• 🍸 Is Boisson shutting down?
• 🎯 Target Takes BUBBL’R National
• 🍀 Lucky F*ck Energy Announces Rebrand
• 🤡 April Fool's Prank Roundup
• 🥫 Smartwater Introduces Canned Line
• 🆕 New Products From 100 Coconuts, Clever Brands and More

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A comment shared on social media from someone identifying as a Boisson employee has sparked rumors that the leading adult NA retailer is set to close. 

❌ The rumors surfaced when Andrea Hernández of Snaxshot shared the employee’s comment last week, which has since been deleted.

🔥 Adding fuel to the fire, the site also held a sale this weekend and stores have been marked as “temporarily closed” on Google. 

🥃 The news come after the retailer has taken major steps to secure its place within the expanding adult NA category, including a new CEO brought on last September along with $5 million in funding as part of bridge round led by Convivialité Ventures, the VC arm of Pernod Ricard, and Connect Ventures.

💬 Boisson has not yet returned our request for comment. Stay tuned for more, but for now, read everything we know so far on BevNET.

Since launching in 2017, functional sparkling water brand BUBBL’R has become one of the fastest growing brands in the category – surpassing $119.8 million in U.S. retail dollar sales last year – despite never hitting the major coastal markets. Until now, that is.

🚚 BUBBL’R announced today is expanding nationwide in Target with three of its top-selling flavors. The brand had been in 601 Target locations previously.

🏙️ The Wisconsin-based brand was launched in 2017 by Pepsi bottler Wis-Pak. It’s since taken a strategy of building BUBBL’R from the middle of the country out, hitting large states like Texas and Florida. Only now is it heading to major markets such as California and New York.

🚛 The company has hired area reps to build up the Target business, but Wis-Pak director of marketing and brand development said the time is right to begin to fully establish the coastal markets.

Read the full story on BevNET.

Less than a year removed from its launch, Lucky Energy (formerly Lucky F*ck Energy) has landed a fresh $8 million investment. The energy drink is also rebranding itself to “dimensionalize” for more conventional retailers.

💰 The Seed II round was led by Austin, Texas-based Brand Foundry Ventures with additional funding from Sugar Capital and early investor Imaginary Ventures, who led Lucky Energy’s $4 million raise in late November.

📋 Lucky Energy has brought on former Liquid Death SVP of digital retail Hamid Saify as its new CMO. Saify will lead the company’s new marketing initiative as it attempts to bridge the brand’s origin story to its contentious name.

📲 The new advertising campaign cheekily pokes fun at people unknowingly searching the brand’s original name online and the troubles that ensue capitalizing on edgy marketing to build brand awareness.

Read the full story on BevNET.

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Happy April Fool's Day! It’s the one day a year when brands in the often-serious, high-stakes beverage industry get to “prank” consumers with eccentric new product launches and deepen consumer relationships over a shared joke or two.

☕ Capitalizing on the fact that coffee often leads to messiness, Chamberlain Coffee unveils its very real limited edition Oops Collection. The capsule offers consumers playful solutions to coffee-related “oopsie” moments with a “Life is Messy” baby tee, a spill-proof cold cup and a coffee-scented “Oh Shit!” candle

🥤From green bean casserole sparkling water to turkey gravy soda, savory flavors have been taking the beverage aisle by storm as of late. The latest entrant? OLIPOP x Pringles Sour Cream & Onion prebiotic soda.

Read the full roundup on BevNET.

The canned water movement has just received a big new ally. The Coca-Cola Company announced today it is introducing Glaceau Smartwater in 12 oz. slim cans, offering original and alkaline with antioxidant varieties in single and 8-pack formats.

🧠 Glaceau was one of the strongest performing bottled water brands last year, growing dollar sales 14.1% to over $1.3 billion in U.S. MULO and c-store accounts in 2023, according to Circana. That was all done in plastic.

🌊 Canned water is still a small sliver of the bottled water market, but sustainability continues to guide innovation and this is the first metal packaged water option from Coke. It comes shortly after top bottled water manufacturer BlueTriton introduced aluminum bottle versions for each of its regional brands at Expo West last month.

☠️ 12 oz. is in. This weekend, Liquid Death announced via social media that it would introduce its first 12 oz. can line for still and sparkling waters in May.

🃏 It’s always worth noting the date for April 1 launches, but nothing about this sounds like a joke. And if for some bizarre reason it was, this would qualify as some kind of Andy Kaufman-esque high concept prank. Plus you can order the drinks now on Smartwater’s website so it seems safe to say strategics really are embracing the can.

In this week’s new products lineup, we look at new functional powders from Clevr Brands and C4, a larger pack size for 100 Coconuts, and three launches from PepsiCo-owned brands. Here’s a sample of the full feature:

🥥 Canned coconut water 100 Coconuts is sizing up. The brand has launched a new 16.6 oz. canned line of its 100% Pure Coconut Water to complement its current 11 oz. pack size.

🍄 Clevr Brands has introduced a new Chill Chai SuperLatte variety to its functional powdered beverage mix line. Priced at $28 per 12 oz. bag, the powder contains L-theanine, ashwagandha and reishi mushrooms.

🍓 PepsiCo’s sparkling water player Bubly is offering consumers a new sensation with Bubly Burst, a line of “lightly sweetened sparkling water beverage with bold fruit flavors, bright colors, zero added sugar, and minimal calories.” 

Check out the full new product roundup on BevNET.