• 🤽 A Water for the Every Man?
• 🦊 Brands React, Re-strategize After Foxtrot Fall
• 🥛 Táche Enters RTD With Pistachio Milk Lattes
• 🐦 Bev Vet and Jason Aldean Launch Teabird
• 🥃 Cognac and Tequila Problems Persist 

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Story Update: As you’re receiving this, key working capital lender Ampla is desperately working on a deal to try to save the company. We reported on Ampla’s condition this morning.

According to an email to BevNET from Ampla CEO Anthony Santomo, the company isn’t selling its book of loans – but “we don't discuss active deal conversations.” 

The news comes after several weeks of activity that raised concern among individual clients while the fintech lender worked to fight off a collapse.

What does this mean? Ampla serves as an important source of working capital for early stage food and beverage entrepreneurs, meaning that its fragile state could create a mass disruption in the CPG community.  

The lender claimed to handle a run rate of more than $6 billion in transactions on behalf of its clients, and to have extended $1.5 billion in loan originations. But brands with existing credit lines through Ampla are already being told to repay their receivables. Meanwhile, Ampla has stopped opening new accounts and is demanding that many of its clients with outstanding loans repay them.

How far could an Ampla collapse be felt? The lender has hundreds of CPG clients that rely on its services for short term capital. Those with small cash reserves often draw from it for working capital expenses like payroll, ingredients or finished products. 

CPGs also use the platform’s services to receive payments from distributors like UNFI and KeHE as well as online selling platforms like Shopify. Having a disruption in those accounts could also create painful delays in the billing and payment capabilities for many of those brands.

Read the full story on Nosh to learn more about Ampla’s attempt to find a “soft landing” and details on how it got to this point.

Startup beverage brand FNSH Hydration is preparing to launch its debut product this spring –  an alkaline water enhanced with electrolytes aimed directly at the day-to-day consumer. Founder and “Chief FNSHer” Jay Williams believes that group is still underserviced in the $19.3 billon water category.

🏘️ FNSH is Williams’ first foray in the beverage industry, coming from the real estate and venture capital world.

🖥️ The brand will launch online and is currently readying itself to sell on Amazon; the brand’s retail strategy has been developed in partnership with Cascadia Managing Brands.

🏄 FNSH’s emphasis on the ordinary athlete, rather than pros, is a message that Gatorade has endorsed with its Gatorade Water launch earlier this year – also an alkaline water with electrolytes.

Read the full story on BevNET for all of the details on the emerging beverage concept.

When Outfox Hospitality abruptly shuttered its doors last week, it left a lot of CPG brands caught in the fray, including many emerging brands and new product concepts. Now, as the initial dust settles, many feel as if the industry has lost a major stepping stone account.

🔃 One-year-old Hotpot Queen was preparing to launch into the modern c-store chain last week when the news broke; it is now working to reroute inventory and activate new retail partnerships via Pod Foods.

🍫 Date-sweetened chocolate bar startup Spring & Mulberry credits the retailer for helping it work out its ideal format and the business’ fundamentals after a buyer nudge them in a new direction.

🍒 For Heywell, which was in the process of co-creating another LTO flavor with Foxtrot, news of the closure means pivoting on that product’s launch and distribution strategy.

⚓ And Mooski, the fresh granola bar brand that was halfway through a marketing and sampling activation, is now shifting its focus to build up volume potential for its anchor distribution centers while salvaging remaining demo opportunities. 

Check out the full story for more on the after effects of this fallout and why many believe the innovations supported by the defunct chain are “totally fundamental to commerce.”

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Let’s be clear: looking across the RTD coffee shelf, oat milk is still the preferred non-dairy choice for brands and consumers in the category. But that relatively narrow path only makes Táche’s new 11 oz. pistachio milk lattes all the more intriguing. We caught up with founder and CEO Roxana Saidi last week to discuss her brand’s move into single-serve drinks.

☕ Like other plant-based milks before it, Táche is playing up pistachio’s coffee connections: it’s currently in around 3,000 locations nationwide, including premier roasters like Stumptown and Intelligentsia, while a partnership with Devoción Coffee Shop in Manhattan used Tache’s pistachio milk in an off-menu “secret” drink. 

🛒 After quietly launching online last month, retail shoppers can expect to find Táche’s new lattes at a handful of independent markets including Orchard Grocer (New York City), Monsoon Market (Phoenix) and, later this summer, in Whole Foods and Target.

💯 Relative to the small cohort of pistachio milk lattes out there (Elmhurst, mainly), Saidi pointed to her brand’s position as one of the only “true” pistachio milks on the market (other products also include ingredients like almonds and rice). Meanwhile, the stability of its global sourcing partners means plenty of gas for fueling potential forays into other food or beverage categories.

Read the full story here.

As more players are moving into hard tea, one country singer and beverage veteran are teaming up for their version of a spiked sweet tea. 

🎸 Brandon Cason, the founder of Canteen Spirits and Waterloo Sparkling Water, is moving into malternatives with the release of TEABIRD this week, a hard tea backed by country music star Jason Aldean. 

🫖 The new product aims for a more “aspirational” brand that’s diet-friendly but stays away from artificial sugar. Cason is hoping those aspects differentiate the line in a category dominated by Twisted Tea and drawing in competition from other major BevAlc players.

📈 Hard Tea’s growth slowed slightly, up +24.4% in the latest two-weeks off-premise ending April 6 versus 35.9% in the 52-weeks. Despite Twisted Tea’s dominance, newcomers are looking for shelf space, and the number of brands in hard tea alone has grown more than 80% over the past three years. 

For all of the details on Teabird and the category at-large, read the full story on BevNET.

Two major spirits groups reported drops in U.S. sales during quarterly earnings last week, highlighting what may continue to be a rough year ahead for spirits. 

• Becle, the company behind Jose Cuervo, increased volumes by 4.8% compared to last year in the U.S. and Canada, primarily due to a strong performance in the tequila and RTD categories. 
• Net sales fell -2.9% with the group faulting foreign exchange effects that were partially offset by a product mix skewed towards higher sales per case brands and price increases.

Meanwhile, French cognac maker Remy Cointreau saw sales dip nearly 40% in the Americas. The group said it saw more major destocking in the final quarter, which was heightened by strong promotions from competitors, like Moet Hennessy.

• Pernod Ricard also saw double-digit declines in the U.S. in its earnings call last week.