Kung Fu Tea, with 350 boba-tea stores and counting, has inked a year-long partnership with Niantic and Pokemon Go game that starting May 2 will turn the bubble tea emporia into gyms and PokéStops in the mobile game. That means "trainers" can visit any Kung Fu Tea store and collect in-game items while they slurp down their Winter Melon Green Tea or Rosehip Lemonade. As part of alliance, Kung Fu Tea will offer limited-time commemorative Pokémon Go cups featuring emblems from game's Team Instinct, Team Mystic and Team Valor.

PepsiCo is "happy with the learning that we're taking" from Blue Cloud Distribution and Hard MTN Dew, ceo Ramon Laguarta stated on Q1 conference call during Q&A. "Our intention is not to build a large portfolio of products and complex portfolio," he reiterated. Co aims to "focus on a few good brands, develop with strategic partners and then leverage our distribution capabilities to give it to consumers all across the country." And "we're not rushing, we're going at a speed that we learn" to "make this business solid and with the right margins and the right...consumer propositions."

Non-alcoholic beer, wine and spirits grew 26% to $462 mil for 52 wks thru Apr 8, 2023 in NielsenIQ channels, amounting to 0.5% of total alc bev $$ sales, Nielsen shared with our sibling letter Insights Express via NA deep dive deck. The category is still dominated by NA beer, which grew 25.5% and made up 85.2% ($394 mil) of total NA sales for period. Spirit NAs grew fastest, up 88%, but remain just 2.4% of total NAs while NA wine grew 19% but lost share of NAs to 12.3%.

In some ways, it might have served as a role model for Liquid Death, except in wine. Back in 1988, per Wefunder crowdfunding site, "we simply were the first to realize that wine doesn't have to be dull and boring, but instead full of adventure," recalled co founded by Michael Machat. So it sought to find wines, spirits and other items that it could brand under Vampire and related trademarks like Vampyre, Dracula and Trueblood - at the cost of being thrown out of meeting by indignant distributor, who screamed "You're spoofing the industry." But Machat nabbed his wines (he had to wait for ouster and execution of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu to land Transylvanian entry) and has since built extensive portfolio. Vampire items go out with shtick like "sip the blood of the vine" and list FAQs like "If I expose Vampire wine to sunlight, will it be okay?" "Become one of us," invites crowdfunding homepage. By now co has branched out into spirits, canned cocktails, coffee that's "strong enough to wake the undead," Vampyre Blood Tea and chocolate. It boasts distribution in 40 states, with retail customers that include Yard House beer restaurant chain. An absinthe-based canned cocktail is in pipeline next. Among partners is familiar face from bevs, Bob Miller, the SoBe and Vitaminwater vet who's listed as advising on sales & marketing. Valuation cap is $8 mil.

Weekly tally by Silverwood Partners drawn from financial filings and other public sources notes a coupla significant rounds in bev space. Casa Azul, the tequila brand launched by Lance Collins with backing from Mike Repole, brought in $45.5 mil from Reform Ventures and undisclosed other investors a week ago, Silverwood reported. And Roar Organic, controlled by The Factory incubation co, raised $10 mil from undisclosed investors on April 18, the banker reported. That would seem to represent $4 mil in additional money on top of the $6 mil that co had been seen bringing in early this year, per SEC filing at time (BBI, Jan 19). Note that filings gleaned by Silverwood and other bev watchers often are sparse of detail and easy to misinterpret so these tallies are far from authoritative.

Danone joined ranks of multinational bevcos to start 2023 off on strong note, reporting 11.6% gain in Q1 sales to €6.96 bil, +10.5% on organic basis. Most of the burden was carried by pricing, +10.3%, with volume/mix edging up 0.2%. Asia was the star, +16%, but Latin America was up 12.6% led by Mexico and Brazil, and N Amer grew sales by 11.8%, led by Oikos and Activia yogurt brands, International Delight creamers and Stok coffee. Plant-Based "delivered moderate growth on a high base." Home market, Europe, rose 6.2%. The co's growth was balanced across each of its 3 key segments, with Plant-Based up 12% to €3.37 bil, Specialized Nutrition up 11.6% to €1.92 bil and Waters up 10.5% to €951 mil.Danone, recall, is deep into latest rejiggering plan dubbed Renew Danone under new ceo Antoine de Saint-Affrique, who wasn't quite ready to take a victory lap. "While this is encouraging progress, there is still much to be done," he said.

As TTB takes comments in preparation for revising its trade practice regs, last wk, an anonymous beer industry member offered its views in a unique format, submitting an annotated copy of a brief "2023 Beer Validation Process" deck for a redacted retailer chain. Major brewers and their distribs run the reset show, the commenter complains, claiming the process makes it "very difficult to get shelf space" for any brand handled by a "non-AB-InBev or Molson Coors distributor." Aside from this industry member's additions, if the deck itself is accurate, it underscores some of the same concerns about industry category management practices that TTB highlighted in 2016 and has yet to enforce.

After meeting with its distribs in DC ahead of NBWA's Spring Leg, AB shared a "letter to our retail customers" with its wholesaler network to clarify misconceptions following recent Bud Light controversy. It's the latest in a string of statements aiming to stem the brand's losses. And while letter begins by invoking AB's 165-yr history and its community connections alongside its wholesalers, it adds that "as you know, Bud Light has been the subject of a public discussion" over the last few wks. "Given the amount of misinformation and confusion that still exists, we want to reclarify several key facts," letter adds.