• 🔊 Sound Out (to PE Acquirer)
• 🧂 Seedlip Founder To Seasn Your Drinks
• 🎯 Target Announces Grocery Price Cuts 
• 🌱 It’s Time To Get Beyond Plant-Based Battles. Bala To The Rescue.

Packaging material, printing process, and ink type all impact how your color will look on the shelf. Don't wait until sales decline and customers lose trust in your brand. Let X-Rite Pantone help you get consistent color everywhere your packaging appears. Ready to start your color journey? Learn more

Founders of CPG brands in emerging categories have one major obstacle (besides funding, of course) when it comes to securing distributor and retailer buy-in for a new category: education.

Case in point: The growing contingent of non-alcoholic spirit alternatives and THC drink brands who, while still dealing with regulatory uncertainty, can feel like they’re facing an even more arduous uphill climb when convincing hesitant major distributors to dedicate truck or shelf space to their products.

Craft beer industry professional Meagen Anderson, who worked at Boston Beer for nine years, sees opportunity in that lack of education in alcohol-free drinks, and last year launched AFcioNAdo, a series of certification programs to better inform retailers, on-premise purveyors and distributors on categories like cannabis beverages as well as NA beer, wine and spirits.

“The only way we're going to be able to achieve growth for these brands is by providing that training,” she said.

After launching with an NA beer certification program, AFcioNAdo is set to release its Cannabis Beverage Certified (CBC) platform in the next six to eight weeks, with NA spirits and NA wine certifications set to follow.

Non-alcoholic beverages topped $500 million in off-premise sales last year and sales for bev-alc products continue to dip as more consumers regulate their alcohol intake. Retailers from Target and Walmart and distributors like Total Wine and More are stepping into the opportunity provided by NA alternatives like low-dose THC drinks.

The new program has tapped industry professionals like Happi VP of sales Leigh Gall and Breanna Neff, a food scientist and co-founder of powdered Delta-9 THC brand Brelixi, to build out the curriculum and bring cannabev stakeholders to AFcioNAdo’s certification platform.

Using the AFNA Beer curriculum as a model for the CBC, the cannabis-focused education program can be completed online in two hours and covers the history of the category, marketing strategies, and manufacturing and production as well as regulatory and compliance issues that the unique and growing category faces.

“It's taking a lot of time for these distributors to sit and educate retailers on why they should be bringing the [THC beverage] category in. I see this as a tool that just benefits the industry as a whole and provides more safety for the end consumer,” Gall said.

Check out all the details on the new program in the full story on BevNET.

Private equity studio Next In Natural is turning up the volume on its portfolio with the acquisition of sparkling tea brand Sound. 

🎶 Founded in 2015 by Salim Najjar and Tommy Kelly, Sound produces a line of sparkling botanicals and teas. Its current canned iteration debuted in 2021. According to Next In’s announcement, Najjar and Kelly will continue to work with the brand.

🎤 Next In CEO Jeff Lichtenstein has been named Chairman of the Board at Sound “to assist with strategic guidance,” the company announced this month. Lichtenstein’s experience includes work with brands like Chobani, Stumptown and Hu.

➕ Make Some Noise: Sound had been quiet on social media since last fall and consumers have reported out of stocks for the brand across various channels, but as of today Sound is officially back on sale via its website.

Go Deeper: Sound Makes Push into Sparkling.

Ben Branson might not necessarily be a household name for non-beverage industry insiders but Seedlip, the brand he launched in 2014, has become one of the most recognizable non-alcoholic spirits brands on the back of its acquisition by Diageo. Branson is now hoping to find similar success with his new product Seasn, launching in the U.S. next month.

🧑‍🔬 Treated like a mix of bitters, Seasn’s two varieties (Dark and Light) have been in formulation since 2017 and are intended to flavor both NA drinks as well as alcoholic cocktails with just three dashes of the product.

🍸 Dark is described as “aromatic and spicy” intended for whiskey cocktails like an old-fashioned or Manhattans. The Light is “green and zesty” and can be used in sodas or gin and tonic.

🤓 Seasn is the first innovation to come out of Branson’s NA beverage venture studio Pollen Projects.

Enjoy a refreshing Taste of the Islands with each sip of the leading lemonade brand, Calypso. Offering over a dozen tropical varieties of lemonade, limeade and zero sugar flavors, Calypso was made for bringing out your best island self. Calypso can be found nationwide at leading retailers. Learn more

Mass retail giant Target announced a major move today that will slash the prices of nearly 5,000 “frequently shopped items” across the store. Target said it has already reduced prices for over 1,500 items, largely spanning food and beverage, with more cuts to come throughout the year. 

🥛 Categories that will see reductions include “milk, meat, bread, soda, fresh fruit and vegetables, snacks, yogurt, peanut butter, coffee, diapers, paper towels, pet food and more,” the retailer said in a press release

🔪 The price cuts come on top of the company’s already “everyday low prices” and will be implemented across national brands as well as Target owned brands like Good & Gather and Everspring.

🗣️ What they said: "Our teams work hard to deliver great value every day, and these new lower prices across thousands of items will add up to additional big savings for the millions of consumers that shop Target each week for their everyday needs.” – Rick Gomez, EVP and chief food, essentials and beauty officer at Target. 

🛒 The news also follows two significant and competitive private label moves with CVS introducing its Well Market brand last week, a move that itself came less than a month after Walmart launched its new bettergoods brand. 

Go Deeper: CVS Launches Well Market Store Brand.

Jacqui’s recap of the recently held Vegan Women’s Summit spurs a conversation about consumer perception of plant-based food and meat alternatives, in particular. We also sit down with Dr. Farnoush Fadavi, the co-founder of Bala Enzyme, an innovative brand of plant-based drink mixes developed to speed recovery and reduce inflammation.

Listen to the latest episode here.