• ✅ Oobli Earns FDA GRAS Status
• 📉 Wildpack Posts Sharp Net Loss
• 🔀 Jumex U.S. Hiring Spree Continues
• 📰 What We’re Reading: Beans, Beef Tallow and Tarriffs

With new beverages constantly hitting the shelves, the competition is fierce! No matter what kind of beverage product, Tetra Pak can help you succeed. With best-in-class drink packaging, we can advise you with solutions that will compel consumers to pick your product first. Learn more

BevNET Live, happening December 8-10 in Marina del Rey, CA, is the ultimate event for beverage industry professionals! Sample innovative products, network with industry leaders, gain invaluable insights, meet one-to-one with top retailers, and watch the New Beverage Showdown. Set your business up for success in 2025, register now.  

It might not be too surprising that a lifestyle company built around water bottles and travel mugs is extending itself into hydration beverages… it's a tale we know all too well. Simple Modern joined the fray this week, entering into the stick pack electrolyte drink category with the launch of Trevi Enhanced Hydration.

Taking its name from the famous Roman fountain, Trevi comes in four flavors – Lemon Lime, Orange, Raspberry and Berry Lemonade – which are sold in 10- or 28-count bags. The stick packs launched on the company’s website as well as on Walmart.com and Amazon.

Although the synergy between drinkware and hydration powders might seem obvious, getting Simple Modern consumers to buy into the parent company’s new powdered beverage is not a sure thing, especially considering it will be competing in a category that is already quite crowded.

As opposed to insurgent brands like LMNT, Skratch Labs or Nooma (which were launched by former professional and collegiate athletes), Trevi is taking an every-person approach to marketing. It hopes it can differentiate from other electrolyte and recovery mixes that target the fitness community or active lifestyle consumers by being a product for “everyday life,” said Trevi CEO (and former Simple Modern chief growth officer) Corbin Wallace in a recent interview with Modern Retail.

In this year alone, we have seen various lifestyle brands move into the hydration space. In August, Instant Hydration launched under the leadership of Diff Eyewear and Motif Digital’s founder teams. Magnesium-enriched powder brand Magna hit the market in July as the brainchild of Everlane’s founder Michael Preysman.

Coming from Europe with an innovative tablet format, waterdrop splashed into the U.S. market with a lifestyle branding strategy complete with retail stores selling bottles and accessories accompanied by a premium price tag. While we are at it, its worth mentioning that incumbent brands like CURE Hydration, NUUN and Hydrant have also been jostling to compete with category leader Liquid I.V.

Is there room for one more? According to Circana data, dollar sales in the single-serve sports drink mix category notched up 28.1% to $1.4 billion in the 52-week period ending November 11. Unit sales were also up ​​in the period 20.4%. 

Go Deeper: Powders are Powering Innovation from Hydration to Beyond

Sweet proteins platform Oobli announced today it has secured a “no questions” letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), effectively granting its novel protein-based sweetener monellin Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS). 

👷 Oobli is working to build out a suite of sweet proteins having secured GRAS approval for its novel brazzein sweetener protein earlier this year. Both ingredients are intended to be used in food and beverage applications where they can be used as a complement or replacement for natural sweeteners. 

🗣️ What they said: “Food is a complex system, and when we replace sweetness in a food or beverage application, all the ingredients come into play. This is why we're so committed to approaching sweet proteins as a platform; offering more sweetener solutions to our partners.” -Jason Ryder, founder and CTO 

💼 Alongside the news, Oobli also added two new board members including pharma industry veteran Dr. Geoffrey Duyk and former Land O’ Lakes marketing leader Heather Malenshek.  

At Global Organics, we’re passionate about bringing you the best organic ingredients from around the world. For over 30 years, we’ve been a trusted partner, offering reliable supply and complete transparency. We’re here to help you craft products with quality that you can count on. Learn more

At BevNET Live, sit down with top retailers like Albertsons, Whole Foods Market, Spec’s, and Pilot. Albertsons, one of the largest U.S. food and drug retailers with over 2,200 stores nationwide, operates well-known chains like Safeway, Vons, and Jewel-Osco. Buyers Kody Severson and Matthew Wirth will meet with select brands to explore new opportunities.

Register to apply for a private meeting and connect directly with top beverage decision-makers!

Manufacturing business Wildpack Beverages posted over $17 million in net losses in its Q3 2024 earnings report this week with gross profits driven down in large part due to a debt restructuring, interest expenses and rising production costs. The resulting, single quarter loss equates to the company’s total reported net loss during the first nine months of 2023.

• Established in Canada, Wildpack runs four co-packing facilities in the U.S. in Baltimore, Las Vegas, Austin and Grand Rapids. That count is down from six after the business opted to consolidate two additional sites into its existing plants in April in a move to cut costs.
• Gross profits were deep in the red at -$314,000 in Q3, compared with a positive $1.2 million profit in the previous year. Net losses were also far steeper at $17 million vs. just $6.1 million in 2023.
• Zooming Out: the year-to-date picture shows even greater losses. Gross profit fell to negative $597,000 in the nine-months ending September 30, down from a positive $4.3 million last year. Net losses blew up even more, to $32 million.

🌺 Jumex USA is welcoming PepsiCo veteran Pranay Malik to lead Business Development, per a LinkedIn post. The U.S. division of Mexico’s largest privately owned beverage producer has been actively recruiting talent recently, having welcomed Sarah Rutzen, formerly of Niagara Bottling, as Marketing Manager last month. Though best known for its juices, the company recently introduced alcoholic RTD Jumex Hard Nectar (5% ABV per 12 oz can) in September.

💪 Plant-based smoothie maker Koia has recruited Joshua Hodgins as its new Director of Supply Chain. Hodgins spent nearly a decade as Director of Transportation, Distribution and Operations at the Dairy Farmers of America (DFA). A post announcing the move on LinkedIn praised “his experience driving growth and building strong relationships with suppliers and customers, along with his commitment to wellness.”

🚚 National distributor KeHE has added G. Scott Uzzell to its board of directors, effective immediately, according to an announcement this week. Uzzell’s resume spans a wide range of CPGs including senior leadership roles at Nike North America and Converse. Before entering the shoe game, Uzzell served as president and GM of Coca Cola’s Venturing & Emerging Brands Group (VEB). 

🐄 The New York Times opinion team explores the potential impact of the current bird flu (H5N1) outbreak on the poultry and dairy industries and the Biden Administration’s “refusal” to respond. NYT cautions that, considering current case counts, the H5N1 outbreak could be “one of the most foreseeable catastrophes in history.” 

🍳 The Atlantic examines the evolution of beef tallow in American diets as a cohort of consumers – and health secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – vocally renounce seed oils.

💰 Small businesses – including snack brands Daily Crunch and Healthy Crunch – are bracing for tariffs proposed by President-elect Donald Trump, according to The Associated Press.