• 💸 Basemakers' AI Investing Approach
• 🤑 Heritage Achieves Profitability
• 🪧 Bigfoot Locks Out Strikers
• 🪫 Mondelez Kills Ghost Candy SKUs
• ⁉️ MAHA Wants To Change GRAS
• 🔀 Monday Moves

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Hemp-infused beverages are still a new thing, but Troy Brosnan is already relishing his second chance.

As we reported last week, Brosnan – an early success story in THC drinks with Massachusetts-based seltzer maker Levia – is formally returning to the category by leading a new beverage-focused division for vertically integrated supplier Monarch Emulsions.

It’s an opportunity to guide an ambitious portfolio of new national brands, but also a chance to heal some old wounds. As Bronson told us last week: “To have the opportunity to go out and do it right and really fulfill the dream that we had with Levia with a different brand is really what’s my driving factor.”

Here are three takeaways from our conversation:

Unfinished Business: Bronson stayed on at Levia for almost a year after the seltzer maker was snapped up by multi-state operator (MUSO) Ayr Wellness for $20 million in 2022, but the experience was far from happy. Reflecting now, he admits selling the company, and “trusting an MSO to follow through on their word” to take Levia into multiple new states, was his biggest mistake.

• That experience – plus some independent beverage consulting work – is part of Bronson’s motivation to help incubate young cannabis-infused brands in his new role at Monarch, offering opportunities to reduce COGS through breaks on co-packing and emulsion.

Ready to Run: Under Bronson’s guidance, Monarch has teed up four new independent brands (spinning from 5mg to 25mg THC) for release this summer: new zero-calorie seltzer Astral aimed for wide appeal, plus a soda (primed for Southern states), a high-sugar infused mocktail, and a mushroom and adaptogen-infused functional drink.

• Bronson said Monarch is “pretty close” to closing an agreement with a liquor distributor that will grant 24-month exclusivity for any brand in Monarch’s portfolio. 
• The distributor will also handle all sales and field marketing. Direct-to-consumer is coming, but the goal is to prioritize brick-and-mortar.

Big Picture: After two years of prep work, Monarch has assembled a nationwide network of nine co-packers (in states like Nevada, Michigan and Rhode Island) to produce products for a “15 to 20 brand” portfolio, said Bronson. There’s an imperative to scale Monarch quickly, and despite the Levia experience, an eventual exit is still on the cards.

🗣️“We’re trying to build the most well-rounded portfolio with great branding, great marketing and kind of become a bespoke brand in the space. And hopefully somebody sees us and says, ‘we want what you have.’”

Catch Up: Levia Seltzer Co-Founder to Lead New Infused Bev Firm

Artificial intelligence is popping up with a wide range of use cases throughout the CPG industry, from helping connect manufacturers and brands to informing product development. 

🦾 Basemakers’ new investment arm Back to Back VC will use AI to help guide funding opportunities, said founder Max Baumann.

🤔 Back to Back will use Basemakers’ data paired with other factors like customer lifetime value to customer acquisition cost (LTV/CAC) ratio to determine a brand’s long-term trajectory.

⏱️ The VC has not disclosed the size of its first fund, but it plans to deploy check sizes between $500,000 and $1 million starting in 2026 as the firm fine-tunes the algorithm and hires its staff.

💭 “We see this not just as a fund but as an intelligence engine. When you look at traditional VC today, they all talk about ‘value-add,’ but not too many of them have a full-service engine that has a provable way to drive sales velocity,” Baumann told BevNET recently.

Read the full story for all of the details.

Craft distiller Heritage Distilling Company posted its first profitable quarter in 2024, reporting 5.4% year-over-year revenue growth during its first full-year earnings report as a public company.

💪🏼 The Washington-based spirits company posted revenue of $8.4 million for the full-year with $2.1 million in gross profit.

🥃 The boon comes as Heritage expanded wholesale distribution into Kentucky, Oklahoma and Colorado and launched several new labels under its Salute Series brand.

🆙 The outlook is positive for the business going forward and Q1 2025 direct-to-consumer sales of the Salute Series have already surpassed Q4 2024.

Go Deeper: Heritage Distilling Completes IPO

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Teamsters at Oregon’s Bigfoot Beverages are ready to conclude their unfair labor practices strike after more than 200 days on the picket line, but now the union says that the Pepsi-aligned distributor is refusing to allow members to return to work.

🔒 The Teamsters allege Bigfoot is breaking the law with a lockout, and have called on the company to return to the bargaining table.

🗡️ Bigfoot hired replacement workers to resume operations amid the lengthy strike, which began last fall due to a dispute over retirement plans. The company now refuses to fire its new staff.

🚓 A labor expert told local Oregon news station KVAL last week that Bigfoot’s strategy may in fact be unlawful and the Teamsters said they are ready to fight it.

Go Deeper: Bigfoot Beverage Strike Continues

Mondelez subsidiaries filed a suit in an Illinois court against Ghost LLC, seeking to terminate a licensing agreement regarding the energy drink brand’s use of iconic Mondelez’s candy and confection brand flavors following Keurig Dr Pepper’s acquisition of beverage company. 

❌ The two subsidiaries – Intercontinental Great Brands LLC and Mondelez Canada Inc. – claim that Ghost breached the licensing agreement because it did not ask permission for the transfer before reassigning contractual rights. 

⛔ Mondelez is arguing that Ghost and KDP are risking confusing consumers about their connection to the candy giant and have "no legitimate reason or need" to keep using the marks, per Law360.

📝 The suit invokes a Lanham Act violation as well as an Illinois state law regarding deceptive trade practice. Mondelez has requested that the court halts the use of the marks, orders the destruction of any existing products produced with the flavors in question and award the plaintiffs damages. 

Catch Up: Keurig Dr Pepper To Acquire GHOST

Just like nearly every other facet of the federal government, the current administration is working to upend business as usual. One of its latest forays includes an effort to review the controversial Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) self-affirmation pathway, overseen by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

• In early March, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. met with food industry CEOs from PepsiCo, General Mills, J.M. Smucker, Kraft Heinz and W.K. Kellogg. 
• One day later, a fact sheet was pushed out proclaiming that HHS would conduct a review and assess rulemaking to “eliminate” the GRAS self-affirmation pathway. 
• That pathway evolved into the regulatory norm over the past fifty years so that manufacturers could still bring new ingredients to market while also keeping the chronically underresourced FDA in the loop.

But what does this mean? And could the administration feasibly execute this overhaul in the next four years?

Check out the full story for insight from the experts.

Here’s a taste of the people and products moving around the industry to start off your week. 

🥥 Once Upon a Coconut (OUAC) is rolling out to Raley’s stores across California and Nevada where the retailer will stock OUAC’s Pineapple, Chocolate and Watermelon flavors. 

💦 CVS and Walgreens are expanding their powder hydration sets with BIOLYTE On the Go packets starting next month in 6-count boxes of two flavors: Citrus and Punch.

👔 Nestlé appointed Jeff Hamilton, currently the business head of Purina PetCare Zone Europe, as chief executive officer Zone Americas (AMS), effective July 1. Hamilton succeeds Steve Presley, who is retiring from the company after nearly 30 years.  

🍸 Cocktail mixer brand Cheeky Cocktails named Jeff Church, founder and former CEO of Suja Juice, as an investor, member of the management team and strategic advisor to CEO April Wachtel. 

Catch up on more recent People Moves.