Glucose Health said it's riding major expansion of diabetic care offerings at CVS chain to placement of its Glucodown iced tea mix targeting adult sufferers of the disease. Glucose Health, which is based in Bentonville, Ark, and trades publicly as GLUC, offers sugar-free mix buoyed with proprietary soluble fiber and Banaba leaf used in ayurvedic medicine in India. Corporate board includes coupla faces familiar from bevs: former Glaceau and Aquahydrate chief Hal Kravitz and former Celsius ceo Gerry David . . . LifeAid has launched 6 sku's in 1K+ Publix groceries spanning Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions including FitAid, FitAid Zero, FocusAid, ImmunityAid, PartyAid and Rx FitAid. Recall that Rx FitAid was launched into endemic gym and CrossFit accts but has now come off 2-year exclusive and is being made more widely available. Besides Publix, Walmart is among retailers that have picked up that brand, said cofounder Aaron Hinde.

As KDP brass likes to remind investors, some Wall Street analysts weren't really buying into strategic rationale behind acquisition of Dr Pepper Snapple Group by Keurig Green Mountain 2 years back. But at time one key premise - that Keurig's online sophistication would be of increasing benefit to DPS' RTD bevs - is being vindicated by pandemic-inspired tilt toward DTC, KDP has been puttin' up strong numbers and sentiment is coming around. Count Evercore ISI among them, upgrading KDP from "in-line" to "outperform" in report issued Mon that's "based upon increased confidence the firm can meet or exceed estimates for 2020 and 2021 in a range of US economic scenarios." Robert Ottenstein and his colleagues there cite several factors, including strong results during Covid-19 crisis, CSD pricing discipline, commodity tailwinds, expected deleveraging and "balanced category and channel exposure" thanks to diverse product base welded together in merger. Strong momentum thru pandemic is evident from KDP's "~110 bps $ share gain of CSD category in IRI MULOC for 4 and 12 weeks ended 5/17," notes Evercore. (In civilian-speak, that's 110 basis points, or 1.1%, gain in broad retail landscape including c-stores tracked by IRI.) That gain has been driven by KDP's strong DSD presence, lower exposure to c-stores (which could become headwind during reopening phase) and innovations "such as Dr Pepper Cream Soda, Canada Dry Bold and 10-pack mini cans." (Those were all points emphasized by ceo Bob Gamgort during recent earnings call - BBI, Apr 28.) Even with lower input costs caused by commodity tailwinds, sustained pricing increase is aided "by reduced promotional activity during the crisis, which more than offset negative channel and pack mix." Lastly, Evercore points to KDP's balanced exposure, with potential growth in Keurig pod demand from increased at-home consumption (KDP-manufactured pod share has been stable at ~81%, per report), another point emphasized by Gamgort. "Long-term fundamentals for the Keurig system remain strong: Household penetration is only ~23% vs low to mid 60% for single-serve systems in markets like France and the Netherlands," writes investment firm. Meanwhile, there's plenty of upside for stock as measured by price-earnings ration. Even with increased price target of $35 and 20X P/E ratio, Evercore notes that KDP would still trade at significant discount to KO (23X) and PEP (~24.5X).

Charlotte-based Coca-Cola Consolidated, largest red-system bottler, is in expansion mode even while country continues to deal with Covid-19 crisis and slow reopening process. Co is starting construction this month on $55 mil, 400K-sq-ft facility in Whitestown, Ind, per Inside Indiana Business. Once up and running, new plant will employ around 450, including transferees from Coke Consolidated plant in Indianapolis, which itself was recent recipient of $15 mil in upgrades and will remain open "to keep up with demand and to provide more distribution capabilities," per report.

Ram Krishnan can finally drop his side hustle. PepsiCo vet is moving full-time into new role as PepsiCo's global chief commercial officer now that his old spot running Asia Pacific region's been filled. Getting nod for that ceo spot is Wern-Yuen Tan, who comes off run as prexy/ceo of Walmart China after earlier job running McDonald's in Taiwan. He starts on Jun 15, atop unit formally called APAC, for Asia Pacific, Australia, New Zealand and China. That will leave Krishnan able to fully focus on growth-acceleration mandate, via such initiatives as "building a data-driven demand ecosystem; portfolio transformation; innovating with speed and impact; and building foundational eCommerce, revenue management and go-to-market capabilities."

About 2 yrs after longtime Las Vegas Miller distrib Bonanza Bev struck deal to sell to Southern Glazer's (which sells Corona and other Constellation beer brands in Vegas), it will instead sell its Miller brands to local Coors distrib Breakthru. Southern will still get some leading craft brands, our sibling newsletter Insights Express has heard over past day. Deal's been announced to employees and is expected to close Jul 31. Recall, Bonanza sued MillerCoors, when brewer refused Southern deal and sought to match and redirect deal to Breakthru, based on its contract. Legal wranglin' went on for about 18 mos, before case settled late last yr. With the Miller and Coors distribs consolidating in Las Vegas, that will take off table one of biggest remaining unconsolidated Molson Coors mkts. Bonanza website lists modest array of NA bev brands including La Croix, Rip It Energy, AriZona, C4 Energy, Aquahydrate, Jones Soda, Bawls Guarana and Country Time and it's not clear yet what their destination will be.

Vita Coco Coconut Water famously got started by pair of youthful founders - Mike Kirban and Ira Liran - who rollerbladed around NY pitching Tetra Pak'd brand to bodega owners. Fifteen years and hundreds of millions in sales later, the NY-based co is offering support to pandemic-beleaguered channel by partnering with fledgling My Bodega Online delivery app to purchase and deliver bodega-built breakfast sandwiches and cartons of Vita Coco to city's healthcare workers. It's also launching "Love Letters to Bodegas" poster campaign to bring further visibility to essential up-&-down-street resource that can play outsized social role in neighborhoods otherwise neglected by retailers.

Is CBD + energy the next hybrid energy segment, finding spot on shelves alongside coffee + energy and protein + energy drinks? We're about to find out as Daytrip throws its hat into ring with Daytrip Go, positioned as "adaptogenic, CBD-infused energy drink," joining nascent segment that just saw launch of Stoked brand from Bang Energy marketer VPX Sports (BBI, Apr 6). It's likely others will venture in, some surely from energy space as regulatory clarity emerges.

By now it's no secret that non-alc bev trends are driving a lot of what's happening on alcoholic side. So how to try to harness those in a systematic yet agile way? One of more interesting experiments has been quietly unfolding at Anheuser-Busch via its Beyond Beer initiative that this spring unleashed new flavored malt bev line dubbed LQD, out of Bend, Ore, home of its acquired 10 Barrel craft brewer. At BBI we were first to stick our nose under tent a year and a half ago (BBI, Oct 11 2018), but we hadn't looked back in since then, mainly because A-B was keeping effort under pretty tight wraps. Now that products are out in market, tho, big brewer is offering more of a peek at how it's managing effort. It debuted in Mar with quartet of hard limeades, lemonades and teas aimed at "health-minded consumers," with "mission to reimagine alcohol," while drawing from each of A-B's craft brewers (11 acquired craft brewers including 10 Barrel plus acquired Virtue cider and in-house brand Veza Sur) that go by moniker Brewers Collective. As with their craft beers, they refine new concepts by monitoring direct consumer feedback in their taprooms. As for LQD, co tells consumers that name stands for "liquid, reimagined and respelled," riding vowel-less trend we've seen with brands like WTRMLN WTR. We chatted about effort in recent weeks with Lindsay Willey, dir of Beyond Beer. Note that these are all alcoholic items and thereby outside nominal purview of BBI, but offer interesting reflection of how giant, diversified player is looking to incubate brands that ride novel trends. Note also that individual efforts by A-B-owned craft brewers to play in booming, but by now well-established, hard seltzer segment fall outside rubric of LQD.

Growth in liquid refreshment bevs slowed at retail in US last year, rising 1.4% by volume to 34.3 bil gals and 3.5% in $$ to $186 mil, consultants Beverage Marketing Corp reported. A year earlier, LRBs had grown by 2.2% by volume and 3.8% in $$. Tho CSDs dominated brand rankings, growth was balanced between small, niche segments like value-added water and established categories like CSDs, the NY co noted. And no segment suffered a decline in sales last year, tho fruit bevs were flat.