• 💪 East Coast DSD Adds Muscle Via M&A
• 🚗 What’s Driving BevAlc in 2024?
• ☀️ Top RTD Adds “Summer” Flavors
• 🧊 Sparkling Ice Invests In Growth With New Executive Hire

In a move that will further grow its footprint in the Northeast, Rainforest Distribution Corp. has acquired New Hampshire-based natural foods distributor Associated Buyers.

📈 Associated Buyers covers the New England market and currently delivers over 5,000 individual products. The company is currently reaching out to existing customers and suppliers and intends to work with them during a transition period as the business is folded into Rainforest.

🤝 Associated Buyers has been a family-owned and operated business for nearly four decades. President and former owner Karta Owens is expected to “step back” from management but will remain with the business during the transition.

🚚 Operating in the backyard of NYC powerhouse Big Geyser, Rainforest’s refrigerated DSD operations currently service 15 states from the Mid-Atlantic through the Northeast. The distributor has been a key partner in recent years for influential emerging beverage startups like Nguyen Coffee Supply, Seven Teas, Sanzo and Barcode. 

Read the full story on BevNET

TGIF! It’s finally time for us to release our weekly new product gallery. This week’s edition is extra special, as it’s the first NPG of 2024! Here’s a sneak peek at what you’ll find inside: 

🍸 Hiyo, St. Agrestis, House of Love and OPTIMIST are all hoping to help you make it through Dry January with various non-alc mocktail releases. What’s more, all of the beverages can be ordered online and shipped directly to your house for maximum relaxation mode. 

🍪 Chameleon wants you to have your cookies and drink ‘em too! The cold brew maker is the latest CPG brand to strike up a deal with Girl Scouts of the USA, announcing a 3-SKU line of Girl Scout cookie-inspired canned cold brews.

🪄 PRIME Hydration – which recently sold its billionth bottle roughly one year after the brand’s inception – has launched a new Cherry Freeze flavor featuring a color-changing label. But it seems the hot product may be hard to come by, with resellers posting the drink to eBay for $40-$60.

See the full gallery on BevNET

After a flurry of new brands and innovation in hot categories like RTDs and non-alc over the past few years, where is the whitespace now? And what will retailers and investors be looking for? We posed the question to a longtime consultant in BevAlc and CPG, a data analyst, and a buyer for a major retailer. Here are a few highlights:

📊 Data analysts are tracking volume vs value, after the former has dipped. That may be due to consumers moderating their alcohol intake and becoming so overwhelmed with options it creates loyalty confusion (the culture writers call that option paralysis in dating apps!) For publicly traded suppliers and retailers, creating volume in 2024 will be essential.

🏎️ That could lead to retailers doubling down on a higher velocities threshold per month and per store in hot categories, like non-alc. At Whole Foods Market, emerging brands are also going to have to show their logistics and distribution plans are well thought out. 

🧑‍🌾 Regenerative agriculture, woman-owned or woman-led brands, BIPOC-owned brands are also top priority for Whole Foods Market. 

🫧 As for other growth areas in spirits and RTDs? Non-carbonated canned cocktails as well as amaro or aperitifs are some of the segments that were floated. 

Read the full story on BevNET

Closing out the first week of the month and sober partnerships continue to abound. This time it's Olipop riding the Dry January train with a limited-edition “Mocktails in Minutes” package in conjunction with Instacart. Every weekend this month, Olipop is offering two free sodas (while supplies last) starting at 3 pm on Friday through Sunday.

🍹 The prebiotic soda brand has launched a virtual soda sommelier “Oli-vier the Sommelier” on the company’s website to bring mocktail recipes to consumers curated by TikTok influencers Gracie Norton and Johnny Drinks.

🛍️ Olipop will also be offering a LTO Mocktail Starter pack online featuring the brand’s Classic Grape, Tropical Punch, Lemon Lime, and Orange Squeeze flavors.

🪩 Additionally, New York City-based Absence of Proof has teamed up Shopify promoting a sober panel, party and pop-up shop event bringing more sober education and fun to Dry January.

Best-selling RTD High Noon is adding two new flavors to its lineup in a limited edition “Snowbird Pack” aimed at those consumers who aren’t able to travel south to warmer climates, according to the brand. 

🌴 The new 8-pack is equipped with Plum and Raspberry, two flavors which go with the theme of “summer fruits,” and will be rolling out nationally this week. 

🍋 Building on the brand’s top selling variety packs, a spokesperson said, High Noon is always 

looking to innovate, while still getting some classic fan favorite flavors out to consumers (Peach and Lemon will also be in the variety pack). 

😎 High Noon was up in off-premise channels 43% in value and 35.9% in volume in the last 52 weeks ending December 2 compared to the same period last year. It represented nearly 30% of prepared cocktail dollar share.

Talking Rain, the maker of flavored water brand Sparkling Ice, has appointed Rich DePencier as its first chief growth officer. Depencier comes to the brand with CPG industry experience working for companies like Procter and Gamble, Starbucks, Concordia Beverage Systems and PMI Worldwide. He has also served on a variety of brand board of directors as well as worked as business school professor and industry consultant and mentor.

📈 DePencier is expected to build on Sparkling Ice’s success by investing in creative marketing campaigns, new product launches, brand collaborations and partnerships, and new channel expansion.

🤔 "Sparkling Ice will also energize a whole new legion of Zillennial flavor lovers as the company goes all in with investments in R&D, brand management, best-in-class advertising and media firms, A-list talent, and a deep commitment to connect with them via new media platforms," he said.

💵 Talking Rain continues to be the largest sparkling water brand in the U.S., with sales up 39.5% in the 52-weeks ending December 13, according to NielsenIQ scanner data. Recently, the brand announced it was investing in new digital marketing innovation to give consumers an interactive shopping experience in the beverage aisle.

Get ready for our January Community Calls! This month, discover the secrets of exponential growth in CPG, learn how to navigate Whole Foods as a brand, dive into data-driven trends for building your beverage business, explore updates and best practices from the New Hope team for Expo West 2024, and hear from NielsenIQ on navigating today’s shopping trends. Read the story.