Beverage Digest. Premium insight, analysis, and data since 1982.
Subscribe
  • Sign In
  • Create Account
  • Sign Out
  • My Account
  • Sign In
  • Create Account
  • Sign Out
  • My Account
Subscribe Now
  • Home
    • A Message From the Editor & Publisher
    • Contact Us
  • Newsletter
    • Not Yet Subscribed?
    • Renew
    • Newsletter Archive
    • Latest Insights
    • Topic Browser
    • Multi-user License Inquiry
  • Fact Book
    • Fact Book 27th Edition (Published May 2022)
    • Fact Book Archive
  • The Coke and Pepsi Systems
    • The Coke and Pepsi Systems (February 2022)
    • Download Your System Books
    • System Book Archive
  • Alcohol
    • Blue Cloud Articles
    • Blurred Lines
    • Blue Cloud Map (Newsletter subscription only)
  • Events
    • Future Smarts 2021
    • Future Smarts 2020
    • Future Smarts 2019
  • Awards
    • Awards 2021
    • Awards 2020
    • Awards 2019
  • Sponsor
Home » Topics » Opening Thoughts

Opening Thoughts
Opening Thoughts RSS Feed RSS

Opening Thoughts: June 23, 2022

June 23, 2022

I’m a skeptic when it comes to non-alcoholic craft beers, spirits, and wines. How big can this market get without the functional benefits of alcohol, especially when sold at about the same price?

I recently posed the question to Athletic Brewing Co-founder and CEO Bill Shufelt during a panel I moderated for Credit Suisse in New York. His non-alcoholic beer brand has raised more than $70 million since launching in 2018 and accounts for almost half of the still-small US non-alcoholic beer market. Shufelt told me that most of his consumers don’t shun alcohol. Sometimes they just need a break and they like beer. He sees lots


Read More

Opening Thoughts: June 7, 2022

June 7, 2022

You’ll note an extreme focus on carbonated soft drink pricing in today’s newsletter. That’s because there is no shortage of news, and soft drinks remain a massive and profitable category for US manufacturers and retailers.

On page 7, bottlers discuss the recent Memorial Day holiday weekend and how soda consumers and retailers are responding to higher list prices and fewer “hot” promotional deals. BD shares what we learned from an informal survey. The news so far is positive, even if precarious.

On page 10, we publish our annual soft drink concentrate pricing review, which reflects the inflationary environment facing the industry and its stakeholders. Increases for major soda brands like Coca- Cola, PepsiCo, and Dr Pepper as high as...


Read More

Opening Thoughts: May 16, 2022

May 16, 2022

The return to restaurants in 2021, following pandemic lockdowns the year before, helped generate good news as you will see in today’s special issue and BD’s newly released Fact Book 27th Edition.

All major beverage categories, including carbonated soft drinks, posted...


Read More

Opening Thoughts: May 9, 2022

May 9, 2022

Which of these are not true?
1. Tropicana offered a cereal made to be eaten with orange juice.
2. Gatorade applied for a trademark for a virtual beverage.
3. Coke Zero Sugar launched a flavor called Byte that it says tastes like a computer pixel.

The answer...


Read More

Opening Thoughts: April 19, 2022

April 19, 2022

A $4.99 unpromoted 12-pack of soda in the Atlanta suburbs used to be remarkable. Then came the $5.99 12-pack. Surely that had to be the ceiling, we thought. Now recently the $7.49 12- pack has emerged. There is no way prices can go even higher. Right?

We’ve written a lot in the last six months about unprecedented carbonated soft drink price elasticities. During the past decade...


Read More

Opening Thoughts: March 30, 2022

March 30, 2022

Beverage Digest is developing new editions of the Coke and Pepsi System books to be released soon.

For those unfamiliar, this research tool maps Coca-Cola and Pepsi franchise territories in the US. The book includes volume breakdowns for the top-10 bottlers in each system, bottling plant locations, and an inventory of headquarters locations.

Last year, BD added a subscription component to the product license that includes updates throughout the year without additional charge. An annual purchase means your maps...


Read More

Opening Thoughts: March 17, 2022

March 17, 2022

While still early, there is growing evidence that leveraging established brands for new alcohol products is a winning way to break through tired or saturated categories.

As you will read in today’s issue, demand for PepsiCo’s Hard Mtn Dew appears to be outpacing the company’s ability to add distribution (story below). That’s a nice place to be and likely not by accident. PepsiCo and partner Boston Beer have launched in states where non-alcoholic Dew is already a strong seller, so there is built-in demand.


Read More

Opening Thoughts: February 23, 2022

February 23, 2022

This week’s issue covers important discussions swirling within the US bottling systems for Coca-Cola and PepsiCo. One story relates to Coke’s new alcohol beverage strategy (pg. 6). The other involves to PepsiCo’s distribution strategy for Gatorade (pg. 2). Make sure not to miss them. Separately, recent product launches including Coca-Cola Starlight (pg. 15) and Nitro Pepsi (pg. 16) got me thinking about how important it is for snack and beverage brands to reach young consumers. As a beverage writer, I am fortunate to have a built-in focus group...


Read More

Opening Thoughts: February 9, 2022

February 9, 2022

The New York Times recently published a story under the headline, “Beverages With Benefits: Do They Really Work?” The piece addressed what it described as the “flourishing” functional beverage market, made up of everything from prebiotic sodas for gut health to nootropics for brain acuity. The newspaper rightly points out that such products are an extension of the health supplement market that has generated profits for decades. As this functional beverage market grows, entrepreneurs and large beverage companies alike have been...


Read More

Opening Thoughts: January 25, 2022

January 25, 2022

One of the big themes BD will mine this year is the new aggressive approach by non-alcoholic beverage powerhouses to find revenue growth in the alcohol beverage market. What appeared last year to be an experiment is quickly looking like strategy.

Of particular interest now are the divergent paths taken by Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Monster Beverage, spurred by the fragmented nature of the US alcohol distribution system.

Coke has quickly expanded its Topo Chico licensing test started a year ago with Molson Coors. That deal now includes Simply, a household name in the chilled juice segment. And Coke has partnered with a second brewer and spirits company, Constellation Brands, to create a canned cocktail headlined by Fresca. In both cases, distribution will be handled by the brewers’ networks.

PepsiCo’s go-to-market strategy couldn’t be more different than Coke’s. The company has opted to build its own alcohol distribution and merchandising network around a flavored malt beverage called Hard Mtn Dew. (Be sure to check out our Blue Cloud map published last month and available only to subscribers.) Boston Beer will develop and produce the drink under license from PepsiCo.

Monster Beverage has chosen yet another path....


Read More
Previous 1 2 Next

Popular Stories

  • Jack daniels combined

    Brown-Forman and Coca-Cola to Launch Jack & Coke RTD Cocktail

  • Dunkin’ Swaps Coca-Cola Products for Pepsico’s in U.S. Restaurants

Attention Market Strategists

Not a subscriber yet? Get behind closed doors and beyond the mainstream.
Learn More

Latest News

  • Honest Co-Founder Goldman Won’t Chase DSD as He Launches Organic Bottled Tea

  • Pricing Soars for Major Non-Carbonated Beverage Categories at Retail in Q1

  • Thc beer web

    Q&A: Blue Moon Craft Beer Creator Keith Villa Demystifies THC Beer

  • Coca-Cola Considers Bottler Payments as Jack & Coke Joins Canned Cocktail Trend

  • 2022 Concentrate Pricing for Major CSD Brands in U.S. Up as High as +8.0%

Beverage-Digest
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use

© 2022 Beverage Digest.
Design, CMS, Hosting & Web Development :: ePublishing

Follow us on social media