• 🏪 PLTFRM Broadens Its Base
• 🇺🇲 Memorial Day Bev Sales Blossom
• 🎤 Wu Tang Clan's “C.R.E.A.M” Soda
• ☀️ Suntory Denies Boston Beer Interest
• ❌ Mass. Latest To Regulate Hemp Market
• 😈 Topa Spirits, Mezcal Amarás Lock Horns Over “Logia” Trademark

Sales management services business PLTFRM has focused on helping brands grow and succeed in a marketplace that has been radically transformed by the era of online marketing and ecommerce. But PLTFRM itself is quickly expanding.

📶 Founded in 2005 by Noah Bremen – also the founder of Walmart broker Team Direct and skin care brand Noah’s Naturals – PLTFRM is now looking to add natural channel services to its existing focuses on mass, club and online.

👻 The business is also extending into venture capital, via PLTFRM Ventures, which has invested in brands like Ghost, Cirkul and Bloom.

💬 “We are just getting started, where we feel like most ‘brokers’ are selling to private equity or are just being ingested by a large conglomerate – a Titanic ship model,” said chief growth officer Sagaar Mehta. “We feel like we're one of the only players that is privately owned, and brand first. By growing quality versus quantity, we're incentivized by doing a great job.”

BevNET Insiders can read the full story here.

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Memorial Day weekend beverage sales bested expectations for convenience channel retailers, growing 1.7% year-over-year, according to Goldman Sachs Equity Research’s latest Beverage Bytes survey.

🌡️ With 75% of c-store retailers now done with Spring resets, energy drinks – in particular Celsius and C4 – won new facings as retailers cut space for Red Bull and tea drinks like AriZona.

🥤 Outside of energy, Coca-Cola (+0.7%), PepsiCo (+1.7%), Keurig Dr Pepper (+0.1%) and Vita Coco (+0.1%) are poised to increase their space in store. 

👟 Convenience channel retailers are now projecting beverage sales (alcoholic and non-alcoholic) to grow 2.1% this summer, with foot traffic expected to rise 1.4%.

🐌 Although there’s been recent concern around a slowdown in energy drink growth, 55% of retailers said there’s no signs of the buzz wearing off just yet. However, the remaining 45% did suggest there’s evidence of some slowdown in the category.

BevNET Insiders can access the full report.

Rumors are swirling after a Wall Street Journal report that Suntory Spirits is in early talks to purchase Boston Beer. 

• The article, published Friday, shared that the Japanese whiskey giant was in early talks of a deal and cited “people familiar with the matter." 
• But a spokesperson for Suntory Spirits later denied that the company was in any negotiations with the beer company.
• The two already have a long-term partnership on beyond beer offerings, and Suntory has been bolstering its RTD offerings, which includes premium cocktails On The Rocks. 

Our colleagues at Brewbound have shared more details on the rumors, including takes from industry analysts.

“Cash Rules Everything Around Me,” or C.R.E.A.M, was one of the hit songs of the hip-hop group’s debut album in Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). It is also now the moniker for the group’s exclusive beverage at Walmart. 

⚡ The new drink came from a partnership with non-alcoholic caffeinated and enhanced sparkling beverage maker HARD. According to a HARD instagram post, the LTO drink may also eventually grace the shelves of Costco, Walgreens and Walmart-owned Sam’s Club.

🎛️ Described as a soft drink replacement for the “health-conscious consumer,” vanilla cream-flavored HARD C.R.E.A.M. commemorates the 30th anniversary of the group’s debut album.

🥤 The drink is vegetarian-friendly drink is dairy-, wheat-, gluten- and lactose-free. The beverage is sweetened with cane sugar and stevia (and markets itself as using 15% to 20% less sugar) and is enhanced with caffeine and B-vitamins.

The Bay State has joined a growing number of states tamping down on the proliferation of hemp-derived CBD and THC food and beverage products. 

🏭 The Massachusetts Department of Public Health and the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources issued a joint notice last week, stating it is “unlawful to manufacture and/or sell food or beverages containing hemp-derived CBD and/or THC.”

🪴 The news comes after the Illinois state legislature proposed two bills aimed at the beverage industry and limits the allowed dosage of THC derived from hemp.

😤 Similar to the proposed legislation in Illinois, a recent law regulating consumable hemp drinks in Iowa is facing pushback from craft brewers and specialty bev-alc retailers who argue that hemp-derived THC drinks buoy sales for manufacturers and distributors.

A common word on the label of two spirit brands is causing some problems.

❌ Topa Spirits, importers and distillers of pisco brand Piscología, have filed a complaint in federal court against Mezcal de Amor, the company behind Mezcal Amarás, alleging a trademark infringement over the use of a “Logia” mark on one of its mezcal brands. 

🔫 But the small pisco brand isn’t the one who fired the first legal shot, and the founders argue that they are now going up against a mezcal brand distributed by Suntory Spirits to show “we have a stake in the name.”

🧑‍⚖️ We dug into the dispute and chatted with a lawyer about what other companies can learn from the case to protect themselves from similar issues. Insiders can read the full story on BevNET.