• 🚨 Breaking: Nutpods Sells to Kroger-Backed MPearlRock
• ⛽ ICYMI: Drizly Runs Out of Gas
• 🤝 Diddy Can Stop, Will Stop Diageo Suit
• 📊 Data: Spirits Hit $21.1B Off-Prem, But Flatten W/O RTDs
• 🌊 Ocean Spray, Absolut Collab Arrives

Nutpods, the plant-based coffee creamer brand founded in 2013 by Madeline Haydon, has been acquired by Kroger-backed investment group MPearlRock, the company announced this morning. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Having emerged as an early entrant in the non-dairy creamer category, Nutpods bridged the gap from e-commerce exclusive product to develop into a national player with a presence in 15,000 retail stores, and is the top-selling plant-based creamer within natural retail, according to the brand. The company took on investment from VMG Partners in 2019, and has since expanded into ready-to-drink products and collaborations with brands like Chamberlain Coffee. 

“We are proud to join MPearlRock in the next stage of our brand’s evolution. Brian’s background with leading global consumer brands coupled with MPearlRock’s capabilities and resources makes them an ideal growth partner for us,” Haydon said in a statement. “We are excited to reach more consumers in new channels and new product verticals who allow us to become part of their daily coffee ritual.”

The deal marks an auspicious debut for New York-based asset management group MPearlRock, a partnership between PearlRock Partners (a division of Kroger) and New York-based asset management group MidOcean Partners that’s described as “a strategic collaboration to introduce emerging consumer packaged goods (“CPG”) brands to new customers.”

Announced last week, the new entity aims to pair MidOcean’s investment expertise with consumer brands and “Kroger’s deep retail and CPG experience” through the leveraging of retail data science and insights its from in-house analytics team, 84.51° The group is headed by former Keurig CEO Brian Kelley.

“We have been following nutpods for the past few years and have been impressed with Madeline’s vision and disciplined approach and how she built strong customer loyalty by developing and marketing a truly superior product,” said Kelley.

He continued: “nutpods is a remarkable entrepreneurial success story that exemplifies the businesses and management teams with whom we seek to partner. We are thrilled to support the next chapter in nutpods’ evolution and are delighted to work with Madeline and her team to accelerate growth and provide the resources to best position the brand to deliver unique, healthy products to loyal and new customers.”

Per the press release, Piper Sandler & Co. served as financial advisors, and Holland & Hart and Gibson Dunn acted as legal advisors.

Uber has decided to shut down Drizly just three years after acquiring the alcohol e-commerce delivery platform for $1.1 billion.

 🚚Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty, Uber's SVP of delivery, in a statement to Axios (which first reported the news), said the company has decided to close Drizly in order to focus on its “core UberEats strategy of helping consumers get almost anything — from food to groceries to alcohol — on a single app.”

📉 There were hints before that the current structure was undergoing changes: last May, Drizly made company-wide layoffs, affecting approximately 100 rolls as part of a corporate restructure while it began “integrating certain operations into Uber for a strategically aligned, centralized BevAlc vision,” the company told Brewbound at the time. 

Read the full story on BevNET

The Diddy and Diageo saga has come to an end. 

The legal battle was kicked off last May by allegations from Sean “Diddy” Combs that his vodka and tequila brands received worse treatment because of his race. Now, the music mogul and spirits group “have now agreed to resolve all disputes between them,” read a statement from Diageo this morning. 

🪢 The parties have severed ties permanently: Diageo and Combs have no ongoing business relationship, either with respect to Cîroc vodka or DeLeón tequila, which Diageo now solely owns, per the statement. Diageo currently and always has fully owned Cîroc, having partnered with Combs solely on brand marketing.

🙅‍♂️ The settlement comes after Diageo’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit and its motion to force the case into arbitration were both denied (which would’ve engaged the two parties behind closed doors versus publicly).

✍️ In the age of celebrity spirits, the legal battle has been cited by BevAlc lawyers as one reason why agreements between celebrities and liquor companies should have morality clauses for both sides. There are other lessons to be learned too, even for non-celebrity partnerships.

Read the full story on BevNET

The expected closure date of the proposed $24.6 million mega-merger between the nation’s two largest grocery chains, Kroger and Albertsons, has been pushed out to the first half of Kroger’s FY 2024. The updated timeline is a result of continuing dialogue between the companies and regulators. 

⏪In September, the grocery chains announced they had entered into a $1.9 billion divestiture agreement with C&S wholesale grocers intended to appease antitrust regulators reviewing the proposed merger.

🤔Though the merger has received mounting scrutiny from consumers, union members, brands, and federal organizations alike, the two grocers maintain their defense that the deal will result in lower prices and more choices for customers. 

🧑‍⚖️Coinciding with the timeline update, Washington state’s attorney general yesterday filed a lawsuit seeking to block the merger, claiming it would hurt consumers and raise prices in the Evergreen State where the two retailers account for more than half of all grocery sales.

Off-premise spirits sales topped $21.1 billion in 2023 according to market research firm NIQ. But ready-to-drink cocktails are driving growth for the category, and spirits dollars remained flat with volume down when the segment was extracted. Here are the top level numbers:

😐 Spirits were up 0.1% in value and down 2.2% in volume in the last 52 weeks ending December 30 compared to the previous year’s period. 

💸 When it comes to dollar share, tequila (+5.1%) and whiskey (+2.8%) are leading positive trends compared to 2022, but trailing behind RTDs' growth (+44.2%).

🍸 Premium-plus spirits were resilient this year, but flat as the mid-tier picked up in those same spirit categories.

For more on what categories are leading innovation dollars and what channels are driving growth, read the full story on BevNET.

After the brands announced last spring that a ready-to-drink (RTD) line was on its way, Absolut and Ocean Spray’s much-hyped range of Vodka-Cranberry cocktails is here. 

🍇 The fruity lineup includes Vodka Cranberry, Vodka Cran-Grape, Vodka Cran-Pineapple and Vodka Cran-Raspberry, which come in an 8-count variety pack, single flavor 4-pack or single cans.

👭 Positioning the new cocktails in time for “Galentine’s Day” the brands have tapped besties and podcast hosts Becca Tilley and Tanya Rad to kick off the promotional campaign. 

▶️ The foray into a cocktail partnership marks another non-alcoholic beverage company crossing over into alcoholic beverages, and the French spirit company’s first collaboration with a non-alcoholic CPG brand. But we already know it’s not the last, as the Absolut Vodka & Sprite RTD is slated to drop this year.

🤔 The collaborations come as analysts have flagged the need for Pernod Ricard’s newest acquisitions and innovations to pick up the slack as its flagship brand Jameson faces a natural growth slowdown.