• 🐂 Congo Hires Former Red Bull Exec Rappaport
• 🌊 Surfside Rides Hard Tea Wave
• 📊 KDP: Incoming CEO Takes Over 
• 👀 Uncle Near-ing New Categories
• 💲 Pillars Yogurt is Out to Pasture 
• 🇻🇳 Nguyen Coffee Supply Hits Target

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This week, pasteurized milk samples tested positive for highly pathogenic avian flu (a.k.a. the virus that caused record high egg prices in 2022 after infecting, and prompting the slaughter of, nearly 82 million birds.)

Just last week, the disease was detected in a dairy herd in South Dakota, bringing the total number of states with infected cattle to eight. Due to mounting concerns over the spread of the virus, at least 18 states have restricted cattle importations from the states impacted by the virus. A person who had been exposed to infected cows has also contracted the virus, which the CDC said last week may be the first mammal-to-human transmission

Despite H5N1 now impacting more than 30 herds across Indiana, South Dakota, Kansas, New Mexico, Texas, Michigan, Ohio and North Carolina, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is adamant that “there continues to be no concern that this circumstance poses a risk to consumer health or that it affects the safety of the interstate commercial milk supply.” 

Barry Bradford, endowed chair of dairy management and nutrition at Michigan State University, echoed these sentiments, telling BevNET via email that the country’s roughly 24,000 dairy herds put us “a long way from needing to be concerned about supply/demand imbalances.” Ultimately, milk loss from symptomatic cattle is currently too limited to have a major impact on the supply or price of dairy products, he said. 

Under federal regulations, only milk from healthy animals is authorized for interstate distribution for human consumption and pasteurization – the latter of which has proven to inactivate bacteria and viruses, like influenza, in milk.

This is exactly what happened with the most recent detection. The FDA on Tuesday said it had detected viral particles of H5N1 in samples of pasteurized milk purchased at grocery stores across the country, as reported by WCVB. However, the virus is inactive in those samples and the agency said the findings “do not represent [an] actual virus that may be a risk to consumers,” and emphasized that the milk is likely safe to consume. 

Nonetheless, multinational food and beverage company Danone said it has increased precautionary security measures by enforcing additional protective measures for farm employees, isolating potentially affected cattle, and reporting cases to local health officials. 

According to a Danone spokesperson, “we pasteurize all our U.S. dairy and yogurt products. We remain confident in the USDA’s assessment that milk and dairy products remain safe to consume.” 

Go Deeper Into Dairy: Dairy or Plant-Based, It’s All ‘Milk’ Per FDA Guidance.

Congo Brands, the company behind PRIME and Alani Nu, has named its first ever Chief Commercial Officer today, appointing former Red Bull EVP and CCO Mark Rappaport to the post. Rappaport will oversee “all commercial aspects of the company’s operations,” which also markets 3D Energy, according to a press release.

💼 The move comes amid some changes in the Congo’s executive team. EVP Sam Wilson left earlier this year along with several other team members, while former Liquid Death sales leader Mark Sherer joined in December as VP of Distribution. The Kentucky-based company is currently looking to fill a number of sales positions, according to Sherer’s LinkedIn.

🙌 Rappaport’s Thoughts: “Congo’s brands and their fans speak for themselves. In full partnership with their valued distributor and retail partners, the Congo team has delivered incredible results. I am confident that this growth is only the beginning and feel honored to play a role in the company’s future success.”

🚛 The bottom line: Rappaport joins Congo as Alani Nu continues with double-digit growth and PRIME has seen some slide in retail, according to recent scanner data. The company is also exploring a direct distribution expansion while renegotiating with its DSD distributors.

Read the full story on BevNET.

After a rapid rise in the Northeast, canned iced tea and vodka cocktail Surfside is going national. The brand introduced five new SKUs and expanded distribution – putting its products now in over 40 states. 

🫖 As a spirits-based hard tea, Surfside is in a less crowded sub-segment of the category, although is likely expanding against Boston Beer’s spirits-based, non-carbonated hard tea brand, Sun Cruiser, which was tested in 14 markets (many where Surfside has found success) in March. 

🍋 Stateside’s low-ABV RTDs have gained traction at stadiums like Citizens Bank Park, home of the Philadelphia Phillies, where drinkers are shifting from light beer to the brand’s hard lemonade

⚾ The cocktail became the top spirits-based brand sold at the park in 2023 and its founders will be building on that strategy via new partnerships with a few other teams and Minor League Baseball parks.

Read the full story on BevNET.

Keurig Dr Pepper announced its first quarter earnings with the introduction of its incoming chief executive Tim Cofer. Outgoing CEO Bob Gamgort will continue on as chairman of the board as Cofer moves from COO to CEO. The beverage company also used the earnings call to report its share buyback of $1.1 billion and its addition of Black Rifle Coffee as its latest K-cup coffee partner. Let’s look at the Q1 financials:

• Net sales increased 3.4% to $3.5 billion.
• Sales were up in KDP’s U.S. Refreshment Beverages (+4.3%) and International (+11.8%) segments year-over-year; whereas, the U.S. Coffee segment declined -2.1%.
• Adjusted net income for the quarter increased 10.0% to $530 million.
• Adjusted operating margin in Q1 was 23.8%, compared to 20.8% in the same period last year.

Stay tuned for the full report on BevNET.

At the Craft Brewers Conference this week, Uncle Nearest Distillery founder and CEO Fawn Weaver hinted that the company appears poised for more deal making. 

🍺 Our colleagues at Brewbound reported that Weaver teased a potential acquisition of a craft spirit brand – one that attempted to stay small but ultimately will be sold to Uncle Nearest once due diligence is completed in the coming weeks.

• The announcement tied in with the theme of Weaver’s fireside chat that challenged the notion that brands should remain small: “With craft distillers, there’s always been this pride in staying small. The company that I’m acquiring – phenomenal company that was trying to stay small. The problem is you stay small too long, you will die or you will have to be acquired, and you will be acquired at a loss because you never had a goal or a dream to be bigger,” she said.

⏪ After the company acquired cognac maker Domaine Saint Martin last year, it sounds like Tequila may be in its future. Weaver added that if you see her in Jalisco, Mexico, “know that I’m putting down roots.”

Drinkable yogurt brand Pillars has been sold. The startup, founded in 2016 and distributed in roughly 4,000 stores across the country, was acquired by Pasture Brands Holdings, LLC, a portfolio company of Benford Capital Partners, for an undisclosed sum.

🥚 Pasture Brands was formed in December 2021 to acquire specialty egg brand Farmers Hen House Group, which has distribution across the natural, conventional, mass and club channels.

🧺 Pillars is a clean label drinkable yogurt that has competed primarily in conventional grocery and natural through multi- and single-serve drinks.

🤝 What they said: “I was looking for a strategic partner to help accelerate the growth of the brand and take Pillars to the next level. Partnering with BCP and Farmers Hen House will allow Pillars to better serve our long-term, existing retail partners and to expand distribution to reach even more consumers.” – Pillars founder Eric Bonin.

In a move that founder and CEO Sahra Nguyen said felt “very ‘American Dream,’” Vietnamese coffee brand Nguyen Coffee Supply has launched its three, ready-to-drink canned coffee flavors into 500 Target stores nationwide.

📈 The move, which also includes online sales through Target’s website, brings Nguyen Coffee Supply to over 2,000 doors with 300% retail distribution growth since the beginning of the year.

🎯 The brand will support the Target launch with promos and digital marketing campaigns aimed at driving trial with new consumers and directing its existing consumer base to Target stores.

☕ Even as RTD coffee declines (retail dollar sales were down -8.1% in the two-weeks ending April 6, according to NielsenIQ), Nguyen Coffee Supply is on the rise. Nguyen said sales are up roughly 36,000% over the trailing 52-weeks for the startup brand.

Read the full story now on BevNET.