Christmas morning it may not be, but there's something of a buzz in the office when the latest batch of fresh sales data from Circana (formerly IRI) arrives every other month for inclusion in our next magazine issue. Besides the usual curiosity about who's up and who's down, there's a chance to see if the hype and energy behind certain brands and trends is reflected in the actual numbers. As it turns out, as we learned from a quick look at the most recent charts, it is. 

• Liquid Death’s ability to capture consumers’ imagination (see note below) shows now signs of slowing, as its lightly sweetened flavored seltzers (or low-calorie sodas, if you prefer) grew dollar sales +1633.2% and volume +1089.6% to take just over a 1.2% share of the category — a far cry from the top dogs, but still the kind of acceleration that has it hot on the heels of Topo Chico (down -40.1% in dollar sales).  
• Yes, the PRIME hype appears to be real. The influencer-backed, Congo Brands-produced brand was named one of our Rising Stars for 2022 thanks to the runaway success of its flagship sports drink: per IRI data, that’s $273K-plus in sales last year, a 3331.6% increase that has it at a 2.58 category share. But that’s clearly just scratching the surface of what PRIME can do: in its first year on the market, its energy drinks did over $42 million in dollar sales — putting it in touching distance of battle-tested brands like Uptime, G FUEL and ZOA. 
• Their unapologetic embrace of gun culture may be alienate some consumers, but clearly Black Rifle Coffee is winning over some too. The embattled, publicly traded brand posted another year of potent growth, to the tune of +90.2% dollar sales ($128 million) and a 3.65 share of the RTD iced coffee space — ahead of private label, and more than double that of Super Coffee and La Colombe. 

Diageo-aligned accelerator Distill Ventures has named Heidi Dillon as CEO, assuming the role from Frank Lampen, who founded the firm over a decade ago and who will remain involved in DV as its board chair. Dillon joined DV in 2020 as its managing director of North America and played a key role in leading its non-alcoholic investment division, helping to grow brands like Seedlip and Ritual Zero Proof. She’s also responsible for starting up DV’s “Pre-Accelerator” program which helps entrepreneurs from underrepresented communities to access seed capital. That emphasis on supporting minority and female founders will continue into her role as CEO, Dillon said in the announcement: “Putting the changing consumer at the heart of all of our thinking enables continued innovation and transforms the way we interact with the spirits industry, driving the next decade of growth.” Go Deeper: Former DV Co-Founder Launches New Beverages Accelerator

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After the merger of Suja and Vive Organic in October, the former CMOs of both cold-pressed juice brands have found new roles this month. Greg Rose, who spent nearly six years at Suja (+4 as CMO), announced he has joined sustainable beverage brand Proud Source Water as its new marketing chief. Rose’s appointment comes two months after the brand was acquired by water tech company SOURCE Global, maker of a sustainable Hydropanel which converts water vapors in the air into drinking water. 

Former Vive CMO Ryan Therriault, meanwhile, has joined coconut water maker ZICO Rising as ‘Fractional CMO’, according to LinkedIn. Therriault, who spent a year with Vive and left in January, arrives at ZICO shortly after it raised $14 million in capital earlier this year. Read the full story in today’s People Moves.

Just added to this year's ageda: Walmart’s Will McDonald will speak at BevNET Live Summer 2023 in New York about how the massive retailer is accelerating its partnerships with entrepreneurial beverage brands. Read the story.

Kevin Durant has cannabis, Kevin Love does wine, and now NBA superstar Stephen Curry is getting in the CPG mix by throwing his energy behind the launch of Gentleman’s Cut Kentucky Straight Bourbon, the first release from his Game Changer Distillery. Curry has been steadily building the beverage portfolio of his brand studio SC30 by investing in oxygen-infused water brand OXiGEN and promoting protein drink Muscle Milk. Gentleman’s Cut is also not his family’s first investment in adult beverages: In 2018, Curry’s wife Ayesha launched the Domaine Curry wine label with SC30’s partner on Game Changer Distillery, Napa Valley, California winery CEO John Schwartz.

Having built a collection of Fortune 500 companies, luxury wineries and professional hockey teams, Bill Foley is now making a play for high end spirits. The founder of Foley Family Wines has been on an acquisition streak over the past three years, swooping up leading super premium wineries such as Silverado (formerly owned by the Disney family). In a move announced yesterday, the company will begin distilling whiskey and white spirits out of Nevada, also home to Foley’s NHL team, the Las Vegas Golden Knights. The family-owned winery announced a national distribution agreement with Republic National Distributing Company in 2021, giving it a runway for its recent additions to its +20 winery portfolio. The shift into spirits echoes other major wineries like E. & J. Gallo, who have found success in RTDs by building on established distribution networks. 

Ever wish you had bottle-thick biceps? How about a bubble wrap butt? Well, with Liquid Death’s new Recycled Plastic Surgery services you could save the planet and look years younger doing it! At least that’s the pitch in the canned water brand’s latest satirical marketing video starring comedian Whitney Cummings, which aims to raise awareness about how little plastic waste is actually recycled (95% goes to landfills or into the ocean as it’s cheaper for recycling centers to dump plastic than to process it). Liquid Death’s “solution” is to marry plastic waste with plastic surgery. The results, however, may be better suited for a David Cronenberg film than for Muscle Beach. While the Recycled Plastic Surgery Center may not actually exist, the commercial is as suitably grotesque as we’ve come to expect from the brand.