Coke CEO James Quincey joined Future Smarts after a visit that morning to the New York Stock Exchange, where he and other executives celebrated Coca-Cola’s 100th anniversary as a public company by ringing the opening bell. Quincey now is in his third year as CEO of Coke. He was additionally named chairman of the board in April. Quincey joined Coke in 1996 and has spent the majority of his career in Latin America and then Europe before becoming COO under former CEO Muhtar Kent in August of 2015. Quincey’s focus as CEO has been to grow brand Coke while diversifying the company’s portfolio to everything from coffee drinks to plant-based offerings. Early this year, he closed on the acquisition of UK-based Costa Coffee, a chain of cafés stretching across Europe...

This story is a recap of highlights from his Future Smarts conference appearance Dec. 9 in New York.

Katherine Lugar has been busy during her first year as president and CEO of the American Beverage Association. In October, she hosted the organization’s 100th anniversary celebration and advocacy summit in Washington DC, which included hundreds of beverage industry executives from across the US. Following months of negotiation and planning, Lugar also announced “Every Bottle Back,” which is the first collaboration between Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Keurig Dr Pepper to reduce plastic waste (BD 11/13/19). The initiative incorporates expertise from the World Wildlife Fund, the Recycling Partnership and Closed Loop Partners. Next week, Lugar will present at BD’s Future Smarts conference in New York. We caught up with Lugar to discuss the past year and priorities for 2020. The following has been edited for clarity and space:

PepsiCo has signed a letter of intent to purchase independent Pepsi bottler Bridge 2 Bridge Beverages, based in Bremerton, Washington west of Seattle. The acquisition of the

Coca-Cola grew US carbonated soft drink (CSD) dollar and volume sales during the first-nine months of this year, according to retail data tracked by BD. The company outpaced the...

G Fuel plans to test retail sales of its new canned energy drink in as many as three states starting in January, CEO Cliff Morgan told...

BD caught up with Celsius and A Shoc during the recent NACS show in Atlanta. Celsius CEO John Fieldly said the company has embarked on aggressive plans to...

Bang Energy founder and CEO Jack Owoc appears to be proceeding with plans to launch a new “pre-workout energy drink” under a trademark “Reign.” The name was at the center of a lawsuit filed last spring by Bang parent company Vital Pharmaceuticals against Monster Beverage...