• ✨ BevNET Live Preview - 8 Days Away
• 📈 Lucky Energy Plots National Precense
• 🧑🏽‍💻 Online Grocery To Outpace Retail By 5.2x
• ☕ Coffee Roasters Call for Tariff Exemption
• 🥂 The Spirits Scoop

• 🎙️ Now Streaming: Taste Radio

There’s a booming market for food and beverage products – though maybe not the one that brands and entrepreneurs were expecting, writes managing editor Martin Caballero. 

The aftermarket for unsold food and beverage products is booming, according to a ModernRetail report this week, with a surging supply of premium items, a sign that the confluence of rising grocery prices, tight competition in key categories, and the influence of shifting dietary trends is having a material effect on the shelf. 

At secondary market broker Sotira, chips and cookies inventory has jumped over 50% year-over-year, while energy drinks and caffeinated beverages are up 75%. Those items, suggested Sotira co-founder and CEO Amrita Bhasin, may be declining in the wake of both the price hikes from major conglomerates and the rise of GLP-1 drugs. 

But there’s also more “healthy” drinks (non-alc alternatives, sparkling water) in the secondary market now, said Louise Fritjofsson of online retailer Martie. Why? Blame TikTok. 

• Fritojfsson said there’s been “overproduction and an overestimation” of how many brands can succeed, while Bhasin is seeing athlete and celebrity-backed beverages languish: “All of a sudden, the TikTok hype went away, and now there’s a ton sitting in the warehouse.”

The situation reflects the current reality that sitting on inventory is a luxury many cash-strapped brands can’t afford. That revenue can allow a young startup to stay in the game – even if it means selling off products with 1.5 years left of shelf-life, in some cases. 

Those conditions seem to forecast more expansion for operations like Martie, which grew general merchandise value (GMV) 300% from 2023 to 2024. “With this market and our position, we can go a lot faster,” Fritjofsson said.

Insiders can read the full story on BevNET.

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BevNET Live returns to NYC this June 11–12, and the stage is set for the New Beverage Showdown, presented by Coca-Cola’s New Revenue Streams unit. Twelve emerging brands will pitch live to top execs from Coca-Cola, Whole Foods, and Hart Brands.

Meet the semifinalists: AVSOME, Cómo No, Deadless, FUZZEE, HY.Q, Jubilee’s, Kif, Lemonuka, Liquid Youth, Lucky Ox, OOSO, and Zenjoy.

👉 Join 625+ industry leaders at BevNET Live. Limited Seats Remain!

Bev-alc private equity firm InvestBev identified itself as a new investor in Lucky Energy on Monday, shedding light on the brand’s strategy to become a national player. 

⚡ With over $40 million already raised in less than two years and plans to possibly double that amount this summer, the energy drink brand founded by Kate Farms founder Richard Laver is preparing to hit 17,000 retail doors by the end of the year.

🛒 Building out from its base in New York, California and Texas, Lucky Energy has a goal of reaching between 30,000 to 40,000 doors nationally by the end of 2026.

🏪 The caffeinated drink maker plans to tap foodservice, liquor stores and a potential portfolio expansion into other use occasions like mixers to expand its consumer base and national footprint.

💬 “[The] big picture is to be a $100 million revenue company in the next eighteen months. To get where we’re going, we need elite partners onboard,” Laver told BevNET yesterday.

Read the full story on BevNET. 

Online grocery sales in the U.S. are expected to outpace retail growth by 5.2x through 2029, with a total CAGR of 8.9%, according to a new forecast from Brick Meets Click.

• The report predicts that online sales – including pickup, delivery and ship-to-home, will account for 17% of all grocery sales by the end of 2029.
• For context, online grocery sales grew 9% in 2024, with strong promo activity in the back half of the year helping boost sales.

⁉️ So what’s behind the surge? BMC suggests the Trump administration’s strict immigration policy is likely to slow down retail sales, while tariffs and other trade policy shifts are likely to drive grocery inflation as well as changes to SNAP which “threaten to reduce payments overall.”

Go Deeper: Retailer Confidence Drops 15 Points Since 2024

The coffee industry is banding together to push back against the threat of tariffs, calling for coffee to be exempt from all U.S. tariffs in order to protect businesses and maintain reasonable pricing.

• Coffee Bros. Roastery is leading the charge, gathering 10,000 signatures from coffee industry professionals to support the action.
• Co-founder Dan Hunnewell warned that “tariffs, rising costs, and global instability” are threatening small roasters and that companies are being forced to choose between “raising prices or compromising on quality just to survive.”
• Poor harvests in South America are already driving the price of coffee beans up and tariffs – which have been an unpredictable on-again, off-again ordeal since January – would cause further price spikes, the company cautioned.

From the desk of Spirits Editor Ferron Salniker, here are the latest intoxicating updates…

A big shakeup in bev-alc wholesaling is underway as the country’s second-largest distributor, Republic National Distributing Company (RNDC), pulled out of California on Monday. Here's the scoop:

• RNDC plans to shutter operations in the country’s largest spirits market at the beginning of September, after major players like Brown-Forman, Cutwater, Tito's, and High Noon all ditched the distributor’s Golden State operations this year. 
• Last week, Brown-Forman said it would leave RNDC in other states as well.
• CEO Bob Hendrickson called it a "difficult business decision,” but a spokesperson for the company said more information on next steps would be available in the coming days. 
• In a leaked video, the CEO told employees the company tried “everything in its means to remain solvent in California” and “couldn’t find a path.” 

We’ll be checking in with spirits suppliers on what this means for them as they seek out wholesale partners in the Golden State, stay tuned. 

In the meantime, Insiders can read the full story.

With President Trump's sweeping tariffs in limbo (again) we spoke to leaders of two emerging vodka companies on the opposite end of the price spectrum to hear how they’ve worked to navigate choppy waters.

• Spirits companies are reevaluating everything from pricing to supply chain to expansion while walking a tightrope to keep products affordable. 
• Over half of consumers would ditch their favorite brand if prices jump 10%, according to consumer research from Zappi.

💲 High-end Double Cross Vodka is tightening its belt and getting creative with their supplier. They’ve negotiated terms with their European distillery so that they can hold off on price increases for now… But that’ll change if competitors like Grey Goose decide to go up. 

🔎 Meanwhile, value-priced Industry Spirits is facing the return of a 145% tariff on imported glass if the Chinese tariff truce collapses, and the uncertainty is making it hard to plan. Fortunately, craft spirit suppliers are, well, crafty. 

Read the story for the full scoop.

Ayeshah Abuelhiga, the founder and CEO of Mason Dixie Foods, shares how she's taking on the legacy CPG heavyweights by building a bold, next-generation frozen food brand. She dives into how the company harnesses consumer insights, rigorous cost discipline and category whitespace to expand and how Mason Dixie is reshaping the definition of “natural” for modern shoppers.

Listen to the episode now. Also available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.