Happy Friday (the 13th)! We’re celebrating our favorite day of the week by rolling out the latest edition of our new products roundup. Here’s a peek at what’s inside:

🍅 Natalie’s Orchid Island Juice expands its line of function-forward holistic juices with the release of Tomato Lion’s Mane, made with just five ingredients: fresh-pressed American green tomatoes, tomatillos, lime, Lion’s Mane mushrooms and Himalayan salt.

💥 G Fuel collaborates with video game development studio CD PROJEKT RED to craft a real-life version of Naranjita, a stamina-boosting beverage found in Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty. 

☕ Just in time for spooky season, Salem, Massachusetts-based Grim Reaper Coffee Co. is poised to make its entry into the ready-to-drink coffee market with an unsweetened cold brew product.

Check out the full gallery on BevNET.

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Topping our roundup of distribution news this week, pistachio-based milk company Táche secured a partnership with SoCal natural grocer Bristol Farms. The three-year-old alt dairy brand has been steadily building its distribution primarily through specialty coffee shops where Táche can drive trial. The company has mostly targeted coastal metropolitan areas like Los Angeles and New York but is looking towards larger retail chains that could bring the brand to other parts of the country.

🪴 Crescent 9 THC Seltzer is finding a sweet spot selling its hemp-derived beverages in Louisiana. The brand tested the market during Mardi Gras in February and has since found a following not only in bars and music clubs in New Orleans but in grocery stores in the state as well.

🎯 Victor Allen’s Coffee is bringing its sweets-inspired canned and bottled iced coffees to Target, Sam’s Club and H-E-B retailers.

🍋 Functional water brand Lemon Perfect is now offering three of its flavors in over 100 airport terminals around the country.

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Plant-based CPG giant SunOpta has sold off its frozen fruit business -- including facilities in Kansas and Mexico, and a significant quantity of inventory -- for a $141 million to Canadian company Nature's Touch, positioning the company to focus on developing that fast-growing segment. 

💸  The standalone frozen fruit business generated around $263 million in revenue and approximately $15 million of adjusted EBITDA over the 12-month period ending July 1, 2023. But the segment had both higher operating margins of 1.8% (vs. 8% for the plant-based business) and slower sales growth of +1.1% from 2019 to 2022 (compared to +15.5% for plant-based).

📊  Estimated total revenue increased 6% year-over-year in Q3 to around $152 million, with adjusted EBITDA expected to be $18.5 to $19 million. 

📶  With the move, SunOpta CFO Scott Huckins (also General Manager of Fruit-Based Foods and Beverages) has resigned; deputy CFO Greg Gaba, who has been with company for over six years, is stepping into the full-time role effective immediately.

Does "Western Son and vodka" have the same ring as the Tito’s bar call? Splash Beverage Group is hoping so. 

🤠 The multi-brand portfolio company announced it was scooping up Texas-based Western Son last month, giving the group a production and distribution hub for its other brands– and a Tito’s challenger. 

🤝🏼 Western Son was the first of what may be a few more acquisitions for the group founded by a former Red Bull exec that has a diverse portfolio of canned wine, sangria, a hydration drink and a tequila.

🌊 We chatted with the president of Splash, who wants to promote the “Western spirit” of the newly acquired brand to break off a piece of Tito’s 60% share of the premium vodka segment off-premise. By coming in a few dollars below the top-selling spirit and building on the brand’s roots in Texas, he thinks he has a chance. 

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BevNET Live Winter 2023 will feature a discussion with top KeHE retail executives around the fluid relationship between the retailer and beverage brands. Read the story.