As you know well as a BD subscriber, we are paying far more attention to the alcohol beverage market. In today’s issue, we write about the friction caused by non-alcohol beverage companies as they find ways to patriciate in ready-to-drink alcohol.

Given that backdrop, we are excited to announce the addition of Anheuser-Busch InBev to our Future Smarts conference program. Our guest will be Fabricio Zonzini, president of ABI’s Beyond Beer business unit in North America. He runs the fastest growing business unit within ABI’s largest geographic zone.

During a fireside chat with me, Zonzini will provide commentary on industry trends in RTD cocktails, seltzers, and low-alcohol packaged beverages, which have been a focus of growth for the world’s largest beer brewer. ABI also plays in traditional non-alcoholic RTD categories including energy

Allow me to catch you up on plans for our Future Smarts conference on Dec. 5. Our return to New York City after two years of successful virtual shows promises to deliver an expert lineup as good as we’ve ever hosted.

Just yesterday I confirmed our most recent speaker addition: Michael Del Pozzo, the new president and general manager for PepsiCo’s Gatorade Performance Portfolio. The unit includes Propel, Muscle Milk, Evolve plant-based protein shakes, and now Fast Twitch energy drink for athletes. We haven’t announced Del Pozzo’s appearance, so consider this a sneak peek. BodyArmor in recent years has re-ignited a category that had become sleepy. It’s now a free-for-all and Gatorade hasn’t backed away from...

Pricing growth remained elevated through the first half of this year at US retail for non-carbonated beverage categories tracked by BD. As shown in the table, that led to dollar sales growth even as volume declined for all tracked categories except plain bottled water. Pricing growth for the first half of the year for all categories except sports drinks...

We’re back in New York City for Future Smarts this year and I can’t wait. After two years of successful virtual conferences during the pandemic lockdown, the team here didn’t hesitate to dive back into a live event. Why? Because of you.

Future Smarts is critical connective tissue for the Beverage Digest community. It’s there that attendees catch up with old industry friends to strengthen bonds – and make new connections. Over the years, many beverage deals have been hatched during sideline huddles. Attendees get out of local markets and offices to hear and share perspectives from around the country and world.

In speaker presentations and interviews, we...

With our Dec. 6 Future Smarts conference a little more than a month away, this is a great time to share a few of the themes we will explore this year. We are in a pivotal reset period for the global beverage industry following the extreme disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. To help sort it out, we’ve assembled an exceptional lineup of speakers who are well-placed to evaluate the implications of the past two years and share insight on what to expect. They include leaders ...

This week’s issue touches on a couple of important beverage industry themes that we’re paying a lot of attention to these days. The first is the blurring of product and distribution lines between non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverage categories. Driving this trend is a need by scaled players in both ...