ABA RE-BRAND. American Beverage Association, the US beverage industry’s primary trade group, has launched a new visual identity and branding. Now calling itself American Beverage, the organization’s new tagline is “Driving Solutions Together” in reference to recycling and sugar initiatives such as Every Bottle Back and Balance Calories. “Our willingness to lead on tough issues is in our nature, has been so for decades,” said Matthew Dent, COO for Pepsi bottler Buffalo Rock, who also is chairman of the association’s board of directors. “We are prepared to engage the challenges and opportunities that are in our future.”

ROCKSTAR RELAUNCH. PepsiCo will use the Feb. 7 Super Bowl to bring attention to a national relaunch of Rockstar Energy eight months after acquiring the iconic yet flagging brand. The relaunch includes refreshed can graphics, SKU reduction, and expansion into fountain, according to PepsiCo sources. New marketing will play against an expanded definition of “Rockstar” that includes go-getters who push through failure. PepsiCo has teased a television ad featuring rapper Lil Baby that will air during the final commercial window before Sunday’s Super Bowl kickoff. This is the brand’s first Super Bowl campaign. After analyzing national and divisional sales velocity and volume data, PepsiCo has reduced Rockstar’s lineup to about 20 flavors across five sub-lines: 1) Original, 2) Zero, 3) Full Calorie, 4) Functional, and 5) Juiced. The brand will launch two new zero-calorie flavors in the Spring.
 

REDDIT REBELLION. LaCroix maker National Beverage was among the stocks caught up in frenzied trading by retail investors coordinated on the social media site Reddit. From Jan. 25 to Feb. 1, the company’s shares fluctuated from $100 to $187 to $131. Unlike GameStop, however, $FIZZ shares had grown +66% last year and added almost $2B in market cap, all before the Reddit Rebellion.

RETAILERS. Starbucks is among companies in Washington lending the state logistics expertise in distributing COVID-19 vaccinations ... Church’s Chicken, McDonald’s, and Fogo de Chao are among restaurant chains saying January COVID-19 stimulus payments are helping boost sales, according to the WSJ.

SUSTAINABILITY. Keurig Dr Pepper has signed onto the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s global Plastic Pact network in the US and Canada ... Absolut vodka has rolled out a prototype of its paper bottle in the UK and Sweden.

TECHNOLOGY. Kroger is testing a self-checkout shopping cart at an Ohio store with technology from New York-based Caper, which says the cart employs machine learning, image recognition, and sensors.

LAUNCHES, EXPANSIONS. Coke has launched its long awaited Coca-Cola With Coffee in the US in five versions, including two Zero Sugar variants; Coke teamed up with Walmart to deliver the product by drone in Coffee County, Georgia as part of the launch festivities ... G.O.A.T. Fuel, a BCAA energy drink with green tea and mushrooms founded by former NFL superstar Jerry Rice, will now be sold in select GNC retail locations across the US, the companies said ... PepsiCo has launched new Ginger Colada and Mango Lime flavors of the company’s Kevita kombucha ... IllyCaffe North America has signed a deal with Ammirati Coffee to distribute Illy’s products to cafes, restaurants and hotels in metropolitan New York ... Monster Energy has launched an Ultra Gold pineapple flavor with 10 calories and 150-mg of caffeine.

INTERNATIONAL. Last month, France blocked Canadian retailer Alimentation Couche-Tard’s acquisition of Carrefour out of food security concerns, the Wall Street Journal reported; the $19.7 billion deal would have created the world’s third largest grocery retailer ... China Huiyuan Juice Group has been pushed off the Hong Kong Stock Exchange after failing to file financial documents since 2018; the juice company was once an acquisition target for Coca- Cola before the deal was scuttled amid allegations of online corporate espionage.

QUICK TAKES. The American Trade Association for Cannabis and Hemp has formed a Cannabis Beverage Council which includes members reared within two prominent US beer families; the members are Adolphus Busch V (great-great grandson of Eberhard Adolphus Anheuser Busch), and Scott Coors (great grandson of Adolph Coors) ... PepsiCo is planning to open a new distribution and e-commerce center in Tolleson, Arizona about 20 minutes from a Phoenix-area production plant, according to local news reports ... Herbal sparkling water brand Aura Bora was the latest beverage brand to appear on ABC’s Shark Tank, where husband and wife founders Paul and Madeleine Voge tentatively agreed to a $200,000 minority investment from Canadian technology businessman Robert Herjavec ... Coca- Cola’s diet soda portfolio has been the subject of media reports about Oval Office desk features, all spurred by former President Donald Trump’s reported red Diet Coke button; according to the Hill, Biden has more of a taste for Coke Zero ... According to the website Eater, a Fort Worth, Texas brewery may have jumped the shark with its newest creation – a sour ale inspired by the flavor of PepsiCo’s Flamin’ Hot Cheetos.