• ☕ A Steaming Cup O Joe… For Kids
• 🍷 Foley Family Wines Goes Deeper Into Spirits
• 🏁 Off to the Races: OLIPOP Revvs Up Partnership With Legacy Motor Club
• 🥃 Woodford Reserve Faces Union Pressure
• 🌶️ Trademarks, Trader Joe’s and Anti-Diet Dietitians

The bots have arrived. But you probably already knew that.

In the years since ChatGPT debuted in late 2022, generative artificial intelligence’s rapid proliferation has already had a transformative effect on all manner of business, and the food and beverage industry is no exception.

This new technology is already being used today by brands and service providers to streamline R&D, supply chain management, marketing and more, from companies building robust, proprietary A.I.-powered product development systems to bootstrapped startups tapping into the free-to-use tools that have captivated mainstream culture.

Exhibit A: With no answers coming from search engines and consultants, Xeba Zareie, founder and CEO of Preme Foods, turned to ChatGPT to identify a natural, additive-free preservative for her line of functional puddings. 

“It gave me that answer in literally two seconds, whereas I’ve spent thousands of dollars and hours talking to people who are professionals in this space, and they couldn’t give me that answer,” she explained.

Others, like startup snack brand Rivalz or Latin American plant-based products company NotCo have raised millions of dollars to support their own in-house systems capable of identifying ingredients down to the molecular level and crunching the numbers to produce viable recipes, creating better-for-you food and drinks in a fraction of the time of traditional R&D processes.

Beyond product formulation, A.I. is poised to transform the business on nearly every level – so say entrepreneurs and analysts who have been working with the tech – providing easier and more accurate ways to process sales data and supply chain management, improved real-time forecasts, warehousing, marketing and more.

While some are viewing A.I. as an existential threat to their careers – if the machine can design a label as well as a human, what does that mean for trained branding professionals? – others see it as a new set of tools poised to make people’s jobs easier, not replace them. Or not yet at least.

You can read the full story now.

Check back later today for the latest episode of the Community Call podcast, where BevNET director of community Melissa Traverse talks with Rivalz CEO Peter Barrick, Offline Ventures investor Melissa Li, and Brad Avery to dig even deeper into the trends, benefits and limitations of A.I. in the CPG space.

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A new brand is betting that there are kids out there that would love to have the bitter bite of java in their life. Enter Kiid Coffee, producers of the world's so-called “first coffee crafted specifically for kids.”

👍🏼 Any parent knows that kids love to mimic their parents – including what they drink. According to a press release, Kiid Coffee was created by David Sanborn and his seven-year old son as a more nutritious option than hot cocoa or chocolate milk with vitamin D, calcium, iron and fiber.

😏 Before you panic, an important note:  these instant “latte” mixes — available in Original, Caramel, and Choco’Latte flavors — are 99.9% caffeine-free, organic and zero sugar (but sweetened with monk fruit).

💪🏽 The new brew is formulated specifically for growing kids and made with antioxidant-rich coffee and cacao, prebiotic fiber and 12 essential vitamins and minerals.

As winemakers dive into new categories, Sonoma Valley-based Foley Family Wines (FFW) has made a clear bid to supercharge its new spirits business. 

• The family-owned wine company is the new importer and distributor of the Loch Lomond Group (LLG) Scotch whisky products, premium spirits and champagne, according to an announcement yesterday. 
• That news follows a similar partnership announced last week with tequila brand El Mexicano, which is owned and distilled by the Bañuelos family, formerly behind Cazadores Tequila before it was acquired by Bacardi in 2002. 
• El Mexicano plans to develop a bespoke luxury brand for FFW as well.

⏪ Founder Bill Foley has earned the reputation as a serial acquirer, and has recently staked a claim to the luxury wine segment— now it appears he is doing the same with spirits. The company launched a distillery operation in Minden, Nevada last year and tapped the founder of Balcones Distilling as master distiller for innovation, citing eagerness to add a full-range of luxury spirits to its portfolio.

Energy drinks are a staple of motorsports culture – which is why this partnership caught our eye. OLIPOP has locked in a sponsorship deal with Legacy Motor Club driver John Hunter Nemechek and the No. 42 team. The prebiotic soda brand’s logo will be featured on the Toyota XSE for eight races throughout the remainder of the NASCAR Cup Series season, as reported by Frontstretch. 

🤝 OLIPOP will throttle into the racing world for the first time on April 14 at the Texas Motor Speedway. 

💭 “Partnering with OLIPOP is a win-win for everyone. The business-to-business opportunities on the No. 42 makes so much sense and I am a huge fan of this product,” said Nemechek in a statement shared with Frontstretch. 

The bourbon business is booming, but that hasn’t directly translated to distillery workers’ paychecks, according to the Teamsters organizing Woodford Reserve employees. Now, they’re getting a chance to bargain with the spirits giant. 

• A judge ruled earlier this week that Brown-Forman’s Woodford Reserve violated labor laws when it awarded pay raises and changed vacation policies a week ahead of workers holding a vote on whether or not to unionize. 
• The “hallmark violation,” occurred in 2022 when workers began a campaign to unionize and also saw Brown-Forman handing out bourbon bottles to product employees that same week.
• The judge ruled that the spirits giant should now be required to recognize and bargain with a local Teamsters union. 

Stay tuned for the full report on BevNET later today. 

Why are BevNET senior reporter Brad Avery and CMO Mike Schneider thinking about baked beans? Listen to this week’s CPG Week podcast to find out (and hear a CPG Week-exclusive musical rendition). 

Also get the team’s take on three food news stories from the past week including the simmering trademark infringement debate captivating the chili crisp category, Trader Joe’s questionable private label innovation program and the tactics of major food makers to push anti-diet messaging.

Listen now on Nosh and subscribe to get a fresh episode every week.

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