Chobani has enlisted Thomas Ranese, who made his name mainly at Google and Uber, as cmo effective Aug 14. Tho those operate in tech realm, Ranese brings ample experience from food/bev side to task, having grown up in his father's food biz, helped develop Google Eats delivery service and served as cmo for State of New York at time it was seeking to tilt famous I Love NY theme toward upstate development. Chobani, of course, is one of most famous entrepreneurial brands to emerge from upstate region. Most recently, in his role as McKinsey advisor, Ranese was serving as interim cmo for Abbott's "biowearables" brand Lingo. He'll report to prexy/coo Kevin Burns and work closely with founder/ceo Hamdi Ulukaya. Ranese fills role most recently held by Meredith Madden until her departure earlier this year for job at NotCo. By now, of course, Chobani has moved far beyond spoonable Greek-style yogurt into array of bev segments and has taken to styling itself "a next generation food and beverage company." It's lately been active time for Ulukaya, who just inked partnership with Keurig Dr Pepper for La Colombe co in which he holds controlling ownership stake (BBI, Jul 20).

After 9th Circuit Ct of Appeals vacated preliminary injunction and remanded dispute between Olympic Eagle and Constellation back to the District Ct in mid-July, the distrib had a couple wks to decide whether or not to request the matter be revisited by the higher ct. Last wk, attys for Olympic Eagle asked for 3 more wks to make that call, citing unexpected timing of the ct's decision and other timing conflicts.

Twelve pack cans are still the #1 selling beer pkg by a wide margin in yr-to-date Nielsen all outlet scans thru July 15, but single serve cans are easily adding the most incremental $$, Bump Williams noted in latest monthly letter. Twelve pack cans sold $5.5 bil in YTD scans vs canned singles at $3.4 bil. But canned singles grew more than 3X as fast, +$393 mil compared to canned 12pks up ~$116 mil. Those are the top-2 pkgs across total beer, together making up a bit over 34% of beer $$ in scans. And they're the top-2 growth formats as well, adding over $500 mil between 'em for the "lion's share" of incremental sales this yr. That more than offset declines from the next 2 biggest pkgs, 12pk bottles (-$105 mil) and 6pk bottles (-$35 mil). Tho plenty other pkg formats posting positive growth YTD, including 24pk cans and bottles (collectively +$95 mil), single serve bottles (+$59 mil) and 18pk cans (+$45 mil).

An all-star lineup of speakers will take the stage at the 2023 Beer Insights Seminar, Nov 12-13 at Convene in NYC. You'll hear from Constellation Brands ceo Bill Newlands, talking about co's continued growth and prospects. In this unprecedented year of change, we'll bring you a top-notch panel of Wall St analysts, including Bonnie Herzog of Goldman Sachs, Carlos Laboy of HSBC and Robert Ottenstein of Evercore ISI.

Diageo Beer Co outperformed spirits in Diageo's most important mkt (US), even though it also didn't grow volume in fiscal yr ending Jun 30. Diageo Beer Co volume down 3%, but its organic revs grew 1%, "reflecting strong growth in Guiness, partially offset by a decline in Smirnoff flavored malt beverages." (Smirnoff FMB brands still up 4.7% in $$ sales yr-to-date thru Jul 16 in Circana multi-outlet + convenience). Diageo reported beer volume down 2% and revs up 2% on organic basis, while total RTD revs down 11% (including spirits-based) and volume down 16%.

At bleeding edge of where c-stores can go, Foxtrot Market has been runnin' with it, raising significant amounts of outside equity and embarking on national expansion beyond its Chicago base, as we've chronicled past few years. But others are percolating, too. Intriguing one profiled by New Hope Network is called Air Guitar which offers mix of "sushi, slushies and chardonnay in one corner store" in Gilbert, Ariz, and was designed by architects who embarked on project by first studying Erewhon grocery stores in SoCal. As profile notes, concept was hatched by c-store scion Eric Seitz, who runs his family's 21 Chevron locations in Arizona, and acclaimed restaurateur Craig DeMarco, who's operated 32 restaurants split among 10 brands and 6 states. So-named to bring happy vibe to visitors, Air Guitar "blends the best of their two worlds and delivers something new: a vibrant outpost that boasts a vast selection of natural, specialty, local and conventional products, plus an elevated foodservice concept and community gathering space." Store's been open nearly 2 years and found itself embraced by community, but owners are holding off on expansion for now despite entreaties from development officials in region, per profile.

Minnesota may be freewheeling hotbed of cannabev experimentation these days, but that doesn't mean it's always smooth sailing for those participating in boom. Messy situation has led Stillwater-based Lift Bridge Brewing to file lawsuit vs the cannabis partner it planned to work with for THC- and CBD-infused seltzers over rights to sell cannabis products with other entities, several news outlets reported following Star Tribune article, as our sibling letter Craft Brew News recounted late last week. Late last yr, Lift Bridge and Tutus Holdings formed Lyvly, Inc, a "joint venture" non-alc bev maker focused on RTD bevs in the "health and wellbeing space," starting with a hemp-infused energy drink called Lyvly, per press release. But Lyvly filed for bankruptcy in Jun, and now Lift Bridge owners say that they were "indirect shareholders" rather than part of a joint venture, noted Delicious Food. And Lift Bridge alleges that Lyvly (i.e. Tutus Holdings) "reportedly never ordered products," but the non-compete signed between the two cos is currently preventing Lift Bridge from entering the cannabis bev mkt by any other method than thru Lyvly JV. So Lift Bridge opted to sue, asking judge to tear up their contract. "While through no fault of Lift Bridge, this arrangement unfortunately did not go as either party had hoped," brewery atty Vince Louwagie stated.