• 🐰 The Latest Non-Alc Bev Sales Data
• 📈 Lifeway's Growth Streak Continues
• 🥃 Middle West Spirits Acquires Old Elk
• 🤝 Odeko Acquires Humankind Beverage
• 🚰 Nestlé Exec Accused Of Perjury
• 📜 Maryland Passes EPR Bill
• 🆕 What Else Is New?

📈 Numbers don’t lie, but it appears they can hide: the latest analysis of NielsenIQ sales data (through May 3) from Goldman Sachs Equity Research is not as complete as previous editions, but we still managed to extract some of the broad strokes in non-alc beverage.

• CSDs were up 6.5% in the 4-weeks and energy drinks picked up speed 11.1%
• All the while sports drinks were down 3.9% for 4-weeks and RTD coffee slumped 4.1%. 
• Coconut water hasn’t felt the pinch of on-again, off-again tariff policies, or at least not yet.

Read the full story on BevNET for more on how categories fared in the two weeks since the Easter holiday.

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Kefir and farmer cheese maker Lifeway Foods is keeping its growth streak going, marking its 22nd consecutive quarter of year-over-year gains during Q1 2025, per an earnings report this week.

🥛 Net sales were up 3.3% to $46.1 million the quarter, although headwinds included higher milk prices and promo and slotting fee costs related to increased distribution.

💉 CEO Julie Smolyansky said marketing around GLP-1 drug users has been promising for the brand and the company will continue to focus on positioning its products as helping to “naturally stimulate GLP-1 hormone production.”

📍 So far this year, Lifeway has secured commitments for over 2,000 new points of distribution across all its product lines.

Read the full story on BevNET.

Another independent spirits company has transformed into a buyer. Ohio’s Middle West Spirits – one of the largest independently owned American distilleries – announced the acquisition of Old Elk Distillery on Tuesday. The Colorado-based business is known for its innovative whiskey blending and proofing process. 

• The acquisition will combine Old Elk's brand momentum with Middle West's robust infrastructure, which supports nearly 20 SKUs across its whiskey, gin and vodka portfolios. 
• The deal continues the trend of craft and mid-size distillers turning to M&A to gain market share – take Uncle Nearest’s purchase of Square One Organic Spirits or Heritage Distilling Co expanding its reach with the purchase of Thinking Tree Spirits as additional evidence.

Go Deeper: A Quartet of Spirits Trends for 2025

Talk about high visibility retail: With more than 50,000 concerts and festivals last year, Live Nation events brought in more than 150 million thirsty customers, and concert attendance keeps rising.

Recently, Live Nation started investing in rising CPG brands, and attendees of BevNET Live on June 11 & 12 in New York City will have the chance to learn about the way these partnerships work through the lens of JOLENE Coffee, a brand co-founded by celebrities Anthony Kiedis and Shane Powers with investment by Live Nation, Global Brand Equities, and the h.wood group.

Get all of the details here. Secure your ticket today.

Odeko – an operations and technology partner to coffee shops, cafes, and other food and beverage businesses – announced it has acquired Lancaster, Pennsylvania-based Humankind Beverage. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

☕ Humankind is a distributor of bottled water, tea, lemonade and other cafe products with a customer base of over 500 coffeeshops. The distributor donates a portion of every bottled beverage sold to support clean water access globally.

🚛 Odeko’s acquisition will open its presence in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions, bringing its smart operations software to more retail partners and providing a new arm of the business in which Odeko will expand Humankind sales nationally.

🤑 In April 2023, Odeko secured a $53 million Series D round led by existing investor B Capital, bringing its total funding at the time to $177 million.

Siri, please translate “You can’t handle the truth!” to French.

💭 We’re imagining that was the scene in the French Senate following accusations a Nestlé executive lied in testimony delivered during an investigation of contamination issues at a local water manufacturing line, which produces bottled water brands such as Perrier and Contrex.

🗝️ The alleged perjurer – Ronan Le Fanic, the global head of technical and production at Nestlé Waters –  could face five years in prison and a €75,000 ($83,322) penalty if convicted. 

📝 Nestle has already admitted to violating French laws governing mineral water, which sparked a promise last month from CEO Laurent Freixe to conduct an internal audit of its water production in France. 

❌ The company has also already received an “unfavorable opinion” from hydrogeologists on the continued use of wells for natural mineral water production at its Vergèze facility in southern France.

Go Deeper: Nestle To Sell Waters Business Unit

Maryland has officially become the sixth state with an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) packaging law intended to encourage manufacturers to create packaging that can be recycled, reused and/or composted.

♻️ The law is intended to create a “more efficient, circular system for managing packaging and paper,” said Maryland State Sen. Malcolm Augustine.

🍶 Both industry and recycling groups were pleased with the bill, per PackagingDive, with industry group the Circular Action Alliance participating in the state’s EPR advisory board ahead of the passage.

👥 The program is expected to help local municipalities cover the costs of recycling collection, transportation and processing.

It’s Hump Day! Here’s a taste of the new drops and activations from the first half of the week.

🇻🇳 Vietnamese coffee brand Cafely is calling its latest release – BanMe – a “contender for the world’s strongest coffee.” The blend uses peaberry and robusta coffee beans to pack a caffeinated punch.

🥤 Jordan’s Skinny Mixes introduced a Soda Collection featuring Orange Soda, Cherry Cola and Root Beer Float syrups containing zero calories and zero sugar. Each 750 mL bottle is priced at $8.99 and makes up to 12 sodas.

🖍️ Ever read the names of crayon colors and think they sounded delicious? Apparently someone at Jones Soda did – the craft soda brand teamed up with Crayola for a co-branded 12-pack with flavors inspired by crayons.

⚡ Functional shot brand Ryde: (yeah, the colon is part of the name) is launching in the U.S. and teamed up with reality star Heidi Montag for a campaign featuring a musical number about “zapping” her breasts. It’s okay, we’re a little confused too.

Get more new products news on BevNET.