As the crossover between alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverage distribution and product development heats up, BD caught up with longtime beverage entrepreneur Larry Trachtenbroit to see what lessons he’s learned after making the transition. Trachtenbroit sold a ready-to-drink coffee business to Coke for more than $5 million 20 years ago before going on to create a beverage innovation shop called Brain Twist that counted Coca-Cola as an investor. More than five years ago, he switched fully to alcohol beverages. He co-founded his current venture FS Beverages with former global ocean shipping industry executive Greg Howard, who is president. FS Beverages is building sales and distribution for a line of alcohol-infused cherries, teas, lemonades, and coffees under a brand called Howie’s Spiked. The flagship product, Howie’s Spiked Cherries, is distributed in 15 Midwestern, Southern, and East Coast markets. The distribution network includes at least 30 independent Anheuser Busch-aligned distributors, as well as other independent wholesale distributors. The company generated revenue of $1.5 million in 2020 after growth of +28%, according to Howard. With the introduction of a spiked coffee called Alc-A-Chino later this year, revenue is expected to approach $2 million in 2021...

Riding a wave of increased investment and momentum, PepsiCo’s North American bottling system convened in June to discuss...

PepsiCo’s independent beverage bottlers in the US have reported a patchwork of product out-of-stocks at a time of rising consumer demand within...

Topo Chico Hard Seltzer, produced and marketed by Molson Coors under an agreement with Coca-Cola, continues to gain traction in the US despite a highly competitive market and signs of...

Annually, BD publishes estimated volume and value sales data for the US liquid refreshment beverages (LRB) market, as well as categories including carbonated soft drinks (CSD), and energy drinks. The data included in this special issue estimates beverage consumption for all measured and unmeasured channels, including packaged retail, fountain, and vending. This report focuses on single-serve, direct-store- delivered (DSD) beverages. The fountain channel includes everything from restaurants, such as McDonald’s and Taco Bell, to sports venues.

PepsiCo’s recent extension of Gatorade Zero into a protein-infused variant may be just the start of the brand as a functional platform. “I do think there is future functionality we can do with G Zero,” Gatorade SVP and General Manager Brett O’Brien said in a recent interview...

Iris Nova made a name for itself selling ready-to-drink functional lemon water by text message in a process founder Zak Normandin called “conversational commerce.” The company attracted the attention of Coca-Cola, which made a minority investment two and a half years ago. Normandin later added other owned and outside non-alcoholic brands to Iris Nova’s direct-to-consumer platform, which had begun with Dirty Lemon. Now he has his sights set on the alcohol beverage business, Normandin told BD in a recent interview.

Coke will discontinue Coca-Cola Energy in the US and Canada by the end of this year, BD has learned, and the company has confirmed. The cola-flavored energy drink didn’t perform as expected in the US after its debut a year and a half ago, just ahead of the Covid-19 pandemic. As conditions in the US improved this year, sales for Coca-Cola Energy ...