• 🇺🇲 Distribution: Retail Partnerships Ramp Up 
• 📸 Celebrity Wire: Messi Goes ‘Mas’
• 📈 BevAlc Sales Return to Modest Growth
• 🏀 Steph Curry Finds Nirvana
• ☕ Patrick Mahomes Drinks A Lot Of Coffee. And He Wants To Share

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The lessons retired U.S. Navy SEAL lieutenant commander Jocko Willink learned in the military, and in war, have influenced everything he’s done since – from building a media brand, authoring multiple books and to running a consulting firm. His tenure in the beverage business, with his namesake Jocko Fuel brand, is no different. 

But as he looks to expand the brand, there are new battles to fight: Can he conquer the field of DSD? Can he build a brand that can thrive beyond its namesake founder?

Jocko Fuel makes a line of energy and protein drinks and next month will extend its platform into hydration with the Jocko Hydrate line. The brand has cultivated a message around health and wellness, serving as a clean alternative to competing beverages.

The brand has raised over $30 million from institutional investors and also brought Marvel actor Chris Pratt to the cap table last year.

We spoke with Jocko and his team about their approach to the market, including a heightened focus on DSD and distribution expansion this year, as well as their game plan to convert new consumers unfamiliar with Willink’s work as a podcaster and author.

“We are in full brand awareness mode right now," said Cameron Fischer, brand marketing director. "The thing about Jocko, the beauty of him, is I’ve never seen a person cross the full spectrum of c-suite executives down to local farmer the way that he does, and that that certainly helps us. Now for us, it’s looking outside of that core consumer though and where do we go next? How do we expand the brand? How do we make it more approachable?”

Read the full story on BevNET for more details on Jocko’s growth tactics.

Beverage brands don’t take the summer off: if anything, as the temperatures rise people grab more RTDs. Everything from prebiotic iced teas to flavored sparkling water and non-alcoholic spritzes are expanding their retail footprint. Let’s see what’s coming off the lines:

🍋 Gut-friendly iced tea brand Halfday will launch in Kroger banner stores nationwide including King Soopers/City Market, Fred Meyer and Ralphs. This adds over 700 new doors to the low sugar, prebiotic canned tea maker’s footprint and features its Peach, Lemon and Raspberry flavors.

💀 Liquid Death is now available in a 12 oz. can format and its new variety 24-pack is available in select Costco locations. The multi-pack features the Severed Lime, Convicted Melon and Mango Chainsaw flavors.

🍹 Non-alc spritz company Mocktail Club reported its four flavors (Havana Twist, Manhattan Berry, Capri Spritz and Bombay Fire) are now in 130 Safeway stores in Northern California. Mocktail Club has been building a robust network and the news follows a 700 door expansion last month that brought the brand to Target x Sèchey’s non-alcoholic set.

🏋🏽 Big Dwayne Energy is coming to Gopuff. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s ZOA Energy today announced that 10 flavors are now available in more than 1,000 cities on the e-commerce grocery delivery platform.

Even as he floats in and out of the starting lineup at MLS league leaders Inter Miami FC, Argentine soccer superstar Lionel Messi is apparently hard at work on his forthcoming hydration beverage venture in partnership with Mark Anthony Brands. In an Instagram post yesterday, Messi revealed the product name: Mas+ by Messi (like “more,” but with… more?), which in his words “captures what my life and career have always been about.”

• It’s not the most groundbreaking of names – think of extensions like Voss+ or Zoa+, or basically every streaming TV service – but it’s an important distinction, as Latino-focused energy drink Mas is already out there.

Meanwhile, 2024 is quickly turning into the Golden Age of Celebrity Coffee – though, it should be noted, “celebrity” can be a flexible term. As noted by Daily Coffee News, this past week has seen more hats tossed into the ring, ranging from award-winners like Super Bowl champ Pat Mahomes (see this week’s Taste Radio) and 5x Grammy honorees Green Day, to indicted former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

• Ironically, what does that diversity reflect? Unity! Whoever you are or you support, we all need a bit more coffee.

Total BevAlc sales growth found a slight rebound in the two-week period ending May 4, with dollar sales up 0.3%, compared to -0.7% in the four-weeks, according to an analysis of NielsenIQ data by Goldman Sachs Equity Research. The data offers a glimpse of fast moving categories and brands like:

• Spirit-based RTDs, up 12.2% in the two-weeks, a slight dip from +12.8% in the four-weeks but plateauing from +35.3% in the 52-weeks.
• High Noon continued to excel with a 26.6% increase in the two-weeks, but cooled a bit. On the other hand, lapping its one-year anniversary, Jack Daniel’s RTD dollar sales growth dropped sharply, down by 24.6% in the two-weeks, a major slowdown compared to +130.4% in the 52-weeks.
• In another hot category, FMB sales accelerated in the two-week period at +5.1%, compared to +4.2% in the four-weeks, lead by Hard Tea, which rose by 22.5% in the two-weeks, maintaining strong performance relative to +21.3% in the four-weeks and +34.2% in the 52-weeks.

Read our full recap for more stats.

NBA All-Star Stephen Curry can seemingly find a basket from anywhere on the court, but now he’s found Nirvana. The Golden State Warriors point guard has partnered with Nirvana Water Sciences Corp. as an investor and strategic brand ambassador, backing the brand’s line of Nirvana Super Waters and Seltzers.

🌴 Nirvana makes a line of functional bottled waters made with HMB, an ingredient that helps build muscle mass.

🏈 Curry joins other athletes at Nirvana’s cap table, including fellow NBA star Kyle Lowry, and pro footballers Patrick Willis, Brian Dawkins, Jonathan Stewart and Tommy Townsend.

🤽 This isn’t Curry’s first rodeo in the water biz. In 2020, he took an equity stake in oxygen-infused water brand Oxigen, but that company has since gone quiet and its website is now offline.

🧺 What he said: "I recently discovered the power of Nirvana Super and the incredible effects HMB has on my body reducing recovery time during the grind of my fifteenth NBA season. Adding Nirvana Super Waters into my wellness routine earlier this season helped me achieve my goal of making it through another grueling season.” – Steph Curry

NFL superstar Patrick Mahomes and former BodyArmor executive Michael Fedele, the lead investor and founder, respectively, of better-for-you coffee brand Throne Sport Coffee, explain how a genuine connection helped formalize a business relationship, why Throne’s target audience includes both health-minded athletes and blue-collar workers, and the company’s initial focus on C-stores.

Listen to the episode now.