During day one of BevNET Live 2023, panelists worked to summarize the state of the market, share valuable learnings for early stage brands and give a look into how to build, scale, finance and grow within the current industry climate.

🔮 State of the Beverage Business: Within the current “semi-recessionary” and still highly inflationary environment, financing has become even more scarce for emerging brands than usual. But setting the tone for the day, panelists emphasized that some of the industry’s most successful brands have been built during times of economic strain.  

Speakers included Albertsons’ VP of national merchandising Buster Houston; Whipstitch Capital managing director Mike Burgmaier; Nor-Cal Beverage Company president and CEO Shannon Deary-Bell; and Pop & Bottle chief sales officer Jessica Pratt.

💭 “You have to wait,” Burgmaier emphasized. “You have to understand when the time is right that you have actually built something that consumers are ready for and I think that’s what companies today need to understand a little bit more.”

🤝🏼 Humble Growth’s Strategic Insight On Investor Relations:

What happens when a cohort of expert CPG operators put together a $312 million fund to finance and grow the next generation of early to mid-stage brands? The focus of that fund becomes rooted in strategic insight and balanced investor-founder relationships. 

Humble Growth managing partners Nick Giannuzzi and Dr. Andrew Abraham (which also counts RxBar founder Peter Rahal also as an MP) first shared their thoughts on the current investment environment. (ICYMI: the fund is also backed by CPG vets such as Mike Repole, Gary Hirshberg and Jared Smith.

The duo then explained why foundational practices – like projections for gross margin improvements – remain integral for early stage founders seeking investment to have. If not, rumor has it Abraham will offer an unsolicited cost savings analysis on the first call with HG’s team. 

💭“We need to get to a place where that path [to profitability] becomes tangible earlier,” said Giannuzzi. 

For a full recap of speakers and presentations from BevNET Winter 2023 Day One rundown here.

Six startup beverage brands have emerged from a field of 12 competitors to secure a spot in today’s final round of New Beverage Showdown 26 at BevNET Live Winter 2023, presented by Coca-Cola North America New Revenue Streams. 

🥤 Today’s final will include Magic Cactus hemp-infused sparkling cactus water, Plant Press “clean caffeine” energy drink, Spade sparkling premium soda, Erva Brew Co. yerba mate, Calexo cannabis-infused sparkling water and Fang recovery tonic, winner of the audience vote.

👀 Tune into BevNET today, December 5 to watch the final round of the competition live, starting with part one at 11 a.m. PT and part two at 1:45 p.m. PT. 

🏆 The New Beverage Showdown champion will be announced at 3:15 p.m. PT at the closing of BevNET’s annual winter conference. 

Check out the full NBS semifinals recap on BevNET.

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At the conclusion of each year, BevNET honors the companies, brands, individuals, products, ideas and trends that have helped drive positive growth across the industry over the last 12 months. The winners of BevNET’s Best of 2023 Awards embody that spirit and drive, combining inspiration with effort, style, dynamism and personality.

Watch the presentation video and see the complete list of BevNET 2023 Award winners here

This year, we proudly introduced a new accolade to our awards lineup: The BevNET Spirit Awards. Aligned with BevNET's commitment to explore burgeoning beverage trends and innovative brands, the BevNET Spirits Awards Program is focused on two dynamic categories – Ready-to-Drink Cocktails and Non-Alcoholic Spirits.

See the complete list of BevNET Spirit Award nominees here

Tune into the free livestream today, December 5, until 3:30 PM PT to watch the New Beverage Showdown Finals as well as presentations from SPINS, Eat the Change, Wildwonder, HOP WTR, Chamberlain Coffee, Weird Beverage Co. and more. Watch now.

Chamberlain Coffee, the coffee brand founded by social media influencer Emma Chamberlain, is adding two new oat milk RTD lattes to compliment its existing almond and coconut milk-based offerings after its consumers requested sweeter, oat-based products.

🍫 Available in Mocha and Salted Caramel varieties, the oat milk latte line includes 13 grams of sugar (from cane sugar and date syrup) per 12 oz. can. Comparatively, the original almond and coconut milk line has just 1 gram of sugar per can.

🥛 The oat milk SKUs launched last month into Walmart stores and will now be replacing the almond and coconut milk line in the conventional and mass channels. However, those original lattes will become Whole Foods exclusives.

📈 Chamberlain Coffee launched its RTD line this spring and is now expecting to be in about 8,000 stores by the end of the year, said CEO Chris Gallant.

Read the full story on BevNET

Carbonated tea maker Wize Tea is launching newly designed packaging which includes new imagery and a new visual cues to the different flavors. The rebrand was designed by Chairman Ting at Vancouver, Canada-based PS&Co Brand Studio, and its sister fund Ethical Food Group.

🤔 The tea company’s new look hopes to more fully embrace its brand tagline, “Wize. Boldly Balanced.” Wize champions its connection to the farming community and its better-for-you approach to canned tea.

🥤 Launched in 2020 by Max Rivest, Arnaud Petitvallet and Enrique Ferrufino, Wize Tea uses upcycled coffee leaves to make its lower-caffein, lightly sweetened sparkling iced teas. The drink maker offers its teas in three flavors — Juicy Mango, Crisp Apple and Wild Raspberry — offered in 12 oz. slim cans.