• ⛽ Jones' New Leadership to Fuel Innovation
• 🛒 Instacart's Shelf-Checking Gig
• 🔃 All Phenoms' New Look
• 🧃 What's New From Capri Sun to KDP

TechniBlend's industry-recognized beverage blending and batching systems are designed to handle a wide range of water and syrup ratios, helping beverage makers create their finished beverages by measuring the Brix or Blend Ratio in real time. This allows for producing product at scale while keeping costs low. Learn more

In 2020, for reasons that should probably be obvious to everybody by now, foot traffic in the convenience channel plummeted. But times have quite thankfully changed and traffic is back up (+58.6% since January 2021, to be precise) as in-store sales surpassed $327.6 billion annually.

While traffic returned to a normal frequency, drivers to get consumers in the door have largely shifted with demand for foodservice items on the way up, according to a CoBank report last week.

On their way down, however, are CPG brands. Circana tracked a dollar sales decline of 2.4% in the c-store channel in Q3 2024, while inversely rising 2.4% in MULO. That drop reflected a lower number of convenience store trips per buyer on a year-over-year basis, but a rise in dollars spent per trip. 

The allure of prepared food is making a particularly big impact to get shoppers out of their cars and into the store, with foodservice representing 26.9% of all in-store sales – up 1.3% year-over-year. That includes hot, cold and frozen beverages.

Big brands have certainly been paying attention to these trends, and they’re looking at partnerships and promotions that can help move cans alongside fresh food. For example, energy drink brand Celsius embraced a meal deal promotion with Casey’s stores last fall to combo a can of Celsius with hot pizza. 

Celsius CEO John Fieldly told us in an October interview that the company is seeing more retailers seek out food and energy drink pairings, noting that internal data has shown its consumer is more likely to purchase “incremental food items” when buying a can of Celsius. 

Other brands are embracing the change by innovating around ready-to-serve products: KDP recently added Snapple Zero Sugar Peach Tea to its dispensed beverage offerings at 7-Eleven stores, marking the first time the brand has been available in this format. 

CoBank noted that c-store chains are increasingly competing with quick service restaurants and fast food. For CPG brands playing in the space, there may be a benefit to thinking of convenience not just as a retail opportunity, but as an on-premise play.

For the second time in less than two years, Jones Soda is looking to new leadership. Following CEO and President David Knight’s abrupt exit in October, a new era begins today with Scott Harvey and Brian Meadows stepping in as CEO and CFO, respectively, with designs to “transform Jones… into a full-fledged beverage company.”

Read the full story on BevNET.

Instacart’s suite of grocery services is growing, and the latest move combines its support for both sides of the retailer and supplier relationships with the introduction of a new shelf-checking service, powered by gig workers. 

⏱️ The program has been in a testing phase since last fall with Instacart shoppers directed to take pictures of what’s in stock or refill displays alongside completing their standard Instacart grocery orders.

☑️ Instacart said it is evaluating other tasks gig workers could complete to support merchandising efforts, building on its existing grocery services assortment, which includes advertising insights for brands and tech for retailers such as smart shopping carts. 

Catch Up: Deepened Retailer Integrations Fuel Instacart’s Strong Q3 Results

Number 12 Cider Distillery, Pizza Truck & Taproom, featuring: Processing & Packaging Equipment; 2018 Fire Within 22 ft. Pizza Trailer; (7) Stainless Steel Wine Tanks; Stainless Steel Brite Tanks; (5) Stainless Steel Fermentation Tanks & Much More! - Equipment As New As 2023! Learn more

“Sparkling Super Drink” All Phenoms has unveiled its packaging refresh. Now the brand’s four SKUs carry brighter color palettes, more graphics, clearer callouts and a bolder brand font on the front label.

💪 All Phenoms also made each variety’s functional ingredients clearer and added sticker messaging for products with probiotic, adaptogenic or vitamin-enhanced attributes.

🛒 Founded by former professional athletes during the pandemic, the Redondo Beach, Calif.-based company has focused its distribution in the SoCal market with retailers like Erewhon and Jimbo’s.

It’s Hump Day! Here’s a look at the new drops and activations from the first half of the week. 

🌞 It’s official, Capri Sun has moved from its signature metallic pouches to a resealable, plastic bottle. Don’t fret, Millennial Capri Sun lovers, the pouches are still in the mix, the new packaging was introduced to meet demands for an on-the-go format.

🆕 Keurig Dr Pepper is shaking up its flavor lineup with a host of new beverage varieties across its portfolio. The new innovations range from a Blackberry Dr Pepper to a 7Up with a Tropical vibe and also sees A&W leaning into its soda fountain roots with an Ice Cream Sundae offering.

⚾ Don’t mind the impending trade war, Toronto-based Flow Beverage has signed on its local baseball legend José Bautista as a strategic advisor.

🏀 Nutrabolt’s C4 Energy has signed on as the Official Energy Drink of the New York Knicks in a multi-year partnership that grants C4 multiple avenues to advertise in-stadium and during televised games.