Bang Energy owner Vital Pharmaceuticals won approval from a Florida bankruptcy judge today for a $362 million acquisition of most of the company’s assets by major creditor and competitor Monster Beverage.The companies formaly announced the asset purchase agreement July 3 after the Federal Trade Commission ended an antitrust review early. The sale would include...

The sale process for bankrupt Bang Energy may finally be headed for a conclusion in late June after a two month delay. A bankruptcy judge in Florida has set a sale hearing date for June 30 to approve a winning bidder. That hearing date could yet be pushed back, however. According to BD sources, remaining bidders are...

Input Costs Still Elevated, Tracking Inflation. Volatility Expected.

Independent Coca-Cola and PepsiCo bottlers generally anticipate average annual retail carbonated soft drink pricing growth of between +3.0% and +6.0% during the next five years, an informal BD survey found. US CSD pricing at retail in 2022 reached almost +15.0%. Some bottlers said pricing growth will likely trend in the +7.0% to +9.0% range. Outliers predicted...

The big story of 2022 was surprisingly low price elasticities in the US for carbonated soft drinks as manufacturers raised prices to offset runaway costs for everything from labor to packaging. At retail last year, CSD pricing jumped almost +14.8% last year, driving category dollar sales up more than...

G&J Pepsi-Cola Bottlers, PepsiCo’s largest fully independent US franchise bottler, is preparing to distribute Hard Mtn Dew on the same “blue trucks” that distribute Pepsi-Cola and other non-alcoholic brands. In an interview at BD’s Future Smarts conference in New York on Dec. 5, G&J CEO Tim Trant said the Cincinnati-based company has applied for beer distribution licenses ...