• 🌊 Green Street Bevs' New Portfolio
• 👎 Lifeway Rejects Danone Offer
• 📉 Spirits Brace For Negative Trends
• ☕ Black Rifle's Q3 Earnings
• ☕ Starbucks Frees Nondairy
• 🍵 Nidra Adds Tea Capabilities
• 📍 Why Trip’s Billion-Dollar Journey Begins And Ends With Obsession

Minnesotans are saying hello to Hi Tide. Cannabis products portfolio company Green Street Beverages has launched three hemp-based, THC-infused beverage brands into the Minnesota market, including canned margarita line Hi Tide along with a new soda called Hi Af and sparkling water brand Boundary Waters.

• Massachusetts-based Green Street Beverages was founded by CEO Shea Coakley and Josh Grab. They initially launched a version of Hi Tide (previously spelled as High Tide) last year into the dispensary channel, but have rebranded and refueled the brand for mainstream distribution, beginning last month with Minnesota retail and online.
• Green Street is a joint venture with Vireo Health, a medical marijuana dispensary and cannabis products maker. The company is intended to house multiple THC food and beverage brands to take advantage of a “void” in the market for a clear leader in the category.

🗣️ What they said: “There's not only a void of ownership, but I think from the perspective of distributors, retailers and investors there is an appetite for a team that can do this, really, the right way, and that's what we want to do.” - Shea Coakley

BevNET Insiders can read the full story to learn more about the new portfolio approach.

Lifeway Foods has shot down an acquisition offer from minority shareholder Danone North America PBC, believing that the proposal “substantially undervalues” its business as the leading U.S. kefir maker. It’s also taking pre-emptive measures to block Danone from mounting a hostile takeover.

• Danone has been a long time stakeholder in Lifeway and in September it moved to acquire all remaining shares of the business for $25 per share. Prior to today’s announcement the company’s stock had been averaging around $26 per share on the NASDAQ.
• The board of directors have also adopted “a limited duration shareholders rights plan” to reduce the likelihood that “Danone gains control of Lifeway through open market accumulation or otherwise without paying all shareholders and appropriate control premium.”

Reminder: Despite the behind the scenes family drama between CEO Julie Smolyansky and her brother and mother Edward and Ludmila, Lifeway has remained in a strong growth position for several consecutive quarters and has developed a robust innovation pipeline aimed at continuing to drive sales.

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

Forecasting is in the air today, and bev-alc data analysts are weighing in. Well, at least on the future of spirits sales. 

😟 A forecast from Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America’s (WSWA) SipSource shows the spirits sector will face continued structural challenges for the remainder of 2024, the first half of 2025 and beyond. The same forecast, released in January, accurately predicted negative trends in the industry for the first half of 2024, with nearly 90% accuracy. 

⬇️ Across core spirits, the rolling 12-month depletion growth rate is expected to continue its decline: from a 4.78% decline at the end of the second quarter of 2024 to a 5.65% drop by year-end. The rolling 12-month growth rate is projected to stabilize around a 5.59% decrease in the first half of 2025.

🥃 The analysts indicate a broad shift toward more "affordable luxury," specifically in the $17-25 and $25-50 price tiers, as consumers move away from the very highest-end spirits in favor of less expensive products across all categories. Vodka is expected to mirror the overall decline in core spirits, while American whiskey is projected to face a sharper downturn. 

Black Rifle may need a new battle plan. The veteran-owned coffee company is facing down sales declines in its cafes and direct-to-consumer businesses, both of which contributed to a 2.3% year-over-year revenue drop per the company’s Q3 earnings report, released this morning. 

📊 Revenue from Black Rifle’s “Outpost” cafes fell 11.4% ($5.5 million), while e-comm sales also slid 11.4% to $29 million. Wholesale revenue ticked up 3.5%, driven by RTD coffee sales.

⚡ As previewed at last month’s NACS show, the company is gearing up for the launch of Black Rifle Energy in January, part of a strategic distribution partnership with Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP) that the company is betting “will open new market opportunities and further accelerate our growth.” It joins a crowded portfolio of KDP-affiliated energy brands, including newly acquired GHOST and Nutrabolt’s C4. 

Check BevNET for our full recap later today.

Just in time for everyone to have an emotional support Election Day oat milk latte, Starbucks has announced the removal of non-dairy surcharges to coffee orders. Starting on Thursday, all Starbucks locations in the U.S. and Canada will no longer charge extra for oat, coconut, soy or almond milks. The company said in a press release that it will reduce prices by “more than 10%” for “almost half of Starbucks current customers in the U.S.”

💬 The decision appears to be part of new chairman and CEO Brian Niccol’s campaign to bring customers “Back to Starbucks.”

🤔 Niccol hinted that this was just “one of many changes” coming to the multinational coffee business that will encourage consumers to return to the brand.

📉 In its Q4 earnings report last Wednesday, Starbucks reported consolidated net revenues fell 3% to $9.1 billion with customer frequency down across customer segments.

Virginia-based co-packer Nidra Packaging has opened up a new tea brewing house, founder and CEO Joshua Canada announced last week, allowing it to add brewed tea options for its clients.

• Nidra was founded in 2022 by Canada, who previously co-founded Back Bay Brewing and Tarnished Truth Distilling Co.
• Nidra offers co-packing solutions for beverage brands and in addition to tea can produce malt-based and spirits-based RTDs, functional beverages, spirits, energy drinks and water.

Olivia Ferdi, the co-founder of calming beverage platform Trip, discusses how the brand’s philosophy of “product obsession” gave it a fast start and keeps it building towards a more promising future. She also explains why “the customer is sacrosanct” and how the company is applying lessons learned from success in e-commerce to its brick and mortar business.

Listen to the episode now.