New York is one of the hardest hit COVID-19 regions in the world. It’s also the home to Big Geyser, one of the largest and most important independent beverage distributors (and incubators) in the US. The company serves almost 13 million consumers in New York City’s five boroughs and the counties of Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester. BD spoke this week to Big Geyser COO Jerry Reda to find out how the company is responding to the crisis. He estimated that only about...

Since early March, BD has tracked the COVID-19 crisis through the eyes of beverage executives in the Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and independent bottling systems. By last week, a period of frenzied demand had given way to a more normalized sales pattern, bottlers and distributors said. Some are now bracing for...  Story includes direct comments from beverage bottlers and distributors.

As consumers reacted in March to the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, Beverage Digest provided live updates on the impact to the US non-alcoholic beverage industry. Here is that coverage in its entirety.

After flying under the radar following its 2012 launch, Bang Energy sent a sonic boom across the US energy drink market during the past two years, surpassing an 8.0 dollar share in 2019. The brand, owned by Vital Pharmaceuticals (VPX), ignited what is now known as the “performance energy” segment, taking on established players such as Monster Energy by touting better ingredients, low or no sugar, and supplements such as creatine and branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs). Under threat, Monster Beverage launched a counter-attack early last year with Reign Total Body Fuel, using the company’s partnership with Coca-Cola’s US bottling system to shower retail stores with incremental floor displays and c-store cooler placements. Fast forward a year and the threat posed by Bang may have subsided...

During a Jan. 30 conference call with Wall Street analysts to discuss Coca-Cola’s fourth-quarter earnings report, CEO James Quincey was asked about potential impacts from the Coronavirus outbreak in China. And in an interview, he discusses plans for Costa Coffee in the US...