• 🤝 Vertosa, Döhler Team Up On Infusion Ingredient Issues
• 💧 Pepsi’s Bubly Burst Attempts To Pop Sparkling Ice
• 🥪 Subway Ditches Coke For PepsiCo
• 🚬 Monster Transitions Cigar City Site
• 🍺 NA Brewer Best Day Raises $10M

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Chobani founder Hamdi Ulukaya has been a believer in La Colombe since becoming the Philadelphia-based coffee roaster’s sole investor back in 2015. And since spending $900 million to acquire the brand outright at the end of last year, that feeling has only grown stronger. 

Speaking with BevNET off the show floor during Expo West last week, Ulukaya shared a look at La Colombe’s first product milestone since the Chobani deal: a reformulated, redesigned and larger format version – now 11 oz., up from 9 oz. – of La Colombe’s flagship Draft Lattes (and labeled again under that name). 

The update promises to deliver a richer nitro drinking experience across both dairy and non-dairy versions – new ad messaging touts it as the “frothiest coffee ever” – but also to deliver on Ulukaya’s vision for a high-quality, differentiated RTD coffee for the masses with a sub-$3 price point. With Gen Z consumers driving demand for cold coffee drinks in La Colombe’s cafes, the opportunity to recreate the cafe experience in a beverage remains a massive opportunity, he said.

In upgrading to a bigger package, Draft Lattes are also dropping from 11 grams to 7 grams of sugar per can. 

As reflected in the brand’s Expo West apparel – Dickie’s jackets with a “Chobani ❤️ La Colombe” patch – Chobani’s integration with La Colombe is meant to be seamless; Ulukaya noted his sensitivity to the perception of the coffee company being “taken over” or becoming subservient to a billion-dollar parent company. 

Instead, Ulukaya framed the relationship as a sharing one, with La Colombe “tapping into Chobani’s resources,” and vice-versa. Some of those synergies are already in place: Chobani provides the milk for La Colombe products, while the coffee brand’s 48 oz. cold brews are merchandised within refrigerated dairy alongside Chobani’s creamers and plant milks. 

But the success of Draft Lattes, manufactured at a dedicated facility in Michigan, will hinge partly on the success of its $300 million DSD distribution partnership with Keurig Dr Pepper, announced last summer but set to kick into gear with the new 11 oz. cans this spring. It’s easier said than done: just ask Molson Coors.

Get all of BevNET’s Expo West 2024 coverage here

Having created a proprietary technology to infuse cannabis into food and beverage products, Vertosa is looking to solve another problem: making those products taste good. Last week, the Berkeley, California-based company announced the formation of a strategic partnership with global ingredient solutions provider Döhler to develop ingredient blends to complement its cannabinoid infusions. 

🌱 The deal, which includes investment from Döhler Ventures, gives Vertosa access to Döhler’s products and technologies with the aim to “co-develop innovative beverage formulations and proprietary infusion technologies,” according to a press release. 

🧪 Getting access to Döhler’s experienced R&D team (based in Germany) should help accelerate Vertosa’s ability to test new processes and inputs for its liquid emulsion and hemp powder, according to Vertosa CEO Benjamin Larson

🗣️ “The more we want to become a mainstream category that wants to leverage all these different opportunities, our ingredients have to become that much more sophisticated and it’s hard for a 20-person company to keep up with the speed of innovation and hopefully acceptance for the cannabis plant,” Larson said. 

Read the full story on BevNET.

PepsiCo is bringing more flavor to its canned sparkling water brand with a line extension, bubly burst, available in six flavors: Triple Berry, Peach Mango, Watermelon Lime, Pineapple Tangerine, Cherry Lemonade and Tropical Punch. The lightly sweetened seltzer water has zero added sugar and comes in 16.9 oz. PET plastic bottles.

🧊 The new line has a similar look to category leader Talking Rain’s Sparkling Ice, which holds about 21% dollar share of the flavored sparkling water category, according to Circana omnichannel data.

🙄 In comparison, bubly currently holds nearly 10% dollar share of the category behind private label and La Croix brands.

🤔 For the history buffs: In 2016, Talking Rain filed a complaint in Illinois directed at vitamin-infused sparkling water producer Klarbunn Inc. saying its Vita Ice product “mimicked” Sparkling Ice’s trademarks. PepsiCo is a distribution partner of the Vita Ice brand.

Whether you are an emerging brand scaling your operations or an established business looking for an edge in the market, BevSource has the resources, relationships and expertise to help. Stop by our table at BevNET Live to learn how. Learn more

Beginning at the start of 2025, Pepsi will supply all beverages to Subway’s U.S. restaurants after the two companies announced a 10-year signed agreement this morning. Until now, Subway has partnered with competitor Coca-Cola despite PepsiCo being the beverage partner in Canada, Germany, and the Netherlands, among others.

🥤 The deal brings Pepsi’s full portfolio of waters, teas, juices, CSDs and Gatorade sports drinks to the sandwich chain. 

🥨 In addition to beverages, Subway has extended its longstanding partnership with PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay brand snacks through 2030 as well.

✅ The transition to the Pepsi branded products is expected to start January 1, 2025 and roll out for several months.

Monster Brewing Co., the alcoholic beverage arm of the energy drink leader, is transitioning its  Cigar City Brewing production facility in Tampa, Florida into an “innovation hub” dedicated to developing new alcoholic products, according to Beer Business Daily.

🏭 Monster had acquired Cigar City as part of its purchase of CANarchy in 2022. Now, social media users are alleging that workers at the craft brewer have been laid off while Monster has said it’s seeking to use the site to develop new alc products “including beers, FMBs and spirits.”

🍺 The company said the Cigar City taproom will stay open at the brewery’s Tampa location and will still be producing Cigar City branded beers.

👷‍♂️ Beer Business Daily said that twelve positions were hit by layoffs, “all in production” but there’s nothing to suggest brands will be discontinued.

Non-alcoholic beer’s days are looking bright as NA manufacturer Best Day Brewing, an Expo West exhibitor last week, has closed a $10 million funding round, according to an SEC filing earlier this month, bringing its lifetime financing to an estimated $15.45 million.

☀️ Best Day was founded in 2021 at a time when non-alc beer makers like Athletic Brewing were quickly seeding the market with higher quality NA options. 

📈 Today, the global category is estimated at around $4.1 billion with a projected four-year CAGR (2024-2028) of 5.1% for retail and at-home sales, according to Statista. The category also grew retail dollar sales by double-digits in the U.S last year.

🧑‍💼 Ahead of the filing, Best Day had been bulking up. In January, Best Day brought on seasoned beer industry execs Jane Armstrong Hockman (formerly of Molson Coors) as COO and Todd Karnig (formerly JuneShine and Stone Brewing) as chief sales officer.

When RIND Snacks debuted in 2018, founder and CEO Matt Weiss won plaudits for creating an innovative and eye-catching brand of upcycled fruit snacks. Six years later, the New York-based entrepreneur is being lauded for transforming RIND into a vertically integrated healthy snack platform. Industry acclaim is nice, but Matt will say that his primary focus is to create lasting value for his company, shareholders and consumers.

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