• 🐻‍❄️ Tru's Polar Partnership
• 🤠 Megan Thee-quila Stallion
• 🍻 NA Beer Tops Dry January Sales
• 🔀 Monday Moves

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Big soda has been Melvin “Mel” Landis’s meal ticket for most of his professional career. From his work with bottler Coca-Cola Consolidated to various brands in the Coke system, including running Minute Maid in North America and eventually helping steer Body Armor into the Coke stable, he’s been aware of the size and depth of the soda category.

Now he’s gone to work for one of the brands with the greatest potential to disrupt that category, signing on as the president of Olipop. Landis, the former chief commercial officer at Body Armor, said he was living in Florida – near Body Armor co-founder and former CEO Mike Repole – when a friend from that last gig introduced him to Olipop’s leadership team. 

After 18 months in an advisory role during the company’s rapid ascension, he decided to apply for a full time job. He got one – replacing co-founder David Lester as president. Lester remains on the board, while Landis will be working under co-founder and CEO Ben Goodwin.

“I wasn’t thinking I was going to work again, but I got involved and started really looking at this thing, and I really fell in love with Ben and what he was trying to do,” Landis said during an interview with BevNET.

Call it “Modern Soda” or “Functional Soda” – the team at Olipop uses them interchangeably – but whatever you call it, it’s really rolling now. Olipop and competitor Poppi, combined, sold nearly $900 million at non-foodservice retail last year, according to SPINS data viewed by BevNET.

The growth of these two brands has brought in investment and it’s also resulted in workforce professionalization and specialization. 

• On the investment side, Olipop announced last week that it had closed a $50 million round led by J.P. Morgan Private Equity Growth Capital Partners – getting a white-shoe investment firm into a cap table that has been long on celebrities and consumer VC firms. 
• The new money came with a valuation of about $1.85 billion, and the company has raised about $195 million to-date.

Olipop accounted for about $470 million in sales last year – more than double the previous year. And it’s profitable, Landis said, “which is one of the other things that I think makes this a bit of a unicorn.”

Goodwin has long been the scientist to sales veteran Lester’s block-and-tackle operational approach. Landis – who has worked with rapidly scaling entrepreneurial brands like Fairlife and Suja in the Coke system, as well as his time with Body Armor – is expected to extend that dynamic into the next phase of Olipop’s organizational and programmatic growth.

With Landis on board, Goodwin will be able to continue to focus on strategy and long-term innovation, Landis told BevNET.

Insiders can read our interview with Mel Landis including his thoughts on competition, Olipop’s approach to DSD and the company’s long-term goals.

After kicking off the year closing a $4.6 million Series B1 round, led by Massachusetts-based Polar Beverage, the family-owned seltzer maker has agreed to add warehousing to the list of services it provides the functional drink brand.

🤝 Tru co-founder and CEO Jack McNamara met Polar Beverage president and CEO Ralph Crowley in 2016 and credits the sparkling water company with helping Tru grow its distribution and its pivot into canned drinks.

🤑 Despite raising $6.5 million in 2023, Tru realized by the end of that year it needed to scale the brand “differently” to survive. It has since cut back on spending while prioritizing profitability in promotions and distribution.

✨ Tru is expanding with a line of “wellness dust” stick packs that bring some of its best-performing offerings: Gut, Focus, Energy and Dream, beyond its original energy shots and RTD can formats.

Insiders can access the full story for all of the details.

Megan Thee Stallion has gifted herself a new entrepreneurial endeavor for her 30th birthday: a tequila brand. 

🏠 Chicas Divertidas comes in two ultra-premium expressions, Blanco ($70) and Reposado ($80), and is crafted at Casa Centinela, where a tequila brand of the same name is produced. 

📈 Not to be “savage” but the Grammy-winning artist is somewhat late to the celebrity tequila party. While tequila is still growing, less expensive celebrity-backed brands have been finding the most traction as of late, particularly with RTDs. 

🌷 But the striking and colorful bottle, designed to replicate an Angel's Trumpet flower, is meant for the star’s fanbase of “Hotties” who can now preorder the tequila online or find it in select retailers.

The NA trend sure isn’t drying up. Non-alc beer boasted a record 4.2% share of all beer grocery sales over Dry January, with a double-digit 23.5% dollar sales bump and 20.2% volume increase. 

• The stats come from an analysis by Bump Williams Consulting chief strategy officer Dan Wandel, tracking data from NielsenIQ for the four-weeks ending February 1, 2025.

💸 The total came out to over $6.5 million more dollars spent on NA beer in grocery from 2024 with over $34.2 million spent during January.

👓 Category Context: NA beer beat out RTD spirits (+$3.6M), NA spirits (+$1.4M), super premium alcohol (+$1.2M) and RTD wine (+$1.1M). It’s safe to say the category won the month.

Get all of the details on Brewbound.

Here’s a taste of the people and products moving around the industry to start off your week. 

🌱 Plant-based F&B company NotCo named Christina Trampota chief product officer to drive the next phase of growth for its Giuseppe AI platform. 

🌧️ Talking Rain Beverage Company hired Chelsea Sobran as VP of convenience channel; she hails from Nestlé Waters North America.

🚚 Breakthru Beverage Group appointed Glenn Remoreras as EVP and chief information officer.

• Speaking of Breakthru, the company also partnered with NightOwl Espresso Martini to bring the canned cocktail brand to Florida.

☕ Another hard coffee purveyor, ALC-A-CHINO is now available in Casey’s General Stores as part of the retailer’s first Innovation Summit program.

🛒 Kroger released its CFO succession plan that will see David Kennerley – SVP and CFO for PepsiCo Europe – assume the SVP position from Todd Foley beginning April 3. Foley will remain interim CFO through the end of Kroger’s fiscal year 2024 before retiring and handing off the role to Kennerley.