It is good-bye for Howard Schultz at Starbucks? Or merely au revoir (see you again)? Guiding spirit behind Starbucks ascension to coffee supremacy is stepping down from board seat, tho he'll retain ceremonial title of chairman emeritus, after 3 extended runs at helm as ceo. His departure comes as carefully selected successor Laxman Narasimhan has settled into role, at time that one-time presidential aspirant Schultz has become something of a lightning rod among SBUX staffers for his efforts to keep union organizers out of sprawling coffee chain. Besides legacy of building co into giga-roaster that operates 36,000 stores in 86 markets, Schultz also leaves behind innovation he created called Oleato that melds coffee and olive oil, brainchild he regards as a game changer for category. He's being succeeded in board role on Oct 1 by Wei Zhang, who most recently served as senior advisor to Alibaba Group and earlier led Alibaba Pictures Group as prexy.

Guru Organic Energy scored 15% net revenue gain to a record C$8.88 mil in its 3d qtr, while halving net loss to $3 mil from $6.5 mil. PepsiCo partnership and popular punches seemed to be the buzzwords: Guru reported standout execution from PepsiCo Canada in Guru's home market, attaining essentially ubiquitous presence. And it's received strong reception to expanding line of Punch entries, including Guru Tropical Punch, its fastest-growing sku in US, and Guru Fruit Punch, heading to States from Canada this month. They'll be augmented by a 3d Punch entry to be announced later this year.

Flow Beverage broke C$10 mil milestone for branded sales in Q3 but had to navigate a few more roadblocks on its promised path to profitability. Toronto-based co scored an 8% net revenue gain to $13.8 mil in period, with Flow Tetra Pak'd water rising 21% to $10.5 mil of that total, first $10 mil qtr in brand's nearly decade-long history. (The rest was copacking revenue from plant outside Toronto that co is in process of divesting.) But gross margin dipped to 21% from 28% a year earlier as co struggled with issues like an ecomm fulfillment failure spanning 3 months and a complex transition to 3d-party logistics provider that should be concluded this month. FLOW brass promised that margins should hit low 30s by Q1 2024. EBITDA loss widened to $9.7 mil from $8.9 mil but that was caused by non-recurring costs of $3.8 mil as co grappled with those headwinds. Flow brass told shareholders this morning they're nearly one-third of the way to goal of reaping $22-26 mil in annual cost savings, with full benefit anticipated by first qtr of 2024. "In Q1 I believe you'll see a very different P&L coming out of Flow," assured cfo Trent MacDonald.

Yesly, the canned enhanced water launched by Essentia Water founder Ken Uptain and his former ceo Scott Miller, has enlisted 20 DSD partners to date, following inaugural signing of Big Geyser in NY, its cofounder/ceo Scott Miller reported to us. In Northeast those ranks include B&E Juice in Conn, while heartland is being worked by likes of Heidelberg and Intrastate and out west brand has enlisted Henley in Ariz, Lenore in San Diego and Classic in LA. Scott said some key retail authorizations are coming down the pike too .

McDonald's chain "is getting rid of one of its biggest perks," its self-serve soda machines, reported CNN and many other media outlets. Phaseout will occur over time, with machines out of US locations by 2032. Consumers are used to filling and refilling their own drinks at McD's "for decades," but co noted since pandemic customer behavior has changed substantially with a surge in drive-thru biz and orders via delivery services such as Door Dash. So with fewer folks using the dining rooms at all, need for fountain machines no longer considered vital for biz. Theft has also been cited as a reason in some reports. As chain looks to future it's developing small-format locations called "CosMc's" with smaller dining area, while other designs have no in-house dining at all. Other chains including Chipotle, Taco Bell and Starbucks "are experimenting with reinventing their designs too," noted CNN.

Utah-based Cynosure Group is revving up its push into CPG and retail investments with recruitment of Verlinvest vet Max Levine, who heads into hunt from his NY base with title of director and consumer retail lead. Max will be familiar figure to folks in bevs & snacks thanks to his board roles at Sambazon and Popchips and his board observer role at Vita Coco, all Verlinvest targets at various times. Cynosure boasts over $4 bil in assets under management, mainly in its Cynosure Partners arm, and team being built by Levine will be seeking to write checks in range of $25 mil to $150 mil. Crucially, Max noted in discussion earlier today, Cynosure also has partnerships with which to offer credit to growing companies, offering a route for it to participate in earlier-stage companies in hopes that as they scale they'll warrant an equity investment. Verlinvest, where Levine spent past 6 years, is family office for Stella Artois brewing fortune that made early splash in NA bevs with Glaceau (Vitaminwater), which exited for $4 bil to Coca-Cola, and has counted Oatly and Hint Water among its other bev plays. Max served as senior principal there, period he describes as highly rewarding.

It's still early days in Molson Coors' run as a total "beverage company" and this is "just the start" in NAs, declared non-alc vp Kevin Nitz at distributor meeting in Orlando today. There's "a lot more to come," he promised. MC had had its ups & downs in NA space since partnering with LA Libations as its Sherpa and renaming itself Molson Coors Beverage Co, going thru "growing pains" amid big Zoa revamp this yr, as Kevin put it, and parting ways with La Colombe, among others. But MC ain't deterred, determined to capture "more of the clock" in dayparts and "capture new occasions and consumers."