• 📊 Data: BevAlc Declines Ease Up
• 🏛️ CA Hemp Bill Stalls Out
• 💀 Italian Soccer Team Lands Water Sponsor
• 🪴 Cannabis Beverage Certification Goes Live

The dream of the 90s is alive in Canada. At least that’s what legacy sparkling water maker Clearly Canadian feels, as the brand looks to build on the nostalgic wave that helped relaunch its business in 2015 and bring it into the 2020s.

Originally founded in 1987, Clearly Canadian’s initial 90s heyday came with sales over $280 million at one point, according to the company’s VP of marketing Casey Howe. But post-Y2K the brand began short circuiting as a series of bad business decisions – including a transition from glass packaging to PET and an ill-fated move out of its DSD network – brought it to bankruptcy and discontinuation.

But the sweetened sparkling drinks relaunched in retail in 2017, and after the past seven years, Clearly Canadian is once again feeling the love. Circana reported that U.S. multi-outlet retail dollar sales of its flavored sparkling waters were up 39.4%, to over $65.8 million, in the 52-week period ending July 14.

The company was initially able to relaunch thanks to a crowdfunding campaign that saw Clearly’s cult fandom chip in to resuscitate the brand. It’s been clear since then that there was enough demand with nostalgic Gen Xers to maintain the business in the modern day. 

It’s managed so far to thrive when other 80s and 90s era revivals have struggled to recapture old consumer love – just look at the fizzled returns of Original New York Seltzer and Slice over the past few years, though the latter is once again clawing its way back. 

But Howe and the company’s 25-person team are well aware that in order to grow, Clearly Canadian also has to be a brand for the 2020s. That means embracing modern marketing strategies – including highlights on its sustainability bonafides and social media campaigns – as well as building on trends in the beverage industry.

Last month, Clearly launched a new line of 6-pack sleek cans for its Original and Zero Sugar varieties, priced at $7.99 each (less than 50% of the price for its classic glass bottle packs). And in a market where better-for-you soda has rejuvenated CSD growth, the brand is hoping to speak to modern concerns about sugar and be a soda alternative for Gen Z and Gen Alpha. The hurdle now is whether it can break through the noise of a much bigger beverage landscape and if its traditional spring water aesthetic can make an impact with the Liquid Death and Poppi generation.

For more details on Clearly Canadian’s revival, stay tuned to BevNET for the full story this week.

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Total alcoholic beverage sales modestly improved, down 1.6% for the two-week period ending August 10, based on NIQ data from Goldman Sachs. Here’s the overview:

• Volume declines eased slightly, down 3.7% versus -4.1% in the two weeks and -2.6% in the 12-weeks. 
• Performance improved for beer, wine, hard seltzer and cider, while holding steady for spirits and deteriorating slightly for FMBs. 
• RTD cocktails sales growth was mixed with spirit-based RTDs sales positive and steady at 12.17% in the two-weeks, versus 17.3% in the 12-weeks. Wine-based RTD sales were also consistent, up 24.7% in the two-week period. 
• High Noon still leads, although dollar share is contracting. In the hard tea race, Surfside and Sun Cruiser held a 1.5% and 1.3% share, respectively, in the latest two-week data. 

Stay tuned for the full story and more insight on BevNET later today.

Advocates for the nascent hemp-derived beverage industry in California are breathing a sigh of relief after the state lawmakers declined to advance a controversial bill proposing new restrictions on THC levels in those products.

📝 The bill – which called for all hemp-derived consumer products to stay below a 1 mg THC threshold – drew the ire of brands, retailers and suppliers, who cited it as a mortal threat to their respective business and employees. Along with industry groups like the U.S. Hemp Roundtable, beverage manufacturers like Cann and Illa Canna spoke out against the legislation.

❌ And it appears that lawmakers have listened: according to Law360, all seven members of the Senate Appropriations Committee voted to hold the bill under submission.

Like Ryan Renyolds’ Wrexham FC showed with Stok Cold Brew, small-town Italian soccer club FC Campobasso is proving you don’t need to be in the big leagues to play with some of the big names. The club from the south of Italy welcomed its new official water sponsor – none other than Liquid Death – in an announcement yesterday.

📺 The news was teased last month by the team’s co-owners, TV personalities Mark Consuelos and Kelly Ripa; an episode of their daytime talk show LIVE with Kelly & Mark featured Consuelos and Reynolds exchanging jerseys from their respective clubs.

🩸 If Campobasso’s stadium takes on a deathly gloom, don’t worry – that’s by design. The multi-year agreement will see Liquid Death present at all concession stands, in the player tunnel walkway, on stadium signage, on special edition jerseys, and wrapped around the team's tour bus. Expect some “unique activations,” the company promised.

🪜 The theme of death and resurrection is appropriate: mired in Italy’s lower leagues and on the edge of insolvency, FC Campbasso has rebounded under its new ownership to climb the ladder to the country’s third-highest division last year, drawing a crowd of 30,000 fans to celebrate.

🏎️ The deal marks Liquid Death’s first water partnership with professional sports; the brand is the official iced tea partner of NASCAR.

If you are on LinkedIn (or like THC-infused drinks) you might have noticed that yesterday was National Cannabis Beverage Day (get it….not 4/20, but 8/20). Not only was 8/20 another day to celebrate one of the most controversial terpenes, but it also ushered in the launch of AFcioNAdo’s Cannabis Beverage Certified (CBC) program.

🎓 The CBC is just the latest AFcioNAdo platform to use craft beer’s Cicerone Certification to bridge the education gap for industry stakeholders in the rapidly developing non-alcoholic alternative category.

📚 The program intends to educate on-premise purveyors, distributors, retailers and consumers about the growing cannabis beverage industry. The organization was founded by beer industry veterans Meagen Anderson and Leigh Gall. 

🍷 AFcioNAdo started with a NA beer program and is expected to follow the CBC with a NA wine certification.

🍺 As state lawmakers weigh how to regulate the hemp-derived THC industry (see above for California’s flip-flopping), the CBC aims to bring more transparency to cannabis drinks including everything from production processes to safe dosage and labeling to merchandising and selling the products in retail.

Learn more about what AFcioNAdo’s CBC program on BevNET. 

And listen to the Brewbound podcast talk with Anderson earlier this year about the NA beer certification.