• 🏃 A Drink With Sprinter's Head of R&D
• ✨ BevNET Live On Demand Replays
• ⚡ Gatorade Unveils AI Hydration Coach
• 🔃 Sweet Grass Vodka Takes Sour Turn

Call it a “marriage of convenience.” After cultivating its presence in natural grocery stores to take a founder’s share of the RTD yerba mate category, Guayakí is now a primarily c-store driven brand. We caught up with head of sales Jared Riddle last week to discuss the brand’s recent activity – it’s on-boarded over 130 distributorships in the last 16 months – as it looks to plug gaps in existing channels while also exploring new areas.

Within energy, brands built around fitness and sport nutrition are all the rage, but Guayakí has managed to buck that trend. 

Guayaki’s c-store presence has been bolstered by additional 7-Eleven doors in Florida (900 stores), Texas, Utah, and Nevada, along with running tests at QuikTrip stores in Texas and Arizona and taking the product into 1,000 ampm locations across Arizona, Nevada and California. Within that store format, Guayakí’s non-carbonated 15.5 oz. cans (150 mg of caffeine each) are well-positioned for cold grab-and-go energy occasions across the day, explained Riddle. 

 The numbers reflect that shift: The natural channel was once 70% of the business, said Riddle, but is now around 17%, with convenience representing north of 40%; the vast majority of Guayakí’s 18,000 c-store footprint runs from Colorado to California. Nationwide, dollar sales growth in the channel is up 22% year-to-date, according to the brand.

That growth is part of an ongoing expansion in retail relationships that has brought in critical partners like Costco and Target. In the former, Guayakí is now in all 200-plus stores across the big-box chain’s NorCal division, with a footprint in Southern California and potentially more stores in the Pacific Northwest on the way. Meanwhile, in Target, the brand outsold all but five other energy drinks at the chain in 2023, though it’s categorized as a tea, Riddle noted.

Even Walmart, which Riddle admits remains “not completely sure that their consumer aligns with our product,” has put Guayakí in 860 stores, up from 251 last year.  

The moves come against the backdrop of leadership changes, namely the addition of former Harmless Harvest CEO Ben Mand in March. But the new boss isn’t under immediate pressure to produce results: As it approaches nearly 30 years in business, Guayakí holds 85% market share in RTD yerba mate set, dwarfing newcomers like Yachak, Yerbae and Clean Cause. Its ability to stretch across tea and energy markets is also unique; Guayakí dollar sales growth is outperforming the energy category in core trade channels across all U.S. regions, per the company.

For more details on how Guayaki is building in convenience and big-box retailers like Target and Costco, read the full story on BevNET.

It’s likely you know the face of Sprinter, a new vodka soda from Kylie Jenner, but we checked in with the woman behind the new RTD’s flavor development. 

• Jenner recruited Chandra Richter, who combines a Ph.D. in molecular biology with more than two decades of experience in the food and beverage industry at companies like E&J Gallo Winery and Drinkworks, to be head of product development and supply chain. 
• Richter said she selected a mix of approachable and trendier flavors to craft a relevant variety pack for the brand, which has shipped over 140,000 cases and hit 10,000 retailers and bars since March.

We also chatted with Richter about what she’s learned from successes and flops at major beverage companies, how she approached a saturated category, and what flavors are trending this year. 

BevNET Insiders can check out the full interview for all the details.

BevNET Live Summer 2024 may be over, but that doesn’t mean we are over it. We are bubbling up replays of some of the best sessions from our beverage conference earlier this month so that means, when it's time for a rewind, all of the insights are ready and waiting. On tap this week:

• Growing Strong While Staying Lean: Reza Mirza, CEO of Icelandic Glacial, shares spending hacks and how to improve margin without sacrificing top line growth.
• Emerging Brands Investment and Growth: Sallie Jian, director and head of Ventures North America at Diageo, shares tips on growth, working with strategics, and the state of corporate VC.
• Tough Calls and Key Moments: Yanni Hufnagel, founder and CEO of Lemon Perfect, breaks down why he bet on himself, his drive for growth and his gross margin-based awakening.

BevNET Insiders can replay all the action, anytime. Join us to see what you are missing.

As a testament to artificial intelligence’s (AI) growing impact on the food and beverage industry, PepsiCo last week debuted Anna, the Gatorade Sports Science Institute AI Hydration Coach, at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. 

👀 Jane Wakely, chief consumer and marketing officer and chief growth officer of international foods at PepsiCo, said in a LinkedIn post that Anna provides consumers with hydration advice based on 40 years of GSSI sports science expertise. 

👟 During a HIIT workout at Stagwell Sport Beach led by Alexy Posner, participants wore Gatorade GX sweat patches. Following the sweat session, a scan of their patches revealed personalized hydration data on their phones. 

⏩ The AI Hydration Coach is aiming for a pilot in a small number of markets in late 2024 or early 2025, as reported by Food Dive.

Too sweet to be true? Sweet Grass Vodka, a brand co-owned by one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, seems to have met a bitter end.

🦸 Last year, The Avengers actor Jeremy Renner celebrated his recovery from a devastating snow plow accident by announcing his new role as co-owner of the Charleston-based craft brand supposedly distilling locally sourced potatoes. 

⛔ But less than a year later, the actor has distanced himself from the business and appears to be among other investors out of luck as the founder gears up to file for bankruptcy and creditors file lawsuits, according to a report by The Post and Courier.

🦹 The founder and owner Jarrod Swanger hasn’t filed state taxes in a bit, lost his liquor license to manufacture and sell, and is at the center of a labor investigation for stiffing his employees. And those locally sourced potatoes? There were none. 

Read up on the full saga on BevNET.

On the heels of BevNET Live Summer 2024, the hosts revisit the final round of the New Beverage Showdown and explain why evaluating emerging brands at different stages of development can be challenging. They also highlight a handful of new products and talk about the influx of saucy condiments.

Listen to the episode now.