• 🍐 Seoul Juice Finds Its FoodStory
• 🍾 Patco Brands Invests in Cali Bottler
• 🧑‍⚖️ Wanu Water Founder's Fraud Charges
• 🔍 Inside Albertsons Suit Against Kroger
• 💸 Old Carter Co-Founder Buys Back Brand
• 🔬 Clinical Trial Results For Sweet Proteins
• 🏆 Why Winners Win (And Will Continue To Do So)

Hot off rumors of a potential exit, sparkling water maker Spindrift debuted its latest flavor innovation this week: the Cosnopolitan. 

From the name, you can likely guess what’s in the can – a zero-proof cranberry and citrus seltzer that tees up a Sex and the City joke like it’s Little League for culture writers – and it’s another notch in the belt for the mainstream breakout of the NA sober curious trend.

The Cosmo isn’t Spindrift’s first attempt at reframing its juicy sparkling waters as a mocktail (it added the Nojito in late 2022) but it does reflect the company doubling down on its efforts to become a brand for adult drinking occasions; and we’d include its actually boozy Spindrift Spiked line, which has been fighting to win stake in the hard seltzer set, as part of that strategy.

But Spindrift is just one of many emerging brands trying to extend its platform into mocktails without actually extending its platform in the traditional ways, like new sub-brands or specialty lines.

Look at NA beer producer Athletic Brewing Co. which also introduced a “cocktail-inspired series” this week of “near beer” brews, available in Moscow Mule and Paloma flavors. For a brand that’s already capturing consumers looking for alcohol alternatives, it does make sense to try and reach cocktail lovers alongside beer fans given that all types of hard drinkers are trying out softer options. 

We can’t say this all comes as too much of a shock (and no, not just because Dry January is coming up either). In recent years we’ve witnessed brands like Recess find success by pivoting from their initial focus and embracing the mocktail positioning: CEO Ben Witte said on stage at BevNET Live last week that the brand’s mocktails are now the majority of its business. But the main reason behind its ability to extend into the space has been its north star of being relaxation in a can… so going from one relaxation pitch (vaguely cannabis-related CBD drinks) to another was a linear move.

Spindrift has already shown it can succeed via flavor innovation – its long been one of the fastest growing sparkling water brands in the category, up 21.7% for the 52-weeks ending Sept. 21 according to NielsenIQ – and they seem confident in their ability to further branch into classic cocktail territory. Plus, mining the Cocktail Codex gives it some much needed new territory for innovation – they’ve already got most of the fruits you’d want to actually drink in their portfolio.

But chalk this up as another sign that brands see NA as the future, or one possible future, and Spindrift is showing how you can meet that trend without big multi-SKU line launches, but via simple flavor innovation.

Catch Up Quick: Spindrift Close to $650M Sale to Private Equity

In these last few weeks of the year, lots of independents are seeing exits (watch this space), including Seoul Juice. The Los Angeles-based Korean pear juice drink maker, which bills itself as the first-of-its-kind in the U.S. and touts over 400 mg of potassium per 12 oz. bottle – has been acquired by FoodStory Brands, a company best known for creating CPG brands around popular IPs like Paramount’s Yellowstone and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

• We’re gathering more details on the deal from Seoul Juice founder Luis Manta, who created the brand in 2016 while a college athlete. 
• So far, we know the brand (supported by a revamped package design) is gearing up for major retail launches in the new year. 
• College athletics remains a focus, with Hanna and Haley Cavinder aka The Cavinder Twins coming onboard as head of partnerships in 2023.

🤔 The rebrand (which followed a prior makeover in 2022) seems poised to give the brand a stronger identity within the nebulous plant-based hydration category where names like Vita Coco and Lemon Perfect have enjoyed recent growth

• Think: Callouts to its three simple ingredients (water, Korean pear juice concentrate, lemon juice concentrate) and its electrolyte payload.

Stay tuned to BevNET for more details.

Patco Brands, the maker of a leading agave wine-RTD and other private label brands, is building out its capacity with a strategic investment.

• The company has made a strategic investment in Farfield, California-based Frank-Lin Distillers Products, a leading rectifier – a company that buys spirits or wine in bulk and cuts, blends and packages it – on the West Coast.
• 🍷 Patco likely doesn’t need more capacity for its flagship product, Rancho La Gloria, as the agave wine RTD ranks third in wine-based cocktail sales, but was down 5.9% the last 52-weeks in NIQ off-premise channels. 
• But on the heels of Rancho La Gloria’s success, Patco (which also does business as MPL Brands) began to make private label products for retailers while growing a portfolio of its own brands such as Doughball Whiskey, Kyla Hard Kombucha and Big Sipz. 
• Many of Patco Brands products are already produced at Frank-Lin facilities, and the new partnership will allow Patco to produce “well in excess of 20 million cases” (double Patco’s current output) annually at the Frank-Lin Fairfield location.

Read the full story on BevNET.

Austin-based Wanu Water’s founder and former CEO Todd O’Gara is back in court, this time facing wire fraud charges that could land him 20 years in prison. The case alleges that O’Gara deceived investors by exaggerating the value of his fiber-infused water brand by fabricating purchase orders and terms sheets for investors.

🤯 Investors in California, New Jersey and New York claim that O’Gara defrauded them at least $3.4 million that went to pay for other expenses as opposed to product fulfillment.

💸  Victims allege that O’Gara claimed a $30 million valuation of Wanu Water, well below its actual worth at the time.

😡 In September 2019, O’Gara solicited new investment on claims of a growing business despite documents showing the brand was projecting losses of $3.77 million for the year.

Albertsons claims Kroger failed to maintain its contractual obligations to the now-blocked $24.6 billion mega-merger in a 140-page lawsuit which was just unsealed six days after it was filed in Delaware Chancery Court on December 10. 

❌ Albertsons outlined five distinct failures, revolving around Kroger’s willingness to divest “an adequate package” of stores and non-store assets as well as delaying communications with regulators, mismanaging the process for finding a divestiture buyer and not cooperating with Albertsons “in good faith.”

🤑 The suit goes on to claim that Kroger “squandered its credibility” by presenting regulators with an “indefensible divestiture package” that elevated its own bottom line rather than meeting its contractional obligations to Albertsons. 

🗣️ From the complaint: “The ink on the Merger Agreement was barely dry before Kroger began to develop buyer’s remorse. Multiple factors – including negative market feedback on the deal and its impact on Kroger’s debt burden; and ominous economic signals for the grocery sector – combined to change Kroger’s financial assumptions, creating a disincentive for Kroger to go as far in seeking antitrust approval (including the divestiture process).” 

💰 Albertsons is seeking billions in damages including a $600 million termination fee as well as "benefit of the bargain" damages for stockholders.

The whiskey world has been speculating about what unnamed “well-established premium craft whiskey distillery and brand,” went up for auction in November, and now we have the answer… because its original owner bought it back.

• In early November, Kentucky marketing firm Tranzon Asset Advisors announced a rare chance to enter the whiskey market overnight: the firm said it was overseeing the sale of “high-value assets with an established customer base in the booming bourbon and craft whiskey markets," but didn’t share the name of the brand that was, apparently, also profitable. 
• Turns out, the Kentucky property and brand was up for sale as part of a court-mediated divorce settlement between Mark and Sherri Carter of Old Carter Whiskey Company (and Kentucky Spirit Bottling). 
• Mark Carter beat out nearly 60 bids to win the company back for $20.5 million after fees, and brought in several partners to revamp the brand, including the owner of Washington D.C.'s Jack Rose Dining Saloon, home to the one of the largest publicly available whiskey collections in the world.

Israel-based Amai Proteins announced today that it has completed human trials on its sweelin ingredient and found that it does not raise blood insulin or glucose levels in healthy adults even after consuming an amount equivalent to the sweetness of 75 grams of sugar.

🥼 The company was not required to do a human clinical trial but is using the results to show proof of concept and boost market confidence in the novel product’s efficacy. 

🤤 Sweelin claims to be 3,000 times sweeter than traditional sugar with one teaspoon being equivalent to 26 pounds of sugar.

🧫 The sweet protein ingredient is made from yeast in a precision fermentation process and Amai’s Pro-Design AI-Computational Protein Design platform.

The grind is real. And fun as heck. Exhausted, but buoyant, the hosts recap Nosh and BevNET’s just-concluded winter events and specifically highlight the three pitch slam competitions and how each respective winner successfully communicated the traction and potential for their brands.

Listen to the episode now.