A pressing question for 2023 is whether Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Keurig Dr Pepper will face a more challenging consumer and pricing environment later this year, especially in the US. Goldman Sachs estimates that by mid-January Americans had spent down...

’We’re Not Desperate,” Co-founder Says, Thanks to Military Focus.

Military-focused isotonic brand Hoist is on the hunt for outside investment capital to help fund a deeper and eventually wider push into traditional retail markets, according to the brand’s founders. Hoist currently derives more than half of its revenue from US military sales, Co-founder and President Kelly Heekin told BD in an interview. Outside of the armed forces, Hoist’s traditional retail footprint comprises about...

The following is transcript of Beverage Digest's podcast, The Breeze, Episode 1. In the February 1, 2023 issue of Beverage Digest, we wrote about Powerade and its plans to challenge Gatorade’s long-standing supremacy. But this is no longer a two-horse race. Duane Stanford invites beverage industry expert (and former Beverage Digest publisher) John Sicher to discuss the sports drink category's past, present and future...

For decades, Coca-Cola’s Powerade existed to fight off US sports drink leader Gatorade, which created what is now at least a $12 billion category, according to BD all-channel data. In more recent years, Powerade all but faded into the background, overshadowed by a challenger called BodyArmor that pledged to displace PepsiCo-owned Gatorade with claims of better-for-you ingredients and an in-your-face marketing voice. That may now change. A year after acquiring BodyArmor and merging it into a standalone unit with Powerade, Coca-Cola is ready to get...

During an interview at Future Smarts last month, a Wall Street analyst said he would have been laughed off the stage several years ago had he predicted US carbonated soft drink pricing growth of +15% without a troubling pullback in volume. No one is laughing now.
             Consumer acceptance of significant pricing growth across major beverage categories has shocked even the most seasoned industry watchers. Despite the price escalation, CSD volumes declined at a manageable -1.4% last year. Energy drink makers, who are generally slower to boost prices in a booming category with lots of new entrants, raised pricing by +6.3% and still added +3.5% more volume.
While Sports drink category ...

A collection of key deals from around the industry so you don't miss a beat...

A collection of key deals from around the industry so you don't miss a beat...

Major US non-carbonated beverage categories generated higher pricing at retail during the first nine months of 2022, which lead to dollar gains in all categories tracked by BD. While volume fell for all categories except plain bottled water, the declines did not show accelerated erosion compared to the six-month trend. Sports drinks and plain bottled...