• 🤖 Owoc Working With Robots
• 🍸 A Drink with Fernet’s Chris Watt
• 🕷️ Tom Holland Launches Bero
• 🪴 Inside The New Cannabev Group 
• 👔 Nestlé’s New CEO Seeks Efficiency 
• 🦊 Foxtrot Reopens Third Location
• 🥃 Craft Distillers Prepare For Tariffs

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After a busy six months for the newly established company, Generous Brands is launching a slate of new products as it positions itself towards an “all beverage, all-the-time” strategy, according to chief revenue officer Phil Kooy.

Quick Rewind: In May, Butterfly Equity separated Bolthouse Farms fresh produce segment from its beverages and salad dressings and the Evolution Fresh label. The move was intended to put more resources to consumer-facing products under Generous Brands. In June, the newly minted management vehicle signed an integrated partnership with Sambazon, which had been a co-packing client for the last 15 months.

Now, three months later, Generous Brands has leveraged its production and distribution scale to launch a suite of new drinks as it transitions into what it is calling a “dedicated beverage company.”

The focus on beverages was made in an effort to lift topline numbers across the company’s portfolio where the Bolthouse Farms and Evolution Fresh brands have had mixed dollar sales results recently. Adding to that, Generous Brands is keeping its ear to the ground for other possible acquisition, merger or partnership targets to further its reach in refrigerated drinks, Kooy told BevNET.

The new products include two Sambazon Superfruit drinks that lean into the refrigerated smoothie category as well as “renovating” the brand’s canned Amazon Energy line. Generous Brands also added two new flavors to its Evolution Fresh Real Fruit Soda line – Cherry Cola and Pineapple Dragon Fruit – as it tries to find more shelf-pace among consumers' desire for more gut-health-positioned sodas.

The strategy is focused on where consumers are “looking for on-the-go opportunities,” Kooy said: “You got to fish where the fish are.”

But Generous Brands is not just fishing for customers seeking digestive health, carbonated soft drinks and functional juice blends; it is also hoping to go deeper in the cold case with the launch of a white-label juice program intended to be a turnkey supplier for in-store juice bars and retailers via HPP.  

“We want to be a stronger partner for retail and foodservice customers where they’re saying, ‘Wow, you guys are showing up with winning solutions in just about every set,’” Kooy said.

Read more about Generous Brands “all beverage, all-the-time” strategy on BevNET.

Jack Owoc is back with a… well, not with a bang, but rather with Ai Energy, a new energy drink brand looking to tie itself to the artificial intelligence boom.

⚡ Owoc’s return to beverage after the collapse of his company Vital Pharmaceuticals (VPX) was first reported earlier this month, but the new brand now has a live website and an Instagram page where it promises to “ignite your supernatural, energetic creativity by innovating unique formulas that deliver unparalleled experiences.”

🧠 Messaging around the brand plays on the rise of AI programs in recent years, with Owoc – who claims on the website that he and his wife “have become experts in artificial intelligence” – claiming the brand’s mental energy boost looks to help humanity stay sharp and alert as the gap between machine and human intelligence becomes “infinitely greater.” He also says the drink has improved his drumming.

🍇 Ai Energy is available for preorder in Blue Raspberry, Grape, Peach and Watermelon flavors. Each 12 oz. can contains 200 mg of caffeine as part of a 700 mg “NeuroSync” nootropic blend with supplements such as L-theanine, N-Acetyl L-Tyrosine, CDP Citicoline (for focus and memory), Mucuna Pruriens Powder and Huperzine-A. The drinks are available in 12-packs for $36.

🧑🏻‍⚖️ Reminder: The launch comes as Owoc is still frequently in the courtroom battling lawsuits from the bankruptcy of VPX. Last month, a Florida judge denied Owoc’s bid to toss a lawsuit alleging that the company's profits “were based on deception,” according to Law360.

If you’ve worked in the service industry it’s likely your induction was taking a shot of Fernet-Branca, the Italian amaro brand that’s become the darling of bartenders.

🤝 On the heels of a “secret handshake” tour we spoke to Branca USA’s CEO Chris Watt about how he is building on the brand’s natural momentum originally built by bartenders in San Francisco. 

☀️ That Bay Area passion for the brand has slowly spread across the U.S., and Watt said the team thinks long and hard about how to continue to excite and pay homage to the on-prem community that has helped it grow. There’s a new limited edition bottle, coins that have become rare collectables, and more surprises coming. 

🔊 The big question though, is who drinks Fernet besides bartenders? “As we all know, bartenders often don't stay bartenders forever, and they certainly don't only hang out with bartenders,” he said. 

Check out the full interview for more insight into Watt’s strategy.

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The NA beer segment is getting an A-list boost. Hollywood star Tom Holland’s new non-alcoholic (NA) beer brand Bero debuted yesterday with three styles, backed by consumer product-centric investment firm Imaginary Ventures and led by CEO John Herman, an energy drink veteran with 20 years of experience.

🍺 The brand launch portfolio includes Kingston Golden Pils, Edge Hill Hazy IPA and Noon Wheat. All are pasteurized and available in 12 oz. can 6-, 12-, 18- and 24-packs, as well as variety 12-packs, according to the release. 

🚚 Bero is selling directly to consumers from its own website, with plans to launch nationally in Target in early 2025 via an in-progress network of beer distributors. For the remainder of the fourth quarter of 2024, Bero’s strategy is to focus on the on-premise in New York City and Los Angeles, Herman said. 

BevNET Insiders can access the full scoop on Spiderman’s new NA brew.

The regulatory environment for hemp-derived beverages is pretty complicated these days and that’s a key reason why the Coalition for Adult Beverage Alternatives (CABA) launched yesterday. The group is made up of not only hemp beverage brands and producers but also stakeholders like retailers and alcohol distributors.

👀 As the federal government prepares to reauthorize the Farm Bill in 2025, CABA is advocating for proper age restrictions, third-party testing, standardized packaging and labeling requirements, prevention of marketing to minors, transparent ingredient sourcing, and clear THC beverage dosage and serving guidelines 

🧐 The organization has hired lobbying firms Thorn Run Partners and S-3 Group and will be led by Cann CEO Jake Bullock and VP of marketing and business development at SōRSE Technology Diana Eberlein, who also is president of the Cannabis Beverage Association (CBA).

💬 “The CBA will support CABA’s lobbying efforts on Capitol Hill by donating a percentage of its dues to this initiative while the CBA continues to focus its efforts on education at the state-level and with strategic partners in bev-alc,” Eberlein told BevNET.

Nestlé reported weaker-than-expected results in its most recent earnings report last week, and it’s already sparking change at the Swiss consumer goods giant. Laurent Freixe, the company’s new CEO as of September, is reducing the size of Nestlé's executive board and merging several international departments in hopes of reinvigorating anemic sales growth, with full-year projections slashed from 3% in July to now 2%.

🗺️ First up, Nestlé is consolidating its five geographic zones into three: Zone Americas (North America and Latin America), Zone Asia, Oceania and Africa, and Zone Europe.

⏩ The changes are aimed at improving efficiency: zone leaders will report directly to Freixe, while a slimmed down executive board “will increase simplicity, speed up decision-making and strengthen the momentum behind global initiatives.”

☕ Analysts have criticized Nestlé’s hesitation on prices – a 1.6% nine-month increase was lower than expected – while the company argues that soaring coffee and cocoa prices has made its cost dynamics less flexible.

Foxtrot Café & Market, the resurrected spin-off of the modern convenience store chain, announced the reopening of its third Chicago location today.

☕ Located in the Wicker Park neighborhood, the grand opening will feature promotions including free coffee as well as discounted happy hour drinks later this week. Last week the company announced the return of its online ordering platform.

🔍 The news comes as the original business remains under scrutiny after it failed to pay vendors following its abrupt closure and bankruptcy filing in May. 

On this episode of the CPG Week podcast, BevNET spirits editor Ferron Salniker joins Nosh managing editor Monica Watrous and senior reporters Lukas Southard and Brad Avery to share details from her recent feature about how craft distillers have been pulled into a long simmering trade war. The group discusses the history of export taxes on American-made products, the impending reinstatement of various tariffs that impact liquor makers and what the potential impact could be on smaller producers.

Listen to this week’s episode now.

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