With cold bevs accounting for as much as 80% of coffee sales at US chains like Starbucks and Dutch Bros, Pret a Manger has finally gotten seriously into the game in its core UK market. "Welcome to the iced age," email blast heralded to customers this week, relaying news that "iced drinks are (finally) here" following monthslong addition of ice machines. Only a few stores had them earlier. Lattes, Americanos, chais and matchas all are in the mix and, crucially, the cold bevs are included in Pret Coffee Subscription program, priced at £25 a month there.

Campbell Soup's former prexy/ceo Dale Morrison, whose resume included the launch of more gulpable V8 extension called Splash, passed away on Apr 8 in Naples, Fla, CPB disclosed today. Dale was 74. Morrison earlier this year had cited health issues when he informed flavor giant IFF of his desire to resign from its board at its annual meeting this spring, and obituary on Hodges Funeral Home site in Naples cited long battle with lung disease. He'd stepped up to chmn at IFF (formerly Int'l Flavors & Fragrances) a year ago, in Feb 2022. Dale had joined Campbell in 1995 as prexy of its Pepperidge Farm unit, generating brisk growth of its Goldfish crackers and Milano cookies brands, segueing to prexy of Campbell's Int'l & Specialty Foods div in 1996, then moving to prexy/ceo of entire co from 1997-2000. In long career, he'd also served at McCain Foods, General Foods, PepsiCo (with assignments in US, Canada and UK) and Fenway Partners and its Aurora Foods holding. He served as founding partner of PE firm Twin Ridge Capital Management and founded TriPointe Capital Partners in 2011. Among board assignments, he served for a while at Lipari Foods.

Just over 1 in 3 Americans said they're "trying to drink less alcohol in 2023," according to a recent NC Solutions survey of 1,082 consumers. Commissioned in Jan, survey probed drinking preferences and habits among survey base divvied equally among 4 generational cohorts (Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X and Baby Boomers). While only a qtr of consumers had heard of the "sober curious movement," 36% said they'd already tried nonalc beer, with an additional 22% saying they want to try it. Just 6% tried NA spirits and 12% tried NA wine, with another 32% interested in each.

Beer vet Tom Cardella has signed on as an advisor to 3d BevCo Brands, multi-segment player that's aiming to ride twin trends of celeb brands and alc-alternatives. Cardella is well-traveled exec who worked at Labatt USA, Beck's N Amer, Femsa and Molson Coors, with his biggest innovation immersion likely being his stewardship of MC's Tenth & Blake for 5-yr stretch. Among other involvements after exiting operating roles in beer, Tom was on board of Long Island Iced Tea.

Another state is poised to make cocktails-to-go (CTG) permanent. Earlier this wk Maine's Senate passed a bill to permanently allow CTG from bars and restaurants, and yesterday state's House gave "final approval to LD 201," sending bill to desk of Gov Janet Mills, per announcement from DISCUS. Legislation would allow "certain beverage alcohol licensees to sell beer, wine and approved mixed drinks with a food purchase," mandating that "mixed drinks must be in sealed containers, appropriately labeled and placed in the trunk or non-passenger compartments of a vehicle."

Brief but informative notes from Evercore ISI's Robert Ottenstein detail demographics of largest mainstream brands, according to Numerator data. Bud Light is only an 86 index with 21-44 yr olds compared to all beer shoppers in this dataset, while it's at 108 for those 45+. Similarly, it's at 87 index with urban drinkers, but 112 with rural demographic. Both older and rural drinkers "skew Republican" on chart.

Reyes Beer Division bought Allagash portfolio from Wine Warehouse in most of CA in deal that closed this week. That's nearly 150K cases it will be adding. Recall, earlier this year Wine Warehouse sold to Breakthru. Allagash is with Reyes in a number of other mkts. And as of today, RBD also closed on its acquisition of 7-mil-cases of Constellation Brands and Sierra Nevada from Markstein Bevs.

As the Bud Light controversy continues to swirl, and the company is stuck in the maelstrom of our country's political and cultural divide, AB ceo Brendan Whitworth put out an "updated" statement this afternoon called "Our Responsibility to America." Brendan began: "I am responsible for ensuring every consumer feels proud of the beers we brew…. We never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people. We are in the business of bringing people together over a beer." However, that's not what happened here. Those 2 sentences were as close as the company has come to publicly acknowledging any kind of error in its communication in a situation which, whatever its ultimate significance or whatever one's point of view, has clearly rocked the company and its distributor network.