James Nikolay, who's shaken up Target bev array during his 8 years as buyer for shelf-stable and refrigerated bevs, will be heading to undisclosed new role within chain on Feb 2, we hear. All told a 10-yr vet at retailer after 3-yr post-college stint at Best Buy, Nikolay would have onboarded numerous breakout brands like Celsius, Alani Nu and Poppi. His LinkedIn profile declares his impressive accomplishments on $1.5 bil portfolio to include: "Delivered 200% portfolio growth over 5 years, generating approximately $1B in incremental revenue and $250M in profit with 600 bps margin improvement .

Barebells, the sister brand of Nocco Energy, continues to aggressively expand its US bev offerings, now placing its Barebells Milk Drinks as single-can entries in 2,000 Walmart stores. That's about half the footprint in chain established by core Barebells Original Bars and Soft Bars as singles and 4-pks. Parent co operates as Sweden-based Vitamin Well. The milk bevs also have headed into nutrition channel keystones Vitamin Shoppe and GNC. Building on milk recognition that brands like Slate have generated, sleek-can line delivers 24 g of protein but just 2 sugar (BBI, Dec 29). They're offered in Choco, Vanilla and Berry flavors. Barebells, recall, has also headed into bev segments like protein soda (BBI, Oct 17) . . . Wet Hydration has entered Vitamin Shoppe nutrition chain with core Wellness Water entries and select Protein Water entries. They're entering unspecified # of stores next month . . . Fresh off a graphics update, Heywell has partnered with Beyond Brands to help with next phase of buildout, expanding on work it's been doing with BB founder Eric Schnell and partner Eddie Pearson. It's also recruited Presence Marketing as broker at time sleek-can functional sparkler has moved into Fresh Market at retail and onto Thrive Market platform . . . Atlanta-based Arden's Garden juice chain is broadening its CPG offerings with expansion of last year's Tropical Sea Moss Smoothie into shot format. Sea Moss Energy shots are being picked up by all 1,450 Publix stores in Southeast and 100+ Roundy's stores in Midwest. Sea Moss Energy melds pineapple, passion fruit and lemon juice with mineral-rich gel made from St Lucia sea moss along with 106 mg caffeine from green tea. Each 2-oz shot comes in at 40 calories. SRP is $2.99. Tho sea moss might seem like arcane ingredient, Arden's Garden says smoothie entry quickly vaulted into being a top seller . . . Protein2O has landed limited-time presence at Aldi's value chain at $2.48 per bottle in Dragonfruit Blackberry, Wild Cherry and Peach Mango flavors while Once Upon a Coconut has landed its 12-pks of its canned Coconut Water + Chocolate in Costco stores in Florida, Texas and across Southeast.

THC player Hippie Water has offered non-infused line of mildly caffeinated energy drinks augmented by functional mushrooms, electrolytes and magnesium. Offered in 12-oz sleek cans, Hippie Energy delivers 75 mg of caffeine along with 500 mg of lion's mane, cordyceps and turkey tail shrooms, 115 mg magnesium, 215 mg potassium, 50 mg of L-theanine and 120 mg of vitamin C. The shroom content all is claimed to be from fruiting body of plant. It also contains a smidgen of chicory-sourced prebiotic fiber, just 1 g. The 7 g of sugar comes from juice concentrate, enabling zero-added-sugar line on nutrition panel. Starting flavor array is Citrus Groove, Peach Party and Watermelon Getaway. It hits next month. Meanwhile, co operating as Hippie Commune Co is offering aggressive half-off deal on its existing entries on DTC channel to start new year.

Taco Bell's Liv Mas bev concept has performed well enough to exceed co's expansion target a tad, with 31 locations open now across SoCal, Houston, Dallas and Las Vegas. In assessment of progress to date, Nation's Restaurant News indicated that the two Vegas-area units tipped fast-feeder beyond its 2025 target of 30 as consumers seem to respond to concept, which offers range of coffees, Chillers and more lately added Refrescas. The original standalone unit in San Diego has grown by 40% since its debut in late 2024 and execs maintain hope of eventually installing a unit within every existing US restaurant as it aims for $5 bil in annual bev sales by 2030.

As public markets show signs of greater receptivity to new listings, a major bevco that's little known in US so far is looking to exploit opportunity. Chinese energy drink giant Eastroc Beverage is looking to raise HK$10.14 bil ($1.3 bil) via a second listing on Hong Kong exchange, per regulatory filing cited today by Reuters, Bloomberg and others. It already trades on Shanghai exchange. Proceeds are said to be allocated for brand building, overseas expansion and potential investments and acquisitions, per Reuters report. Recall, Eastroc last year revealed its designs on US market via its acquisition of shuttered Pittston Co-Packers in Penn thru American partners (BBI, Jun 23). Regulatory filing indicates Shenzen-based co intends to offer 40.9 mil shares at up to HK$248 each for valuation of $21.4 bil. As China Daily noted, Eastroc's shares have risen about 4% over past year in Shanghai, for market cap of nearly $19 bil. Reuters cited as "cornerstone investors" Qatar Investment Authority, Temasek Holdings, True Light Capital, BlackRock, Tencent and HongShan Capital. Shares would start trading on Feb 3. As Reuters recollected, Eastroc had sought unsuccessfully 2 years ago to sell global depositary receipts in Switzerland, withdrawing offering after unfavorable market reception.

Total bev sales growth moderated to +0.4% in Q4 2025, reported Goldman Sachs based on its Beverage Bytes survey of respondents representing ~42K c-stores, or ~28% of channel. Retailers anticipate beverages to grow 3.3% for full yr 2026 (up from +2.4% in 2025), "supported by stronger expected traffic trends given a benefit from easier y/y compares, new innovation and incremental pricing," wrote Goldman's Bonnie Herzog, who masterminds survey.

Lotsa movement for us to catch up on lately among retail execs who directly or indirectly pull strings on bev assortments. Here's some of what we've been hearing . . . At time of considerable churn at 7-Eleven, evp/chief merchandising officer Jesus Delgado-Jenkins is heading toward retirement, we hear. Jesus, who's on his 2d go-round at c-store giant with a stint on brand side in between, is moving on at time CEO Joe DePinto has hung up his spurs and other exec moves are in works at reorganizing co. No word so far on who'll succeed Jesus, who's still in role for a few more weeks . . . Anthony Suggs, group vp for center store at Boise, Idaho-based Albertsons, is heading to category mgmt role at broadliner KeHe, we've heard this week. Anthony had spent past 5 yrs at Albertsons following 23-yr run at Jewel Osco in Chicago, where KeHe also is based. No announcement has gone out yet from what we can see . . . Key milestone has occurred at Kroger's Ralphs chain, key incubation banner in Southern Calif. Its prexy, Tom Schwilke, has decided to retire after 7 years at Kroger and 42+ years in retail biz all told. He's being succeeded by familiar face to bev operators, Kendra Doyel, moving from prexy role at Food 4 Less banner. She joined co in 1998 as a pharmacist in Fry's Division and has steadily climbed ranks since then. From 2022-25, she'd served as prexy for merchandising at Ralphs, including bevs . . . These Kroger moves announced last wk follow by several weeks move of Kate Mayer from vp of health & beauty care/non-edible merchandising to vp of grocery merchandising, including all bevs. She's nearly 20-yr vet of Cincinnati-based grocery giant . . . Latriece Watkins has been elevated to prexy/CEO of Sam's Club, making her one of highest-ranking Black female execs in retail. Spelman College grad with a law degree has spent virtually her entire career at Walmart starting as an intern in real estate in 1997, as Essence mag pointed out, moving to merchandising roles in snacks, bevs and beauty, culminating in chief merchant role there in 2023. Promotion has garnered bunch of jubilant coverage in outlets like Essence and Black Enterprise that have lamented paucity of Black execs atop major chains.

Starbucks is heavily working its third-place angle in new campaign via agency Anomaly that depicts moments of connectivity between customers and so-called "green aprons." Set to Beatles' "All Together Now," ad was filmed in coffeehouses across US over course of a single day, moving from opening title "A real day in the life at Starbucks" to quick cuts showing multiracial cast of customers busy card- and chess-playing, hugging, even possibly two-step dancing while engaging with cheerful baristas. Ad depicts a range of Starbucks creations, almost all of them iced. SBUX is expected to push third-place theme hard at Investor Day just announced for Jan 29 at which CEO Bryan Niccol will update his turnaround effort.