Bev incubator LA Libations is partnering with sales agency Advantage Solutions Inc to take its Relentless Trade Solutions merchandising arm national, setting joint venture under name Relentless Advantage, cos announced and our sibling pub Beverage Business INSIGHTS reported yesterday. Controlled by Advantage, with 51% stake, alliance combines Relentless' strong foothold with West Coast retailers with Advantage's broader national retail footprint to offer what Libations co-founder/ceo Danny Stepper said is first truly national service.

MC touted big sampling efforts and steady ramp-up of its new non-carbonated FMB brand, Happy Thursday, in latest blog post. Since its natl launch in Apr, Happy Thursday became a top-10 new brand in Circana scans, and "we're starting to see a lot of green shoots," said senior mktg manager for Happy Thursday, Zach Paciorek. Especially in foodstores where Happy Thursday variety pk became #1 new item for latest 4 wks "at a top-5 grocery chain, where it's moving 2.5 times faster than" #2 new brand. Happy Thursday's the #1 new "item" in WI and IN grocery and #3 in IL. In northern WI, it gained placements in "over 200 on-premise accounts and that's turning into huge wins in the off-premise," sez Zach. "Sales are continuing to grow week over week and distribution is growing, too, both in key national chains and independent stores," MC added.

After duking it out with Heineken to replace Budweiser as official beer sponsor of English Premier League, Diageo today announced a 4-yr agreement with the EPL marking Guinness' first-ever global soccer partnership. Deal bringing together "the beautiful game and the beautiful pint" will see Guinness kick off the 2024-2025 season as official beer of the Premier League with Guinness 0.0 as the EPL's official non-alcoholic beer as well. Tho terms weren't disclosed, The Telegraph pegged deal at "around £52 million in total" (~$67 mil), or roughly $16.7 mil/yr.

Everyone seems to be comin' after perceived light lager oppys in the US. List now includes multiple celebrities just announced this morn, as NFL star siblings Travis and Jason Kelce became the "largest investors" in Braxton Brewing's Garage Beer and former pro wrestler Hulk Hogan started his own brand, "Real American Beer."

Ramping up criticism of and for first time taking public stance against new, bifurcated process for developing federal drinking guidelines, a group of 15 trade orgs sent polite but firm letter to Secretary Becerra (USDA) and Secretary Vilsack (Health and Human Services) early this wk. Focused on changes made for the development of the 2025-2030 edition of the US Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA), orgs "want to ensure" that process "is transparent, fair, and free from bias, and solely based on the preponderance of scientific and medical knowledge, as required by law," letter opens. "Americans deserve guidance based on sound science, not ideology," orgs concluded after doubling down on their reminder about what the law requires of the DGA review process.

Based on a comparison to 2 other ostensibly similar AB distribs, CT distrib Dichello should have sold an additional $1.17 to $2.58 mil in AB beer from 2020-2022 if it wasn't in breach of the equity agreement, explained a proposed expert witness for upcoming trial between the brewer and the distrib. And "AB will continue to incur lost profits in the future," anywhere from another $0.9-$4.2 mil, according to a redacted version of report included in a slew of filings last wk. So at a brief trial this summer, AB will seek $2.1-$6.8 mil in lost profits, plus attys fees and maybe more, from Dichello. The distrib disputes the analysis, natch, and asked ct to limit its use at upcoming trial. But any damages award for AB would be a bitter pill in a dispute initiated by the distrib.

As the gears that make the bev biz turn, wholesalers and copackers get to participate in wide range of innovation categories. So it's not surprising that occasionally they decide to put their hard-won insights to work with their own concepts. Latest to give a launch a try is Bill Butrymowicz, operator of DSD house Seaview Beverage in Lakewood, NJ, a diverse NA-only house launched by Bill's dad, a former Pepsi route driver. The concept: Loom, a lower-sugar juice line in straightwall plastic bottle that founder hopes to popularize among early 20s consumers in manner that trickles down to teens too.

My Crew Doses, the functional platform launched by entrepreneur BJ McCaslin and biochemist Jeremy Widmann, has been making some progress since we profiled them a year ago (BBI, May 22 2023). As latest early-stage brand to be accepted into Paperboy Ventures investor intro mechanism, it's indicated that it's built out extensive product portfolio, set partnership with Live Nation starting at select venues, and is rolling out this month into 7-Eleven, Bristol Farms, Erewhon and GNC. Among image-building accts it's entered SoHo House, The Den Ritual and The Collective. Paperboy indicates that MCD is raising $1.3 mil seed round on a convertible note with a $7.5 mil cap, $400k of which is still open. Funding is led so far by Silent Spirits, with longtime Coke exec Matt Hughes also on cap table, along with what's described as "a collective of other beverage industry founders and executives." It anticipates closing out year 1 with close to $3 mil in revenues. Matt of course played longtime incubation role at Coke and helped set it on course to participate in alc RTDs before retiring a year ago.

Red Bull North America pushed back forcefully against its terminated NY wholesaler The Beverage Works, arguing in court that its 24-year partner in NY/NJ was a consistent laggard in performance and resisted modernizing its biz practices. In filing in US District Court in NJ, where Bev Works sought injunction, RBNA evp/gm Bill Connors that "in the last 10 years, TBW's sales volume performance has been a drag on the total United States business in every single year," dropping 6.6% last year vs 2.2% for total system and 0.3% gain for Eastern biz unit. We offer this summary of his filing as a way to get Red Bull's view since neither party has discussed termination publicly.