• 💋 Gorgie Nets A Pretty Sum
• 🚚 UNFI Splits Product Divisions
• 💡 NIQ: Volumes Fuel Sequential Growth
• 🚚 Distribution: Pressed Juicery's Target ‘Cleanse’ 
• 🏆 Instacart’s Fastest Growers

Today’s crystal ball is spinning with innovation insights and retail revelations that may signal a prosperous future for select beverage segments. Let’s take a closer look at market researcher SPINS’ 2025 predictions.  

Among the state of innovation, beverages are leading the charge. Of the top five categories seeing the highest rates of innovation, three of those were in the beverage set including (in this order) energy/sports drinks, RTD tea and coffee, and kombucha and functional brews. 

Those high-innovation categories also spell an exponential increase among naturally-positioned iterations as natural products gained share in all retail channels including natural (6.6%), regional/independents (1.1%), conventional (4.4%) and c-store (5%). 

• In contrast, conventional products have lost share across all channels except in conventional (though growth was slow at just +1.1%)
• Notably, regional and independents have been hit hardest by the shift away from conventional items, notching the only overall sales decline (-1.9%) due to a 3.1% drop among conventional products and offset by growth among natural products (1.1%) and specialty and wellness products (1.2%)

Producing Products With Staying Power: Consumers will always want to optimize their health and will remain keen on the concept of “biohacking,” the report claims. Supplements and diet modifications are the most common practices to “biohack” a path to overall better health and lends itself well to the growing, supplement-aligned functional beverage space. 

Today, consumers can sip everything from vitamin-infused Throne Sport Coffee (with a seal of approval from founder and Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes) to an L-theanine-laced energy liquid from Gorgie, purporting B vitamins, biotin and no sugar (and just closed a $19.8M funding round… but more on that below)

Nutrient density and protein also remain of utmost importance. On an ingredient level, animal protein (+180% growth) is still preferred over plant-based alternatives (+59%). 

• However, rice-derived plant-based proteins are having a moment, up 176.7% while whey/casein combinations saw the highest growth in the animal segment at 120%. 
• Functional ingredients such as magnesium, creatine, colostrum and kratom are rising in the ranks and are expected to make greater leaps from supplements to beverages in 2025.
• Hemp, Cannabis and other euphorics are also on the rise as they pull momentum from the mindful consumption movement and find shelf space in the convenience channel. 

Functions falling out of favor? Energy, weight loss, sleep and immune support are fading among consumer preferences as they turn greater attention to hydration, mood support, performance, PMS and hangover remedies. 

BevNET Insiders can take a deeper dive to learn what is defining beverage in 2025.

Beauty-benefitting energy brand Gorgie (say that five times fast) has raised a $19.8 million Series A funding round. It’s a tidy sum for the early-stage brand, which launched in 2023 followed by a $6.5 million pre-seed round.

💅 Gorgie produces a line of functional 12 oz. energy drinks made with caffeine from green tea, B vitamins, L-theanine and biotin; the latter ingredient offering a boost for hair, skin and nail care.

✅ Founder Michelle Cordeiro Grant confirmed with us via email that the brand had closed an investment round, but she declined to say more until a formal announcement is made in the coming weeks. So details on what the funding is going towards are TBD. Cordeiro did hint that there’s some innovation in the pipeline.

🚚 One big question we have for the brand: how is the distribution strategy evolving? Cordeiro Grant told us last year that Gorgie was pumping the brakes on its DSD expansion in order to emphasize a “digital convenience” strategy and better support its existing distributor partners. 

Could nearly $20M in cash spark a change in its brick-and-mortar approach? We’ll have to wait and find out.

Powerhouse distributor United Natural Foods (UNFI) is restructuring its commercial wholesale business by dividing it into two product-focused units – Conventional Grocery Products and Natural, Organic, Specialty & Fresh Products, each with a dedicated sales team – in a bid to “provide a more customized product and service-centered experience,” per an announcement this morning.

• The sales teams will be supported by “dedicated functional experts in merchandising, operations, procurement, and supplier services.” 
• Louis Martin, currently President of Wholesale, will lead the Conventional unit as President; his counterpart at Natural, Organic, Specialty & Fresh Products will be Mark Bushway, who will also retain his title as UNFI Chief Supply Chain Officer.

Go Deeper: UNFI: ‘Lean Management,’ Efficiencies Fuel Q1 Gains

It was more than just champagne and cocktails during the final weeks of December: Non-alcoholic beverage sales closed the year with “accelerated” sequential growth in the two-week period ending December 28 amid stronger volume and stable average pricing, according to an analysis of NielsenIQ data by Goldman Sachs Equity Research. Here’s the big picture:

• Dollar sales grew 5.4% during the two-week period, compared to +3.6% for four-weeks and +5.1% for the 12-week period.
• Volumes rose 1.2% in the two-weeks versus a 0.4% drop in the four-weeks and a 1.7% increase in the 12-week period.
• Overall price growth held steady at 4.2% in comparison to 4% and 3.4% in the four- and 12-week periods, respectively.

Among carbonated soft drinks, energy, bottled water, sparkling flavored water and coconut water categories, dollar sales all ticked up. Whereas, growth was down in RTD coffee and sports drinks.

Insiders can read the full report on BevNET

🥬 Pressed Juicery hopes to capture new year’s resolutions with the launch of an “Express Cleanse” in 200 Super Target stores nationwide. The four-drink, Target-exclusive line (Simple Cleanse, Greens with Ginger, Hydration + Dragon Fruit and Avocado Greens) retails for $19.99.

💦 Canadian hydration beverage Joyburst announced its 18-pack of single-serve Tetra Pak cartons are now available in “most Costco locations across the U.S. and Canada.” The multipack features three flavors: Watermelon, Peach and Strawberry-Lemonade.

🏈 Patrick Mahomes-backed Throne Sport Coffee is bringing its four-SKU line of functional RTDs to over 1,100 QuikTrip locations in 19 states.

🍻 UK-based NA beer maker Mash Gang has launched four new brews (Chug, Glug, Journey Juice and Lesser Evil) in Wisconsin. 

🍺 Tom Holland’s NA brand Bero is off to a strong start. Spiderman’s favorite near-beer is now available in “most Target stores nationwide” where it is being merchandised on endcaps. Bero is selling single flavor 6-packs for $11.99 and a Target-exclusive variety 12-pack for $21.99.

Want to know what brands to watch out for in the new year? Just follow the money – er, follow the sales data. Instacart certainly does, and it’s just dropped a list of the top 75 fastest-growing emerging brands of 2024, based on their sales on its platform.

• Belgian Boys topped the list, with Yo Mama’s Foods, Wild Things Snacks, Wandering Bear and Nature’s Garden rounding out the top five.
• Beverages largely appeared later in the list. Aside from Wandering Bear’s top placement the only other drinks in the top 25 were Aura Bora No. 18) and Liquid Death (No. 19).
• All manner of food categories were represented, including several bar brands (IQ Bar, Aloha, Clio and Cerebelly all ranked right next to each other), meats like Tender Belly and Force of Nature, and olive oil innovator Graza. One non-consumable brand also made the list: Dude Wipes.