Vancouver-based copacker Wildpack Beverage, which had apparent buyer's remorse after acquiring Land & Sea Packaging in 2021, said it's recovered $200K from Land & Sea operators Kim and Tim Murray, along with return to Wildpack treasury of 12.4 mil shares proffered in deal. Terse announcement today said co also will retain accrued cash holdback to tune of $2.6 mil. Settlement will end litigation "arising from acquisition and Ms Kim Murray and Mr Tim Murray's subsequent involvement with the company." Valued at $37 mil at time, Land & Sea deal was by far the largest as Wildpack used public listing to embark on acquisition spree in quest to become middle-market-oriented national copacking and can decorating player (BBI, Nov 2).

Westrock Coffee may be cutting back its earnings prospects for this year but its mainstay investor remains ready to step in to support mega-expansion of co's extraction and RTD capabilities centered around new plant in Conway, Ark. WEST announced that it's reeled in $50 mil more from HF Capital, key participant in transaction that took co public via SPAC deal last summer, as well as $25 mil from a new investor, Herbert Hunt family. Along with amendment to credit agreement that frees up more money, the twin transactions will see Westrock thru to completing Phase 1 and 2 of Conway project and getting started on Phase 3. The first two phases comprised high-speed can and glass bottle lines, multiserve bottle line and bag-in-box and bulk lines, while newest phase adds 2 more can lines, a product development lab and FDA-certified pilot plant suited to incubating coffee, tea and other bevs, including those incorporating dairy or altdairy ingredients.

Modest study that flagged some potential risks of the nominally natural sweetener erythritol caused brief media frenzy this past winter before quickly subsiding (BBI, Mar 1). Not to worry. This week it's aspartame that's fomenting the scare headlines after Reuters agency leaked news that World Health Organization's cancer research arm, Int'l Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), intends to classify the abundantly available sweetener as "possibly carcinogenic." Bev lobbyists like American Bev Assn (ABA) and International Council of Beverages Associations (ICBA) lost no time in puncturing holes in report, saying it's from same people who put aloe vera and pickled veggies in that class and arguing that making health recs isn't IARC's business anyway. "While it appears IARC is now prepared to concede that aspartame presents no more of a hazard to consumers than using aloe vera, public health authorities should be deeply concerned that this leaked opinion contradicts decades of high-quality scientific evidence and could needlessly mislead consumers into consuming more sugar rather than choosing safe no- and low-sugar options - all on the basis of low-quality studies," per statement from ICBA exec dir Kate Loatman. A year ago, as lobbyists reminded, FDA had expressed "concerns" to WHO about plan to release overlapping studies this summer from IARC and Joint Food & Agriculture Organization /WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), which it deemed "better suited to assess any risk associated with the consumption of aspartame because it considers all relevant toxicological endpoints, including carcinogenicity."

Salt Lake City-based Black Rifle Coffee announced exec reshuffling that elevates recently recruited cmo Chris Mondzelewski to newly created prexy post that subsumes many of duties of coo Toby Johnson, ex-PepsiCo exec who took over mgmt of CPG growth engine but now is departing. Also exiting, on Aug 13, is cfo Greg Iverson, who's returning to education sector, per co.

Fed regulators have been cracking down on missing or incorrect excise tax payments over the last yr or so. Today TTB announced an offer in compromise with Cutwater Spirits, #2 canned cocktail brand in the country owned by AB. Bare-bones settlement form shows failure to pay excise taxes in line with fed law to tune of just under $3.4 mil from Jan 2021 to Dec 2022. Admitting no wrongdoing, co already settled the liability with a payment of just under $170K, or only about 5% of the total owed. Over the last yr or so, the agency has collected smaller settlements from around a half-dozen much smaller cos for failure to pay excise taxes, sometimes linked to other violations. In those cases, OIC payments were as low as 13% or 20% of the total liability and reached as high as 63% of total taxes owed.

Constellation trends are stronger in tracked off-prem channels than all-channel this yr. Sales grew 13%, volume up 8% YTD thru Jun 18 in Circana multi-outlet + convenience channels including faster growth pace for latest 4 and 12 wks. Combo of indie and on-premise channels not as strong collectively, as Bill noted regarding on-prem (see above). Difference in trends particularly show up in Modelo Especial and Pacifico.