• 🍋 Lemon Perfect Is Living Large
• 👋 Dora’s Naturals Onboards Tanya Seber
• 🫡 Chris Pratt Joins Jocko Fuel as Co-Owner
• 🍪 Coffee and A Shower: Girls Scout Cookies Has Your Morning Covered

Lemon Perfect’s plans for 2024 follow a simple strategy: go big. 

That applies to both physical footprint -- in the guise of a new 15.2 oz PET bottle, replacing the existing 12 oz format -- and the brand’s market ambitions, as the Atlanta-based brand is using the rollout of a top-down reformulation as the launchpad for introducing three new flavors and targeting a $100 million year. 

💸 The new format is envisioned as the key for Lemon Perfect to unlock one of its top priorities: gaining placements in convenience retailers by offering a stronger value play; rather than a 12 oz for $1.99, the 15.2 oz units will go for $2.29 each, making it 10% cheaper per-ounce for consumers. 

🆕 The company has also timed the new bottles to debut at the same time as three new flavors -- Blueberry, Coconut and Watermelon (teased in a press release in May) -- which brings the total roster up to seven SKUs. 

🤔 Though even as he voiced confidence in the brand’s stated mission of “nearly doubling the business” this year, founder/CEO Yanni Hufnagel acknowledged that the shift isn’t without its share of uncertainties. 

“There is a psychological, everyday kind of difference in being above or below $2,” he said. “Are we going to allocate our resources in the best possible way? Are we making the best possible decisions to drive awareness and trial, because the product is so special? It’s an execution story now.”

Danone will divest premium dairy brands Horizon Organic and Wallaby after signing an agreement to sell the businesses to California-based private equity firm Platinum Equity. Danone previously announced in January 2023 it would seek to sell both businesses as it sought to exit the organic dairy category in the U.S.

🥛 Horizon Organic, which was founded in 1991, was acquired by Danone in 2016 as part of its $12.5 billion purchase of WhiteWave Foods. 

🔁 The decision is a part of Danone’s ongoing portfolio review and asset rotation program, which began in March 2022.

💰 Platinum Equity manages a portfolio of assets collectively worth over $47 billion, including food businesses like European biscuits maker Biscuit International and seafood provider Iberconsa.

Read the full story on BevNET

Dora’s Naturals, a New Jersey-based food and beverage distributor, recently announced it has onboarded Tanya Seber as director of business development. 

💪 Seber brings 20 years of industry experience from a career at Whole Foods Market.

🛒 Most recently, she led regional category merchants for grocery and seafood as part of the natural retailer’s Global team. 

🚚 In addition to its distribution services for the New York metro market, Dora’s Naturals offers third-party logistics, cold-pressed co-packing, high-pressure processing and DTC fulfillment.

Guardians of the Galaxy star Chris Pratt is now part owner in Jocko Fuel, the beverage and supplements brand founded by retired U.S. Navy officer, author, jiu-jitsu practitioner and podcaster Jocko Willink. 

🗣️ “I wanted to be close to the values that I care about and so I reached out to Jocko,” Pratt says in a video posted to YouTube last week. “I said ‘Hey man, I don’t know what it’s going to look like but just know I love you, I love your stuff, I’d love to do everything I can to help create awareness around your product and maybe we can partner up on it.”

🇺🇸 Willink, who rose to prominence as the co-author of a leadership book based on his experiences in the Navy SEALs, first stepped into the beverage space in 2018 with the launch of a canned white tea line. Jocko Fuel’s current portfolio features a dry white tea, as well as energy drinks, protein shakes, protein powders, creatine and more.

🪖 The brand leans heavily into Willink’s military background and “Extreme Leadership” identity, also producing a war-themed line of supplements including Cold War immunity support, Joint Warfare joint health, and anti-aging support line TimeWar.

💪 As both an ambassador and co-owner, Pratt looks to be a natural fit for the Jocko brand. The actor, who played a NAVY Seal in the Amazon Prime original series The Terminal List (as well as roles also include the Jurassic World series and the voice of Mario in the recent Super Mario Bros. film), has been outspoken in his support for veterans and military officers.

This special edition of the podcast features highlights from interviews with seven founders, creators and innovators who joined us on the show during the second half of 2023. Read the story.

The post-holiday malaise of winter is characterized by short days, cold temperatures and, for some, the long-awaited sale of Girl Scout cookies. 

The organization has found that the popularity of its cookies does not have to be limited to sweet treats but can be used as a licensing empire providing a lucrative capital stream for the nonprofit organization. 

☕ For beverage heads, the highlight of this year’s class of licensed products is The Girls Scouts’ partnership with Chameleon Coffee for a line of RTD cold brew coffees in three cookie flavors: Thin Mints, Coconut Caramel and Chocolate Peanut Butter. Earlier in the year, the Skippy brand launched three SKUs of its P.B. Bites using similar varieties.

🚿 This year, the girls nonprofit has also expanded its licensing arrangements to a line of deodorants, shampoos, body sprays and washes made by personal care brand Native. Last year, the Girl Scouts aligned with makeup brand HipDot bringing the palette of cookies’ colors to cosmetics products.

🌎 The group’s licensing arm Earthbound has expanded over the years bringing the cookie flavors to everything from GNC brand protein powders to Stacy’s Pita Chips to Pillsbury baking mixes among others.