• 🆕 This Week’s Hot New Sips
• 🍸 How Boisson Is Moving Forward
• ⚡ Bang Founder Ordered Into Deposition
• ⚔️ Other Smolyanskys Back Danone Deal
• 🍖 Plant-Based Spam? We Mull It Over. And Learn From Dash & Dough'.

Brands must capitalize on evolving consumer preferences and home in on various personal need states across the beverage ecosystem to engage consumers both at-home and away, according to a recent webinar titled “Sips: Changing Consumer Beverage Preferences”  from market researcher Circana. 

Those evolving preferences? Increased demand for premiumization across categories and  greater personalization among drink flavors and combinations, all while social media has played an outsized role in generating overall brand and beverage trend awareness. 

In terms of where they are shopping, cost-constrained consumers have largely shifted purchasing behavior to value-oriented channels amid ongoing inflationary pressures. But despite the recent private label boom across the CPG space, the growth of private label brands in the beverage category has been generally lower overall.

That’s because a preference for premium products – especially in categories like yogurt drinks, cocktail mixes and aseptic juices – continues to win. The super-premium price tier segment grew 13% in 2024. Even though these items carry a higher price tag per volume, consumers are seeking out “small luxuries,” according to Circana. 

While retail accounts for the majority (55%) of beverage sales, food service has also played an important role with 81% of all foodservice purchases this year containing at least one beverage item, up three points versus 2021. Within the channel, carbonated soft drinks (CSDs) reign supreme among consumer beverage preferences.  

The food service channel has also seen a rise in consumer demand for personalized drinks such as boba, smoothies and “dirty soda.” 

Looking ahead to 2025, the market researcher outlined three action items to help beverage makers hold on to market share:

• Brands should conduct a comprehensive portfolio review to identify opportunities that focus on key need states.
• Implement data-driven decision making and establish a framework for using analytics to track and predict emerging flavor trends and consumption patterns.
• Optimize growth strategies across channels that balance opportunities across in-home, out-of-home, and emerging sectors.

Go Deeper: Read up on the demand for dirty drinks

Today is Friday and you all know what that means…. It's new product gallery time! We’ve rounded up the hottest new products and packaged them up into a neat array. Here’s a sneak peek at what’s inside:

🥛 Just in time for the winter festive season, MALK has announced the return of its Organic Holiday Nog. The seasonal offering is crafted with filtered water, organic almonds, organic maple syrup, organic nutmeg extract and Himalayan pink salt. 

🌅 Sparkling agua fresca producer Bawi has unveiled its latest flavor, La Guayaba. According to the brand, the pink guava-flavored agua fresca features hints of orange and hibiscus and “tastes like the calm of a warm summer sunset.”

🍒 New Zealand-based craft soda brand Sidekick Soda has dropped three new flavors: Pear, Strawberry and Cherry. For the Cherry flavor, Sidekick has partnered with the Cherry Rescue Project, which addresses food waste by rescuing cosmetically imperfect cherries suitable for consumption. 

Check out the full new product gallery on BevNET.

Being a trailblazer doesn’t necessarily mean you always make the best decisions. 

• After adult non-alc retailer Boisson filed for bankruptcy in April, founder Nicholas Bodkins – who is now an employee with no equity – has opened up about what went wrong. 
• Just three years after launching Boisson, Bodkins says the business took a wrong turn, tying too much capital up in retail stores and expensive long-term leases. As adult non-alc products went mainstream, the business model, centered on nine retail stores, began to crumble. 
• Bodkins regrets building quickly with expectations of more investment, over slow growth with healthier margins – but he also hopes there was a “net positive” out of that rapid expansion that helped accelerate the pioneering of a new category. 

Read the full story to understand what Bodkins said went wrong.

Jack Owoc, the founder of Bang Energy, has been ordered by a Florida state judge to sit for a deposition in a case over unpaid fees, brought by the lawyers that represented him in Bang’s bankruptcy case. 

🧑‍⚖️ The judge overruled Owoc’s attempts to assert attorney-client privilege saying that these are questions that “need to be answered." Owoc was originally set to be deposed in May, but refused to answer any questions at the time. 

💰 Conrad & Scherer filed the suit against Owoc and his wife Megan in October 2023; the Owoc reportedly owes the firm $139,014 in additional fees which came on top of the already-paid $125,000 retainer.

❌ Owoc, who recently launched Ai Energy, said the firm claimed it would dedicate extensive resources to his case, in order to justify the $125,000 retainer agreement, but argues that they did not commit the expected resources to his case and were inadequately prepared for essential proceedings, including filing a motion “laden with inaccuracies.”

Edward and Ludmila Smolyansky, respectively the brother and mother and Lifeway Foods CEO Julie Smolyansky, called for the kefir business to approve an acquisition offer from Danone SA following a decision by the brand’s board of directors to reject the deal this week.

• Danone, a minority stakeholder in Lifeway, sought to acquire all outstanding shares of the business for roughly $283 million – $25 per share – but the offer was shot down and the board adopted a poison pill strategy to block a potential hostile takeover attempt.
• The dairy business has been the subject of an ongoing family feud as the family’s former board members have been publicly critical of Julie Smolyansky’s leadership of the brand, despite her overseeing several consecutive quarters of revenue growth.

💬 What they said: "We encourage the Lifeway board to carefully and in good faith reconsider Danone's offer and seize this opportunity to deliver lasting value to shareholders, employees, and consumers. CEO Julie Smolyansky and the board need to focus on the tangible, lucrative offer in front of them, not on futile distractions that waste valuable time and resources. The longer they wait, the more money they will leave on the table, to the detriment of all."

The world needs plant-based spam. Nootropic beverages will make a comeback in 2025. T-shirts are the best brand swag. It’s buy-or-sell time, and the hosts transact in opinions. This episode also features interviews with the leaders of two fast-growing U.K.-based CPG companies: Jack Scott, the co-founder of flavored sparkling water brand Dash, and Kathryn Bricken, the founder of Doughlicious, a brand of frozen cookie dough and gelato bites.

Listen to the episode now.