• 🫰 Danone Ups Lifeway Offer 
• 🍸 High Basin Brands Bets On Organic
• 🛣️ ReGen Brands' Position In CPG
• 🛒 Stop & Shop, Hannaford's Out-of-Stocks
• 🤝 Refresco Finalizes Frías Purchase
• 👀 Winter Swimwear and the Chief of Vibes
• 🌊 There Are 'Oceans’ Of Innovation. Which Ones Do You Fish?

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Washington, D.C.’s Union Kitchen is known around the industry for supporting emerging brands with its shared commercial kitchen space and accelerator programs. The organization is also the first retail door for many of its in-house creators, operating five cafe and c-store-style locations around D.C. as well as a newly opened storefront in Virginia's Dulles Airport. 

This weekend, Union Kitchen opened up the kitchen doors and invited in hundreds of attendees while offering a chance to chat with, sample and shop nearly 150 brands during its Meet the Makers event. Here’s some highlights from what we saw:

Spirulina Gets Snacky. Are blue foods going to take over snacks in 2025? Raw Ambitions Foods sampled its dehydrated spirulina bites made with fruits, raw nuts, chia seeds, coconut cream and the hero blue ingredient, resulting in a clean-label, granola-like crunchy snack bite. Elsewhere another newly-created, plant-based company sampled dehydrated chips made of a blend of miso, spirulina and kale… also known as a “salad snack,” if you will. 

New Hibiscus Brews. Amid the snack bars and bites, the Makers had brewed up unique varieties of hibiscus beverages including agave-sweetened Hibiscus Pineapple Juice and Hibiscus Watermelon & Lime Juice from Fritters & Roast. Nearby, Monte’s Sweet Sorrel sampled a Jamaican Hibiscus drink made with Ginger, Lemon Juice, Cinnamon and an equally-on-trend input, Seamoss. 

Global Treats. Family-owned and run Matet's Kitchen showed off its line of Filipino spring rolls in five varieties including Pork, Chicken, Beef, Guylay (Vegetable) and Berde (Vegan) varieties. 

And for dessert, Maryland-based Happy Monday offered scoops of its newly launched 3-SKU line of globally-inspired ice creams in Strawberry Jalapeno, Butter Pecan and Salted Caramel Fried Plantain flavors.  

Big Bottle Cocktails and Vice Presidential Bourbon. Alchy Cocktails offered sips of its 8-SKU range of 16.5 oz. bottled RTD cocktails (18% to 20% ABV, depending on the variety) with cocktails ranging from a bourbon-based Somethin’ Pumpkin to a tequila-infused Purple Rain. Women- and LGBTQ-owned and operated Republic Restoratives distillery showcased its range of spirits, including Madam Whiskey, a blended whiskey with a simple label featuring a portrait of Vice President Kamala Harris.

The event was flanked with sampling activations from many Union Kitchen success stories – such as Compass Coffee – which now operates 18 cafes and sells a wide range of bulk and tinned coffees as well as cold brew in addition to Maspanadas, Jesse & Ben’s, Pinsa Love and more. Meet the Makers also featured a discussion with Bethesda-based entrepreneur Seth Goldman and plenty of samples of his Just Ice Tea line. 

Go Deeper: Just Ice Tea Wants to Lead Tea’s Next Wave

Danone is not done courting Lifeway Foods. The kefir brand said it has received a second unsolicited, non-binding proposal from Danone to acquire Lifeway on Friday after its September offer was rejected.

💸 The revised bid upped the price from $283 million (or $25 per outstanding share) to $307 million (or $27 per share). Danone already controls about 23% of Lifeway's outstanding common stock. 

👍 The new offer comes after other members of Lifeway’s founding family, Edward and Ludmila Smolyansky (the brother and mother of Lifeway Foods CEO Julie Smolyansky) called on the company’s board to approve the initial terms of Danone’s acquisition.

🤔 After Danone’s first proposition was turned down, the probiotic products company began implementing a plan to limit the multinational yogurt business’s ability to acquire more shares.

📈 In Lifeway’s most recent earnings last week, it posted its 20th consecutive quarter of net sales gains increasing sales by 12.7% to $46.1 million in Q3.

Go Deeper: Danone Makes $283M Offer to Purchase Lifeway Foods

Four years after Suntory bought RTD On The Rocks, the founders might be off chillin’ with Snoop and Dre, but a few of their teammates have been busy with a different venture.

⭐ High Basin Brands (HBB) launched this week, announcing its arrival to the Lone Star State with a $4 million oversubscribed seed round and the acquisition of a historic distillery.  The company’s first product– an organic vodka– will debut next year.

🏭 The leadership team is made up of former OTR and Suntory folks, who are developing a spirits portfolio dedicated to organic products. The launch coincided with an agreement to purchase Treaty Oak Brewing and Distilling, one of Texas' oldest distilleries and undergo organic certification. 

🥃 Treaty Oak produces three of its own bourbon lines, as well as Waterloo Gin, which was recently bought by billionaire spirits empresario John Paul DeJoria. Dejoria and HBB are among a few spirits groups recently formed by industry vets who are scoping up older craft Texas distilleries to build premium-focused portfolios. Are these types the next wave of craft buyers?

Read the full story on BevNET.

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While the regenerative agriculture movement may enjoy a surplus of enthusiasm, the tools to turn its economic and environmental potential to reality have thus far been in deficit.

• Upstart entrepreneurs, farmer-founded brands and a handful of forward-thinking retailers and investors have supported the space thus far, alongside transitory commitments from well-funded, heavily-resourced multinationals. 
• But the latter group will only play a small role in the successful commercialization of the overall movement, claims Anthony Corsaro. 
• In co-founding ReGen Brands, the self-proclaimed “regenerative evangelist” is betting big on his belief that the subset, primarily supported by emerging brands, is nearing an inflection point – and in need of a nudge.

BevNET Insiders can access the full story for more insight on Corsaro’s three-pronged plan to accelerate the commercialization of regen-ag.

Ahold Delhaize-owned grocery chains, including Stop & Shop and Hannaford, are dealing with inventory disruptions throughout the Northeast due to a “cybersecurity issue within [the parent company’s] U.S. network” last week. 

🚦 A Quincy, Mass.-based Stop & Shop is battling bare shelves as several locations have had widespread out-of-stocks, primarily affecting its fresh produce and meat departments.

👀 Meanwhile, Hannaford – which has a large presence in Maine and New Hampshire – has been unable to process online orders as its website and app have been down for a week. Doordash and Instacart orders have also been affected, reports WMUR. 

🤔 It is currently unclear how many locations have been impacted by the cybersecurity issue. An investigation into the incident is ongoing.

Refresco has completed its acquisition of Spanish plant-based drinks manufacturer Frías Nutrición. 

🏭 The deal, initially announced in July, gives Refresco control of an operation with around 250 employees with manufacturing capabilities to produce private label almond, rice, hazelnut and soy-based beverages.

💬 “As part of our proven Buy & Build strategy, we are looking to expand our capabilities in existing and adjacent beverage categories,” said Refresco CEO Hans Roelofs, in a release. “The acquisition of Frías not only enhances our footprint in the plant-based drinks market, but it also allows us to better serve our European customers and accelerates our product innovation capabilities.”

🏖️ As the weather up North gets colder, many will make a break for the warmth down South. But STōK Cold Brew wants you to still celebrate the holidays in the sun with its new Peppermint Mocha Holiday Swimwear Collection, a promotional line of men’s and women’s bathing suits, beach hats and towels promoting its latest seasonal flavor launch.

🍎 In a more seasonally appropriate launch, 7-Eleven has unveiled a limited time Caramel Apple flavor for its 7-Select Replenish store brand line of hydration drinks. The launch also brings a rebranded bottle design which uses less plastic and will be rolled out across the entire line.

😀 Come on get happy: Smirnoff has appointed Australian singer Troye Sivan as Chief Vibes Officer (CVO, for short), responsible for overseeing “immaculate vibes” at the vodka brand and appearing in videos as part of a global marketing campaign that includes social, out of home, digital and event activations. Sivan’s LinkedIn also notes he has previously worked as a self-employed artist and he brings 18 years of experience to the role.

Innovative protein brands and proactive meetings. The hosts advocate for both in this episode, which also features an interview with Trey Zoeller, the founder of pioneering whiskey maker Jefferson’s Bourbon, a brand recognized by and awarded for its Ocean Aged At Sea expression, a whiskey matured on ships that travel around the world.

Listen to the episode now.