With big boost from recently acquired Soylent brand, Starco Brands is anticipating $66-77 mil in revenues this year. That makes it a new-gen strategic worth keeping an eye on, given its aspirations to serve as landing place for struggling better-for-you CPG brands facing liquidity squeeze. It sought to grab investors’ attention this week with update that heralded anticipated “explosive one-year growth” in 746-887% range that is almost purely the result of picking up 3 companies in 10-month stretch. In Sep it picked up personal care player Art of Sport, cofounded by late Kobe Bryant. In Jan it added clean-fragrance marketer Skylar Beauty. Then came meal replacement player Soylent in May. They were added to small core of existing brands: Whipshots, alcoholic whipped cream created with Cardi B; Winona Pure Theater Style Popcorn and Breathe air-powered aerosol. So what’s premise of Santa Monica, Calif-based co?

A lot of it is manufacturing-based. Starco Brands chmn/ceo Ross Sklar since 2015 has operated Starco Group, a manufacturer in household, industrial, automotive, personal care, pharmaceutical, food, bev and spirits segments via units like BOV Solutions in Charlotte (whose capabilities include cold-brewed coffee concentrate in aerosol format) and Temperance Distilling in Temperance, Mich. That provides portfolio of innovative formulas and production assets spanning 10 product categories that can be harnessed by acquired brands. Originally operated under name Insynergy Products, Starco Brands until last year licensed these assets for its branded plays before embarking on the acquisition program. Revenues jumped from just $673K in 2021 to $7.81 mil last year. It operated profitably, with $810K in income reversing prior year’s $2.25 mil loss. With Soylent and the other acquisitions firmly under the tent now, it’s anticipating that big jump in revenues for 2023. It doesn’t break out revenue contributions of its various brands.

Among leadership team is cmo Dave Dreyer, agency vet who once ran Dr Pepper Snapple Group acct at Deutsch in LA; he stepped up to full-time role at Starco last year. Chief creative officer is Patrick O’Neill, longtime TBWA/Chiat/Day exec who had a brief stop at Theranos (defunct blood test co that can’t be faulted for lack of creativity). Kevin Zaccardi slid over from cfo role at Soylent to same role at its acquirer last month. Longtime MX Factor exec Darin Brown added evp duties at Starco Brands to similar role at Starco Group and last month stepped up to coo of brands group. Soylent ceo Demir Vangelov got board seat on Starco Brands but Sklar is now running Soylent himself.

In this week’s update, co balanced investor hype about the “explosive one-year growth” anticipated for this year with some operating nuggets. Payroll has grown from 6 in Q1 2022 to 40+ today (tho somewhere along way co also implemented headcount reduction that should yield $1.2 mil in annualized savings). Co said “the potential merging of manufacturing partners is also under consideration to enhance margin and overall supply chain security.” Brand news mainly involved Whipshots: It sold over 130K cases in 2022 (60K in Q4). It garnered 400 mil in earned media impressions in 72 hrs with Valentine’s Day campaign featuring Dr Ruth Westheimer and another 2 bil impressions in 72 hrs for launch party with Cardi B for Lime summer LTO, immediately depleting the 150K units that had been produced. And brand inked distribution deal for AMC theater chain. Starco Brands team argues those marketing smarts will benefit all brands put under corporate umbrella.

As it demonstrates its stewardship of acquired brands, co “believes it is well-positioned to acquire undervalued and high-quality businesses and brands that can't access needed liquidity in private markets,” using its publicly traded shares as currency. Tho shares are trading at just one-fourth of their 2018 peak, co still boasts market valuation of $66 mil.

Perfect Day, which veered from its core activity of precision fermentation of “kinder, greener protein designed for a sustainable future” into developing its own brands in competition with some of its B2B customers, has reversed that move, undertaking extensive layoff and sunsetting the brands Modern Kitchen cream cheese, Brave Robot ice cream, California Performance Company whey protein and Coolhaus ice cream, which had been grouped within its The Urgent Company unit. The layoff, which Nosh food site estimated at 134 individuals, or 15% of total staff, restores central focus to co’s B2B activities, with customer roster that ranges from CPG giants like Nestle and Mars to JuiceLand smoothie chain and early-stage players like Bored Cow kid-targeted milk, Natreve protein powder and Strive hybrid dairy/plantmilks with elevated protein content, per its website. In email to employees cited by Nosh, prexy TM Mahadeva said co is refocusing “all efforts on our founding principles of R&D innovation and the resulting B2B partnership opportunities from our investment into the technology we have been building over the past 9 years.”

Registration is now open for the 2023 Beer Insights Seminar, taking place Nov 12-13 at Convene in NYC! Don't miss this opportunity to deepen your understanding of the beer industry and network with some of the best minds in the biz. Sign up and save $200 at the discounted early-bird rate. Speaker lineup to be announced in coming wks.

Heineken is taking heat for reportedly failing to exit Russia in a timely fashion. While several well-known firms allegedly haven't upheld pledges to stop doing biz in the country following war in Ukraine, world's #2 brewer is positioned as the "poster child" for this problem, per CNN Business report yesterday. Piece quotes Yale professor Jeff Sonnenfeld at length, who "championed and chronicled" exodus of over 1K cos but now is "shaming a slew of companies" accused of breaking promises to leave or drastically scale back ops. "They are functioning as wartime profiteers," Sonnenfeld charges, calling it "beyond disappointing. It's shameful and unethical."

One month after cutting national distribution to only CA and nixing Christmas Ale (see Jun 12 issue of sibling pub Craft Brew News), parent co Sapporo made tuff call to "cease operations and liquidate" Anchor Brewing, co announced and various local papers first reported. Just the latest in a string of tuff news stories in craftland regarding sales and/or closures over the last few mos. Anchor sales declined steeply for years but given brand's storied past as an early craft brewer, this one stings more than most for many in the industry. (This article also appeared in Craft Brew News.)

Industry members and advocates concerned that growing use of tech opens up oppy for anticompetitive behavior have a powerful US govt ally. Top antitrust enforcers for US beer biz, Dept of Justice's Antitrust Division, told TTB to pay particular attention to the "digital tools" being developed and used by industry members in comments on current trade practice rulemaking process. That's the only specific type of activity mentioned in the otherwise high-level comments, signed by asst atty genl leading the division, Jonathan Kanter.

Bang Energy today suffered a fate that not long ago would have seemed unthinkable to its feisty founder Jack Owoc: it fell into the hands of archrival Monster Beverage, whose co-ceo's Owoc had long riled on social media with taunts of "Who's your daddy?" Federal judge in Florida cleared sale of VPX Sports' assets to Monster for $362 mil, deal which includes coveted plant in Phoenix and settles extensive litigation between the cos over Bang's infringement of IP held by Monster and Orange Bang and over Bang marketing of core "super creatine" ingredient that proved to have no foundation in clinical science.

Beer avg price/case rose at similar 5% rate in Jun scans, according to Circana multi-outlet + convenience data. Up ~$1.40/case to $29.86 on avg for 4 wks thru Jul 2 vs yr ago, inching closer and closer to $30/case marker in tracked off-prem channels. Yet spirits and wine avg price changes notably differ in scans vs CPI due to sizable sales mix shifts. Spirits avg price/case dipped 0.3% to $133.77/case, impacted by the continued double-digit growth of lower-priced RTDs vs bottled spirits. And wine avg prices rose at faster rate, +4.5% to $103.14/case, as higher-priced wine sales continue to outperform low-end wines significantly.