• 💰 Alani Nu Turns 10 (Figures)
• 🧑‍⚖️ Former Celsius VP Sentenced
• ☔ Coke's ‘All-Weather Strategy’
• 💪 Actus's New Whey Facility
• 💫 Constellation Hit With Investor Suit
• 👑 A Kroger ‘King’ Maker Reveals The Keys To Getting On Shelf – And Staying There

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Gorgie sure is looking glamorous this morning. 

The female-focused, better-for-you energy brand has closed a $24.5 million funding round, led by existing investor Notable Capital, ahead of a nationwide launch into 1,900 Target stores this summer.

The company said it achieved 5x growth last year with customer reorders coming every eight days on average, per an announcement this morning.

Gorgie has been a fast grower among the field of early-stage energy drink entrants since its launch in 2023, even as the new wave of BFY competitors like Celsius, Alani Nu, C4 and Ghost have quickly crowded shelves with triple-digit growth and nine-digit revenues.

While heavy investment has certainly helped (this new round brings its lifetime funding haul to $37 million), founder and CEO Michelle Cordeiro Grant has also brought fashion industry experience and a strong sense for social media marketing to the table to quickly build a loyal consumer base.

Building out a DSD network, including New York leader Big Geyser, has also been a big boon for Gorgie in the past year.

Besides the upcoming Target launch, Gorgie has established a national footprint across channels with retail partners including Costco, Erewhon, Whole Foods, H-E-B, Kroger, Albertsons and Sprouts.

“Our rapid growth proves the demand for a brand that brings together performance and wellness without compromise and puts community at the forefront,” she said in the release.

Want the full scoop? Insiders can read the story on BevNET.

After selling for nearly $2 billion in February, Alani Nu is still producing headline-grabbing numbers. 

The fitness-focused, female-founded energy drink brand has surpassed $1 billion in retail sales over the last 52 weeks (through 4/13, per Circana), earning an esteemed place in the category alongside parent company Celsius, Red Bull and Monster. 

Celsius CEO and Chairman John Fieldly celebrated the news in a press release, promising “the best is yet to come for our brands.” 

We’ll be watching for any developments in Celsius’ distribution strategy: that brand moves through Pepsi’s system, but discussions over whether Alani will join it there are ongoing, as alluded to during Pepsi’s quarterly earnings call last week.

Go Deeper: Alani Nu & Celsius Deal Sparks Distro Realignment

Stephen George, a former VP and controller at Celsius, is set for over one year in prison after admitting in February to using confidential financial information for the purposes of insider trading.

According to a report from Law360, George allegedly accessed Celsius’ enterprise resource planning system to create a consolidated income statement showing the company had exceeded expectations. 

Three days after resigning from Celsius in April 2023, he opened two brokerage accounts to buy 20,000 shares of stock and hundreds of call options, then sold his shares for $1.6 million following the publication of earnings.

For more details on the case and the mitigating factors that influenced the judge’s ruling, read the full story on BevNET.

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The Coca-Cola Company reported an operating margin and earnings per share increase amid a “dynamic external environment” that had sales slip 2% in Q1. 

Coke’s “all-weather strategy” provided “resilience” as “markets faced macroeconomic uncertainty and geopolitical tensions” impacting consumer confidence and consumption, said CEO and chairman James Quincey in prepared remarks. Let’s look at the numbers:

• Quarterly net revenue declined 2% to $11.1 billion; organic revenues grew 6%.
• Operating margin was 32.9%, compared to 18.9% in Q1 2024.
• EPS grew 5% as comparable EPS (Non-GAAP) was up 1%.
• Pricing across all segments was up 5% in Q1
• Volume rose 2%, however North America and Bottling Investments saw volumes drop -3% and -17%, respectively.

Looking ahead, Coke leadership emphasized that it was preparing for a “choppy” Q2, but noted in its outlook that despite “company operations being primarily local, it is subject to global trade dynamics which may impact certain components of the company’s cost structure across its markets.”

Nutritional ingredient provider Actus Nutrition is expanding operations to Sparta, Wis., after the Butterfly Equity portfolio company acquired a 99,000 sq. ft. whey protein processing plant from Foremost Farms USA. 

🤝 The Wisconsin facility marks Actus’ seventh production facility and continues the existing, years-long relationship between Actus and Foremost Farms.

⬆️ Actus also reported that it plans to invest capital into increasing capacity and expand capabilities at the facility.

Constellation Brands has been hit with a shareholder-led class action lawsuit, alleging the wine and spirits conglomerate deceived investors by inflating its financial outlook, per a complaint filed in a U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York on April 21. 

🍷 The complaint targets statements made about its wine and spirits segments between April 2024 and January 2025 during which the company’s share price has declined nearly 30% and net sales dropped 7%. 

✂️ The company also trimmed its sales outlook for the next three years and announced plans to divest underperforming wine brands during that time, the complaint states. 

📉 According to a recent report, Constellation now expects its wine and spirits sales to drop between 17% to 20%.

Todd Davis, a veteran category manager with Kroger’s King Soopers and City Market banners, talks about how he identifies standout brands and his belief in founders that are shaking up traditional retail by selling with heart, disrupting with intention and truly connecting with today’s consumer.

Listen to the episode now. Also available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.