA, FTC Enforcement, Amazon Delisting
Center for Science in Public Interest is urging gov't regulators and Amazon to start challenging the legion of supplement marketers who're profiteering from pandemic by making virus-fighting claims. Non-profit watchdog cited May 29 market scan that revealed 46 such items on Amazon, which it's demanding be delisted, noting that these 46 listings represent just small portion of "the illegal and potentially unsafe supplements currently sold on Amazon and other online retailers." This after Amazon reportedly already took down 6.5 mil unauthorized coronavirus products since onset of pandemic. CSPI also is urging FDA and Federal Trade Commission to take enforcement action vs items making "explicit or implied antiviral claims," including "effective against an enormous array of disease causing…virus[es]," "virus protection" and "and fend off certain viruses." Even product names are contributing to problem, as with Amazon-listed items called Virus Shield, Viracid, Anti-V formula and Bronchial Virus Care, per CSPI.
Ocean Spray cranberry growers cooperative has made it clear that its Lighthouse Incubator will range far and wide with its innovations, rather than hewing closely to items that might move cranberry tonnage. So it's not a shock that it's now among first strategics to start playing in CBD, via new brand called CarryOn that employs CBD supplied by Mile High Labs, which also picks up the job of getting the items out to consumers in launch market, Colorado. It's breaking exclusively at AppleJack Liquors chain and will add other Colo retailers as summer approaches.
Sugar Assn Calls for Crackdown on Alternative Sweeteners; Claims Added-Sugar Listings Mislead
The Sugar Association filed petition with Food & Drug Administration yesterday calling on agency to level playing field with new alternative sweeteners which its members feel are not disclosed properly on ingredient labels for consumers. "The Sugar Association requests FDA to provide consumers with honest information about the use of alternative sweeteners and to stop misleading claims about added sugars content," group asked in petition filed yesterday. Since nutrition facts labels for foods and bevs have been required to list "added sugars," many mfrs have worked their way around that by increasing use of "numerous alternative sweeteners" to meet consumer demand for low- or no-sugar brands. This has particularly been case since labels break out added-sugar #. "While many consumers wish to reduce added sugars intake, they do not wish to do so by increasing their consumption of unfamiliar substances not clearly identified on the label as sweeteners," wrote Sugar Assn. True, the "chemical name of these sweeteners are included in product lists," petition notes, "but there is no indication they are sweeteners," so unless a consumer paid attention in chemistry class, they may not know substances such as erythritol, rebaudioside-A or maltitol are sweeteners and are adding calories and sugar content to that product.
Two coffee up & comers - one on CPG side, other on retail side - have teamed up for this weekend as fast-expanding Blank Street Coffee chain offers flock of Chamberlain Coffee drinks at 3 of its NY locations. Partners are offering a range of concoctions devised by Blank Street using Chamberlain coffees and matcha green tea including the broadly available Sneaky Bat Pumpkin Spice blend, along with one-offs with names like Picky About My Chocolate and Really Into Strawberries (and Matcha). Pairing makes sense, Chamberlain Coffee argues, because "both Chamberlain Coffee and Blank Street strive to make quality coffee that's approachable to the masses." Investors have been buying into both concepts, with proliferating pocket-size store operator pulling in $25 mil a year ago and Chamberlain in Aug hauling in $7 mil Series A round. The popups run from tomorrow thru Sun at high-traffic locations in TriBeCa, Greenwich Village and Williamsburg. Chamberlain Coffee, of course, was created by popula
Finnish Dairy Giant Valio Launches First Plantbevs in US via Oatmilk Devised by Oddlygood Spinoff
After crashing US shores with spoonable altyogurt and altcheese items, Finnish dairy giant Valio is readying its first foray into plantbevs with launch by its majority-controlled Oddlygood Global spinoff of shelf-stable All-In Barista Oat Drink. New entry debuting at upcoming Natural Products Expo East in Philadelphia and Coffee Fest Pacific Northwest in Seattle employs all parts of the oat (hence the "all-in" reference) to bring 3 g protein per 1-cup serving, along with 290 mg of calcium, 7 g of total fat and no added sugar, clocking in at 150 calories. It's packed in 1-liter carton priced at $4.99 per carton. For launch it's being brought in from UK, but production will shift to US as sales momentum develops, said Caitlin Mahler, newly named biz development chief of Oddlygood USA unit based in Parsippany, NJ. She was recruited just last month after recent runs at Hain Celestial and Sabra.
Nutrabolt is about to undertake some extensive tinkering to its energy suite, segueing its C4 Smart Energy brand from standard 16-oz format to 12-oz slim can with new flavors to suit broader range of palates, even as it puts greater resources behind its 300 mg C4 Ultimate line. The objective of the moves, to be revealed at upcoming NACS c-store show in a week and a half, is to build a balanced portfolio of platforms that work collectively to win major share among the increasingly diverse user base of energy category, rather than relying almost entirely on core 16-oz yellow-can line, as prexy John Herman explained. Nutrabolt has been celebrating its 20th year since its founding by Doss Cunningham but didn't enter RTD space until 2018 with C4, then added Smart Energy extension a coupla years later. Latest Nielsen scans showed its energy entries doing $271 mil in tracked retail channels for 52 wks ended Sep 10, about half sales total of Celsius, whose rapid growth just nabbed investment and distribution deal with PepsiCo. So C4 has come very suddenly on horizon of energy category that not long ago seemed locked up by Red Bull and Monster.
The show in March may have been canceled because of pandemic, but we’re still making our (virtual) “booth visits” to would-be exhibitors at Natural Products Expo West. If you had innovation planned for that canceled show that you haven’t shared yet with us, please reach out. Ditto if you had new stuff ponied up for Fancy Food Show scheduled for NY later this month that’s also been canceled.