Frank B. Fuhrer Wholesale Co bought bev division with $10 mil in sales of local food distrib Alber & Leff, reported Pittsburgh Business Times. Alber & Leff sold about 25 brands, including Sparkling Ice, Essentia, Prime Hydration, Alani Nu and Poppi. "Fuhrer has been looking to expand into the non-alcoholic segment," said Fuhrer cfo Jake Wrigley to Biz Times. "This was just the perfect opportunity rather than building something from the ground up." Lee Hurwitz, fourth generation owner of Alber & Leff joined Fuhrer as prexy of Fuhrer Bev Co, which began operating today.

Happy, the uplifting coffee brand launched by entrepreneur Craig Dubitsky and actor/producer Robert Downey Jr, is claiming in 5 short months to have built out its presence to 30,000 retail doors, with target of 50K doors by Sep. After launching in some Target and Sprouts stores along with Amazon earlier this year (BBI, Mar 28 and May 23), Happy has added stores within Walmart, Kroger, CVS, Hy-Vee and Harris Teeter chains for its ground coffees and K-Cup-compatible pods.

Bravus Brewing, early NA-beer player that's put its hand to broad array of other segments from energy teas to sparkling NA wines (BBI, Jan 5), has created new marque called Phil & Goode ("feelin' good"?) that's starting with an entry called La Planta Reposado Tequila Alternative. The new Phil & Goode trademark will accommodate a range of other non-alc spirits-alternatives and canned cocktails from Anaheim-based brewer operated by Phil Brandes, one of country's first pure plays in NA beer when he launched. La Planta is made using agave, oak, filtered water, natural tequila flavor and white button mushroom fiber extract, used both as a natural preservative and functional ingredient, per announcement today, via proprietary process that keeps alc below 0.5% rather than requiring de-alcoholization as later step. Co claims it's convincing enough to be drunk neat rather than used only mixed with other ingredients in cocktails. It's going out at SRP of $34.99 per 750-ml bottle.

Many altsoda companies have tended for years to shy away from offering colas, figuring they would blur differentiation with soda giants while painting a target on their backs, only to come around to recognition that it's foolish not to participate in popular segment. Besides, these days the soda giants likely are more concerned with the wave of gut pops that are directly targeting them.

No wonder suppliers, distribs and retailers in MN and beyond are looking so closely at hemp-derived THC bevs, even with persisting grey areas of the mkt. Extensive Politico article recently pinned MN's THC drinks mkt at "nearly $200 million" in just ~2 yrs with 4K licensed retailers (including Total Wine & More), headlining: "Weed drinks are everywhere in Minnesota. Other states are now embracing them."

Busch Light continues to outperform in national scans, now growing category share in 47 US states for the latest 4 wks thru Jun 16 and in 43 states yr-to-date in Circana. That's up from 37 states YTD just a couple mos back (see May 13 issue), driven in part by success in states like Tennessee where brand picked up about half a share pt YTD, AB shared citing Circana multioutlet + convenience data thru 7/7.

Total on-premise beer $$ sales stayed relatively steady at -2.9% yr-over-yr in the 12 mos to mid-May, yet rate of sale fell 9.4% for the period, according to latest CGA by NIQ data tracking US bars and restaurants. That near-double-digit drop is surprisingly steep. Tho on-prem beer $$ dropped about the same as 12 mos thru mid-Apr, not too far off -0.7% trend for 12 mos thru mid-Jan.