Vintage Wine Estates, a sizable, publicly traded wine and spirits co that acquired Ace Hard Cider some yrs ago, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy early this morn and announced plans to "delist" and "deregister" from NASDAQ by Aug 15. "Over the preceding months, the Company experienced negative financial headwinds that severely impacted its liquidity position," co acknowledged in press release. Essentially co defaulted on its loan with BMO Bank N.A. which "accelerated the Company's obligations" to the bank and forced its hand.

There are signs of "renewed interest in beer" from retailers coming outta the July 4 holiday period, NBWA veep of analytics Lester Jones stated during yesterday's joint webinar with Fintech's Eric Kiser. That's even as beer's share of total alc bev invoices to retailers declined during Memorial Day period from 65% in 2023 to 62% in 2024, and beer's share of alc bev sales-to-retailers (STRs) "bottomed out" at just 48% in Dec 2023. By July 4 period, beer climbed back to 65% of STRs, up 2 pts vs yr ago, suggesting "strong purchases" by retailers for the key holiday and potentially positive signs for rest of the yr, he thought. Notably, on-prem retailers "increased share of [beer] purchases" in 2024 from 13.6% to 13.8% in 2024 YTD, Lester showed. Suggests on-prem retailers are on track to spend ~$200 mil more in 2024 vs 2023, and off-prem retailers still on track to spend ~$750 mil more, Lester noted using his $70 bil beer STR forecast (see last issue). Editor's note: keg volume declined in 2023 and remains down in 2024, but sales-to-retailer $$ are reportedly up.

Guru Organic Energy has recruited bev vets Jeff Church and Tyler Ricks to its board as it refines its expansion plans in US and Canada, even as it added to day-to-day leadership team with recruitment of Shingly Lee as vp marketing. Lee comes off 3-yr run at plant-based food brand Alpha Foods extending into its acquisition over past year by Livekindly Collective. She'd earlier had stints at Kraft Heinz and working on Danone's Vega brand, which it has since sold off.

The 3,500-unit Chipotle chain has revamped its RTD lineup to include coupla flavors of Poppi along with aluminum-bottle Open Water and bottled Coke Zero. Fountain offerings continue to be anchored by organic lemonades and aguas frescas from Tractor. Gut-pop purveyor Poppi is contributing its Strawberry Lemon and Orange canned sodas. As for Open Water, that's described as female-owned and LGBTQIA+-founded and -led business whose 16-oz resealable aluminum bottles are recyclable/reusable, Climate Neutral-certified and plastic free.

PepsiCo-aligned Celsius Energy is deepening its presence in the cola segment. The Boca Raton, Fla-based co has added a Cherry Cola flavor to its Celsius Sparkling subline, adding to its "growing line of flavors influenced by timeless pop classics," that provide consumers "with better-for-you alternatives to high-sugar beverages." New entry augments Sparkling Cola sku in lineup.

Under new sales chief brought in early this year, Australia's Bundaberg soda maker is adopting more aggressive stance in US, broadening flavor range with novel entries like Brewed Sparkling Lemonade, upping its reliance on cans and making more concerted effort to develop brand's presence in eastern part of US. One initiative along those lines: partnering with Union Beer to test mixer-oriented 200-ml minicans of its core Ginger Beer this fall.

At time conditions are challenging in NA bevs, many corporate leaders remind themselves that it's risky to neglect core brand in favor of innovations and acquisitions that are expensive and uncertain of long-term success. But under its new owner of past 4 years, Milwaukee-based Sprecher seems to be succeeding at this juggling act. Under Sharad Chadha, it's been enjoying compounded annual growth rate of 30% during this period, expanding workforce from 50 to 160 employees as it rides its core soda brands while also keeping its hand in in craft beer and doing contract production work for other beer and RTD brands. Meanwhile, it continues to broaden portfolio of owned and allied brands at hectic pace, adding Ooh-La-Lemin, Juvee Energy and O2 canned hydration drinks in space of 9 months (BBI, Oct 4, Jan 18 and Jun 20).

Ready-to-drink alc bevs remain one of the industry's key growth engines, and the inaugural RTD Report gives you all the info you need to keep pace with this rapidly developing segment. Dive deep into exclusive data compiled for the first time by Beer Marketer's Insights, including all-channel RTD volume estimates from 2019-2023 across beer, wine & spirits.