BevNET Live Winter 2023 in Marina del Rey, California concluded Tuesday with a full slate of on-stage presentations offering insights – of both the data-backed and personal varieties – into the state of the beverage industry today, including presentations on disruption, non-alcoholic alternatives, M&A opportunities, and more. Here’s a sampling of what went down on Day Two.

📊 To start day two BevNET Live, Scott Dicker, Markets Insights Director at SPINS, broke down the characteristics of disruption in beverage and CPG today and how brands can better identify the opportunities to join, or lead, new waves.

There’s a number of trends driving this change, he continued. First and foremost is the mainstreaming of specialty and wellness: 25% of food and beverage sales in retail now come from that segment. As well, accelerated information access has increased massively – 46% of teens say they are online “constantly” and over 150 million Americans are on TikTok, compared to just 77 million who use Netflix.

📶 As brands seek exit opportunities, panelists Caroline Levy, founder of consumer advisory firm CLAS, GroundForce Capital co-founder and managing partner Mark Rampolla, and Nutter partner Jeremy Halpern sat down with BevNET editor-in-chief Jeff Klineman to discuss the new focus of strategics and how brands might still stand out as attractive prospects for a sale.

“You’re looking at an environment where the traditional acquirers in beverage have shed a bunch of assets, they have not exercised options on a bunch of assets that they had and they’re really hunkering down in this environment to try and figure out what does their growth path look like,” Halpern said. “They’re thinking I don’t want to find out whether this brand is going to have product/market fit, I want to already know the answer to that.”

Rampolla suggested that the strategic beverage buyers today need to see at least $250 million in revenue and existing profitability in order to make an acquisition and what has long been missing between the larger players and small startups is a serious “middle market.” That market may be beginning to emerge, he said, where multi-brand management groups can successfully house numerous brands in the $50-$250 million range.

For a complete recap of BevNET Live Winter 2023 Day Two – including discussions with Weird Tea’s Jason May, Daytrip president Joey Cannata, Jordan Bass of HOP WTR and many others – read the full show recap on BevNET.

If you missed our Day One recap, you can read it here.

Hemp-derived sparkling THC cocktail brand Calexo emerged victorious from the New Beverage Showdown at BevNET Live Winter 2023 yesterday, presented by Coca-Cola North America New Revenue Streams.

👏The panel of judges for the final round commended the brand for venturing “past the obvious” in the THC-infused beverage space in addition to its successful balance of taste across its portfolio, while suggesting tweaks to the product packaging to make it more retail-friendly.

🏆Calexo beat out five other brands in the round including Magic Cactus hemp-infused sparkling cactus water, Plant Press “clean caffeine” energy drink, Spade sparkling premium soda, Erva Brew Co. yerba mate, and Fang recovery tonic.

🎉Aside from bragging rights, Calexo will take home a $10,000 awareness-building ad package from BevNET.

Check out the full recap on BevNET.

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The viability of celebrity-backed coffee brands to compete with the category’s traditional players has yet to be fully vetted, but the rapid rise of Emma Chamberlain’s eponymous brand (a 2x BevNET Award winner this year) has certainly helped. But in a revealing three-hour interview with YouTubers Colin and Samir, the brand’s co-founder revealed the process has taken its toll. 

According to a transcript posted by Sprudge, Chamberlain described the experience as “like my preview to what marriage is going to feel like.” Meaning? “Wow it felt good when we committed to each other and now it’s a few years in and it’s like, wow that feels different.”

“Have I regretted it before? Yes,” Chamberlain said in the interview, calling it “ the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”

Yet Chamberlain added that she’s “genuinely passionate” about building the brand. “I love building a business. I love being involved. I love the conversations with retailers, and big board meetings discussing strategy, and how we should improve this product or discontinue this product—I enjoy that piece of it the most.”

Canned margarita brand sipMargs has closed on a $2 million funding round led by Lab Capital Advisors, the same investor that put $3 million into the brand in May 2022. 

🛒 The RTD brand will be using the funds to invest heavily in marketing and sales in its newest states: Michigan, Ohio and Connecticut. That’ll look like local events, sales activations, and data-driven marketing campaigns, according to the CEO. Planned distribution into Southern California and Virginia comes next. 

📈 The push comes as tequila-based RTDs have continued their rise, growing sales off-premise 62% in the last 52 weeks compared to the same time period as last year, with the margarita up 29% in dollar share value according to NIQ.

Read the full story on BevNET

Talk about a big break: After a scene-stealing performance at California’s biggest and trendiest music festival earlier this year, Venice Beach zero-proof bottle shop The New Bar is set to triple its brick-and-mortar footprint by opening a pair of new locations in early 2024. 

🚪 New Bar is expanding in both Los Angeles – West Hollywood (8363 West 3rd Street), opening as early as January – and in San Francisco’s Cow Hollow neighborhood (2181 Union Street). 

“The new locations feature excellent brand-aligned neighbors that enable The New Bar to show up in high-traffic areas where the customer is looking for a curated selection of alcohol-free drinks,” said The New Bar founder and CEO Brianda Gonzalez.