• 🚪 All The Bitter Leaves Amazon
• 🏭 Simply Good's New Facility
• 🍷 Wine & Spirits Lobby For Hemp
• 🚫 Teamsters Strike KDP
• 💬 More Tariff Talk
• 🔀 Monday Moves

Consumers are eager for beverages with little to no added sugar… but not all sweeteners are considered equal. Cargill beverage experts offer targeted insights and solutions, including understanding consumer expectations, which sweeteners are finding favor, and Cargill's approach to sugar reduction. Learn more

We’re seeing double this morning, and it’s not just a hangover off seder wine. 

Probiotic soda brand Culture Pop and Morgan Wallen-backed canned tea maker The Ryl Company have both reported $15 million raises – solid windfalls to fuel solid growth.

Turning first to Culture Pop, the Boston-based startup’s $15 million (per an SEC Form D filed on Friday) represents a planned add-on by existing investors, founder and CEO Tom First told BevNET this morning.

“We’re growing a lot. We've experienced almost 100% growth every single year and we expect to do that again this year,” he said.

The capital infusion comes just over a year after the company raised at least $21 million in February 2024; Enlightened Hospitality Investments and a private investment by Howard Schultz (of Starbucks fame) joined the cap table after that round.

This new runway is unsurprising as competition heats up in next-gen soft drinks.

• Easy Evidence: PepsiCo’s $1.95 billion acquisition of Poppi last month and competitor Olipop’s $50 million capital raise on a $1.85 billion valuation.

Meanwhile, The Ryl Company dropped news this morning that it has closed a $15 million series B round, chasing a $7.5 million series A last year. 

The functional iced tea brand said it plans to grow its footprint to 40,000 stores this year, and already has a presence in Walmart, Kroger, Albertsons, Costco and more as it looks to use its BFY position and the fame of celeb investor Wallen (who re-upped in this new round) to build a name for itself in the increasingly competitive RTD tea set.

Entering its third year on the market, Ryl chairman Leigh Feuerstein said that the business is “surging into an exciting phase of hyper-growth,” with plans to go from 39 employees last year to over 100 by the end of 2025.

Stay tuned for the full story on both new investments on BevNET this afternoon.

Adult non-alcoholic (ANA) bitters brand All The Bitter will no longer be sold on Amazon. The brand’s co-founder Ian Blessing posted on LinkedIn this weekend explaining that the ecommerce platform was an important channel for “accessibility and discovery,” but that the retailer was not the right fit for the brand.

• The brand prefers to support its small retail partners and a more direct approach to distribution, connecting with its community through handwritten notes.
• Blessing stated that “nearly 30% of our sales came through Amazon last year,” but when the fees and backend support were taken into account, “the cons outweighed the pros.”

💬 “To be clear: we’re not anti-Amazon. The independent retailers who’ve supported us for the past few years ARE our marketing and sales team. I’d rather they earn that sale than give margin to Amazon,” Blessing said in the post.  

Learn about another small CPG brand's shift away from an integral distribution relationship.

The Simply Good Foods Company (parent to Quest, Atkins and Only What You Need (OWYN)), is leasing an 805,000 sq. ft. facility in Mount Comfort, Ind., to expand its supply chain and distribution operations. 

🤝 The seven-year lease through CT Realty secures a “strategic presence” in one of the region’s “fastest-growing logistics and distribution hubs,” per a press release.

⏪ The announcement comes just days after SGFC posted double-digit net sales gains in its second quarter, driven by heightened demand for high-protein, low-sugar, low-carb foods and beverages. 

Catch Up: High Protein Demand Boosts Simply Good Foods’ Q2 Earnings

The Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America (WSWA) has joined the regulatory wrangling of hemp-derived beverages. The over 370-member industry group pointed out a “critical need” for regulation of intoxicating hemp beverages.

• The WSWA convened in Washington D.C. last week to push for engagement with lawmakers to clarify how the Farm Bill regulates hemp-derived products.
• The group recommended that “synthetic hemp-derived THC intoxicating products” be prohibited while federal standards for testing and labeling requirements be enacted.

🔊 WSWA also supports the production of “only naturally derived THC products from hemp (specifically Delta-9)” and leaves distribution regulation to individual states – “including the possibility of state-level prohibition.”

More than 100 members of Teamsters Local 238 are on strike at Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP) in Ottumwa, Iowa, as of Friday. They claim the beverage company failed to negotiate a fair contract with improved healthcare benefits.

💭 “Teamsters at this company are exhausted from trying to make ends meet while corporate profits soar. When workers feel like they don’t have economic security, then their employer is going to have to pay the price,” said Jesse Case, secretary/treasurer of Local 238, in a statement. 

👀 Workers say they will remain on strike until the company comes to the table with a “serious offer.” 

🎧 Veteran and baby products entrepreneur Beth Benike broke down the impact of tariffs on her business, which imports from China, on today’s episode of The Daily podcast by the New York Times. She compared President Trump’s claim that tariffs are necessary, short-term pain to achieve MAGA’s longer-term manufacturing goals to her experience in basic training for the military.

• “In theory, that's a great… difficult, but great, way to do things in certain circumstances. However, this is not short-term pain. This is immediate death to thousands of small businesses” - Beth Benike, Busy Baby founder and CEO 

😆 On the late night beat, tariffs also stole the show on “Saturday Night Live” – from the cold open, Easter-themed “economic resurrection,” to a full bit on tariffs’ impact on grocery prices during Check-to-Check Business News. Later on, the late night show rejiggered HBO’s hit show “The White Lotus,” pulling themes from this season’s Ratliff family to create The White POTUS. 

📲 And of course, tariff talk has been plentiful across meme pages these past two weeks. Here’s just one that had us laughing and crying, all-in-one…

The impending retirement of Molson Coors’ CEO Gavin Hattersley has risen to the top of the People Moves pile today; Hattersley will remain in his post until the end of the year. Check out the full story on BevNET for all of the details. 

In the meantime, here’s a taste of the other people and products moving around the industry to start off your week.

🥛 High protein ultra-filtered milk shake maker Nurri is expanding to Sam’s Club stores with its Chocolate and Vanilla varieties, its first new partner since debuting at Costco late last year.

💪 Functional beverage brand TRU is racking up new retail partners, with founder and CEO Jack McNamara announcing the brand’s debut at both H-E-B and Kroger’s Nashville and Mid-Atlantic regions over the past week. 

🧃 Jumex USA has brought on former Coke exec Jack Vaughan as Head of Retail, four months after relaunching smoothie and juice brand Odwalla. 

💚 Zoe Feldman has joined AG1 as VP of Go-to-Market and Product Management; Feldman has held roles at a range of CPG companies including Chobani, Momofuku and WeightWatchers.