• 🦸 Jordan DeCicco Now Super Coffee Interim CEO
• ⛳ Bob Does Sports Swings into RTDs
• ✍️ Jimbo’s Pens Goodbye (For Now) to GT's
• ☀️ High Noon Launches Hard Tea
• 💳 CPG Week: Cannabis and Credit Woes

The popularity of flavored beers is on the rise. From fruity sour beers to barrel-aged stouts, the flavor choices are wide-ranging. And, if you have questions about creating a successful and delicious new brewery product, the Product Development team at Allen Flavors has the answers you need. Learn more

Los Angeles-based private equity firm Butterfly announced today it has officially separated the agriculture segment of Bolthouse Farms from its fresh juice and salad dressing business with the establishment of Generous Brands.

Under the new arrangement, Bolthouse Fresh Foods will operate as the standalone produce provider predominately dealing in the 100-year-old company’s carrot business. The new entity, Generous Brands, will manage the beverage, juice and salad dressing segments.

Former president and COO Bill Levisay hinted at the new structure upon announcing his retirement at the beginning of the year. Butterfly acquired Bolthouse Farms from Campbell Soup Company in 2019 for $510 million and said this move was always part of their investment thesis, according to co-founder and co-CEO Adam Waglay, in a press statement.

The separation was facilitated by separate debt recapitalizations of each business. It is expected to “enable accelerated growth via increased flexibility for investment in capabilities as well as acquisitions,” the company said in the announcement.

Butterfly operating partner Jeff Dunn (who previously served as president and CEO of the Bolthouse Farms from 2008 until 2012) will serve as executive chairman of both Bolthouse Fresh Foods and Generous Brands. Two new CEOs have been appointed, former Dole Fresh Vegetables president Timothy Escamilla and former Kraft Heinz president of Fresh, Beverages and Desserts Steve Cornell will lead Bolthouse and Generous, respectively.

“This separation is proof that the future of value creation within private equity is grounded in deep operational expertise and transformation through specialization, and we could not be more appreciative of the amount of work, creativity and collaboration that went into this from all teams," said Dunn. "By separating, each business is now unleashed to drive its own unique growth strategy to ultimately deliver more fresh, healthy food for more people.”

Another DeCicco is back in the driver’s seat at Kitu Life (Super Coffee). After Jimmy had a turn from 2015 to 2022, chief operating officer and original company founder Jordan DeCicco is stepping in as interim CEO, closing out Tyler Ricks’ run with the Texas-based coffee specialists.

☕ Ricks, an investor in Super Coffee since 2018, helped execute a strategic pivot towards profitability upon becoming CEO in December 2022, highlighted by an 80% reduction in EBITDA losses and a reshuffling of the brand’s expansive portfolio, he told BevNET; that pivot is around 90% complete, he estimated.

💬 DeCicco: “I think we really achieved a lot of what Tyler was brought on to help us do. We feel we have a foundation and team and product strategy to keep that going. So I’m ready for it.”

The vast majority of shoppers (82%) can’t match influencers to the brands they own, according to a new report from Numerator – but influencer or celebrity brands are still popping up everywhere. One company is even making influencer-backed RTDs its focus. 

• After serial entrepreneur Alexander Melillo and Roar Organics founder Roly Nesi teamed up in 2021 to launch Chido, a 5% ABV four-SKU tequila cocktail, the team is taking that template and repeating it with lifestyle brands. 
• The first is Have A Day from Bob Does Sports, a golf entertainment brand, that is adding a line of canned tequila cocktails to its ecosystem of social content, a podcast, merchandise and events. 

We explored how Melillo and Nesi’s model will continue selecting partners, what the lifecycle of an influencer RTD looks like and how Have A Day aims to compete with the other tequila cocktails on the shelf. Check out the full story on BevNET for all of the insights.

Organic ingredients may not be a dealbreaker to most retail stores or customers, but for a dyed-in-the-wool natural grocer like Jimbo’s in Southern California, it absolutely is. 

⛔ The store announced in a letter last month that it was pulling GT’s Kombucha from shelves after a change in its organic certification status.

💸 As Jimbo’s president and namesake Jimbo Someck explained in a call, dropping the store’s best-selling kombucha wasn’t a savvy business decision: “We’ve held to standards, even when it wasn’t in the best interest of our bottom line.”

🤔 Someck walked away from a conversation with GT’s founder and CEO GT Dave feeling “as if his commitment to organics wasn’t the priority I hoped it would be.” 

❌ But a spokesperson for GT’s Living Foods defended the decision as an alternative to price hikes: “As some of our products now hit prices as high as $4.99, the thought of further raising costs and limiting access for consumers was simply inconceivable.”

Check out the full story on BevNET for more on the kombucha controversy.

Leading RTD maker High Noon is getting on the hard tea bandwagon with a new iced tea and vodka line, announced today. 

• High Noon is following major players like Boston Beer and the success of independents like Surfside, looking for opportunity in the malt tea trade-ups. 
• The announcement comes on the heels of Surfside’s national expansion and new flavors news.
• High Noon's hard teas will come in Original, Peach, Lemon and Raspberry flavors, wrapped in an 8-pack at an SRP of $19.99. 

We’ve seen plenty of movement on the malt side of the segment recently too. Brandon Cason, the founder of Canteen Spirits and Waterloo Sparkling Water, released TEABIRD last week, a hard tea backed by country music star Jason Aldean.

In this episode, the CPG Week team talks about Beverage Forum insights, the state of the cannabis industry after the drug is potentially rescheduled and the troubling signs from fintech consumer brand lender Ampla. 

🥤 BevNET Editor-in-Chief Jeff Klineman and senior reporter Brad Avery discuss celebrity beverage brands, why industry stakeholders are high on next-generation drinks and one big producer’s thoughts on future diversification.

🪴 What would it mean if marijuana went from a Schedule I to Schedule III drug and how might it impact emerging cannabis products and the broader marketplace?

😬 What is going on with CPG credit provider Ampla and how does the state of lending for food and beverage brands relate to its woes.

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