A sports drink brand backed by cannabis producer Canopy Growth and with potential access to the beer distribution network of Constellation Brands is preparing to launch its first ready-to-drink product next month. Toronto-based BioSteel Sports Nutrition, known for its powdered pink beverage, wants to...

On March 11, PepsiCo announced an agreement to buy Rockstar Energy for $3.85 billion plus $700 million worth of tax benefits payable over 15 years (BD Email News Alert 3/11/20). Aside from the opportunity to grow Rockstar...

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...

BD will soon publish 2019 all-channel sales data for the US liquid refreshment beverage (LRB) market, including both packaged and fountain products. The tables below and on page 2 provide a preliminary look at the results for last year...

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.

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 has now confirmed details of its mainstream sparkling water launch, which we first wrote about in August (BD 8/29/19). Called Aha, the brand’s March debut will challenge National Beverage’s LaCroix and PepsiCo’s Bubly. Until now, Coke has resisted entering the mainstream sparkling water category with a sweeping challenger, opting instead for line extensions of Dasani and Smartwater, plus Topo Chico. Aha marks a reversal of that strategy as Coca-Cola aims to capitalize on the struggles of market leader LaCroix while slowing down the relatively unchecked growth of category disruptor Bubly. Aha’s success will depend largely on Coke’s ability to grab consumers’ attention in a crowded category that offers little differentiation between mainstream formulas.