Tilray beer portfolio is lookin’ healthier all-channel, comin’ off a particularly strong May, VP of Sales Terry Hopper shared with distrib partners in recent note obtained by CBN. Montauk, Alpine and Green Flash are each “seeing tremendous growth” year-to-date and SweetWater “has seen steady improvement for the last six months,” including 17% pop in May partly fueled by BOGOs in FL and SC, he detailed. Full Tilray portfolio grew 19% in May. “We have seen a +22% swing from where the brands stood at the end of December 2022,” and “this is just the beginning of our goal of becoming the fastest growing Craft Brewery by the end of our fiscal year 2024.”

Flagships & Core Pks Growin’; SweetWater Lager Ramping Up Lookin’ at key growth drivers, SweetWater 420 12pk cans grew 7% YTD, accelerating to +49% in May on BOGO special. Montauk Wave Chaser IPA 6pks grew 9% and draft jumped 22%. And flagship IPAs for Alpine and Green Flash grew 19-20% in May. Plus, new SweetWater American Lager 12pk cans delivered over 12K cases in its first few mos, grabbing floor space and displays “like never before,” said Terry.

New SweetWater Gummies Double IPA Line Expected to Be Its Biggest Launch Ever Next new brand launch is SweetWater Gummies, a high ABV double IPA line in Fruit Punch and Tropical flavors. In fact, this is expected to become SweetWater’s “biggest launch we have ever executed,” sez Terry. Cans and packaging are blue and red with gummies all over, described as “Juicy, Smooth, Jammy,” clocking in at 9.5% ABV. And link to classic format for cannabis edibles is an obvious tie-in for parent co Tilray. Joining the pack of brewers lookin’ to emulate Voodoo Ranger’s big success in different ways, SweetWater Gummies is available in 6pks and 19.2oz cans, “designed to appeal to the LDA 21-34 year-old consumer that are looking for an alternative to traditional craft,” he detailed. Between SweetWater Gummies and new line of SweetWater RTD spirits, this is just “the beginning of more great things to come down the pike not only from SweetWater but our entire portfolio of brands,” Terry promised.

Tilray Staying Active; “Move with Pace and Energy”; What’s Next? Recall, Tilray also just launched its first all-new beer brand, Good Supply “Easy Lager,” showing willingness to innovate outside of its acquired beer brands (see Jun 14 issue). And co bolstered sales and retail presence at baseball stadiums for SweetWater, Montauk and Alpine and expanded distribution for each of its brands. Tilray’s “mantra” is to “move with pace and energy,” Terry underscored, vowing to do “just that.” It’s been one of the more active acquirers and expansion cos in the craft beer space over the last couple yrs and seems to be focusing on beer growth even more as cannabis biz remains challenged, posting tuff operational losses. Tilray also acquired HEXO cannabis co (which formerly partnered with Molson Coors) for $56 mil in an all-stock deal as it simultaneously reported $1.1 bil non-cash impairment charge (see Apr 11 issue). What’s next for Tilray in beer and beyond?

Reflecting on the just-concluded BevNet Live conference last Thurs afternoon, Coca-Cola exec and Showdown judge Dan White cited as a highlight a “very courageous” presentation from the day before. It had come from the 3 college-athlete bros who for years had clearly reveled in the perks and visibility that came from leading their fast-growing Kitu Life Super Coffee brand to broad availability via big-ticket investment rounds, proliferating sublines, athlete and celeb endorsers and cheeky ads that, say, resurrected Vanilla Ice from the attic of pop culture to tout their new vanilla flavor. At BevNet Live, tho, Jimmy, Jordan and Jake DeCicco brought a more sober perspective as they chronicled their shift from a growth-at-all-costs approach to more cash-efficient operation. (Gone too is the philosopher the bros once brought in. “That was a 2018 move,” as Jim dismissed it, to a ripple of laughter.) Not that they’re totally repudiating their prior path. No more “burning cash?” asked their interlocutor, BevNet editor Jeff Klineman. “We’ve been investing cash,” Jim corrected. After all, “Super Coffee created the performance coffee category” and past 7 years’ investments have built a durable brand that’s migrated from natural channel into mass. “We’re very bullish on bottled coffee . . . playing in the right category.”

Still, Super Coffee is operating very differently than it did just a year ago, in a way that’s instructive for other bevcos finding their way in a changed climate. Led by Klineman, the brothers from upstate NY, now based in Austin, offered a comprehensive rundown of what they’ve kept and what they’ve jettisoned from their earlier way of doing biz under the tutelage of recently named ceo Tyler Ricks, an investor and board member, who was in the audience. “There was a point at Super Coffee where the more we sold the more we burned,” as Jake DeCicco confessed. “That shouldn’t happen.” It's only now in year 7 that team is getting more efficient. “Regrettably, we didn’t get that soon enough.” The goal, as Jim indicated, is to get “profitable full stop by 2024” on assumption they might be running the biz for a while rather than finding a flamboyant exit to a strategic. So this year is likely to be flattish in sales as co sets groundwork for profitable growth in the out years. “Our goal is to not have KDP or Coca-Cola come in some day with a hail Mary.” They’re eyeing a potential IPO in 5 years.

If the DeCiccos feel good about how they accomplished the hard work of building a brand, it’s time now to “build a better business,” as Jim said. Working with Ricks, the bros and their investors are recognizing limits of what one can accomplish thru sheer executional exuberance. In ceding his prior ceo role Jim DeCicco now functions as chief brand officer, while Jordan continues as coo and Jake as chief revenue officer. “What we lacked in strategy we dominated in execution,” as Jim DeCicco said. Revamped strategy calls for co to narrow range of activities from being a total “coffee solution,” as they successfully pitched investors in raising their Series C in 2021, to focus on core bottled coffee line. That means ditching the K-Cup pods, shots, ground coffee and creamers that proved a distraction to them and their trade partners and going after bigger targets, as with canned coffee/energy line called Xxtra that they just unveiled and were sampling at BevNet Live (BBI, Jun 2). Under Ricks, co has inaugurated more disciplined stage-gate process for evaluating potential innovation. What the bros got wrong during the past sku proliferation, as Jim readily allowed, was that the bottled coffee brand hadn’t yet grown to a big enough size “to have permission to enter new categories.” Added Jordan: “It simplifies my job as coo. SKU proliferation took our eye off what we’re best at.”

It also simplifies Jake’s role as CRO.  Instead of pushing a dozen sku’s down the throat of its distributors – Big Geyser in NY, Polar in New England and Anheuser-Busch network in rest of US – “we would rather have our distributors do a great job on 4-5 SKUs.” Narrower focus should inspire broader range of DSD partners to put their shoulder to the wheel. Currently, “our top 30 partners out of 300 are doing almost the lion’s share of the business,” he reported.

That said, the bros aren’t taking a victory lap on the brand-building task either. Jim DeCicco cited an adage of Big Geyser prexy Jerry Reda, who was also listening in the audience, that brand building is like road work – the job is never done. In new regime, marketing spend is being titely focused. After all, just 10% of Super Coffee’s customers generate over 60% of its revenues. So broad-brush efforts like out-of-home and Facebook ads “fall on deaf ears.” “Hypertargeted” is the way to go. That means no more big brand awareness campaigns. A video ad featuring the boys and their mom that cost just $10K to film in a living room is performing better than that Vanilla Ice campaign, which required taking over a Florida grocery and cost $250K.

As for trade spending, Jim DeCicco deemed a 30% trade spend as OK as long as it drives more biz, but Jake indicated at another point that goal is to get that down to 15% range. Jake DeCicco and Ricks have been working together on account planning, learning how to convince retailers that 2 for $4 deals “might sound good to the consumer, but you lose money, we lose money.” Beyond Whole Foods and Sprouts chains where brand’s loyalists lurk, it’s crucial to make sure “to pull the right levers at the right accounts.”

Another key shift occurred in ecomm channel: Super Coffee fully discontinued its DTC efforts last year and shifted fully to Amazon, echoing move other brands have made in more challenging ecomm environment. “It was expensive to get people to show up at our website,” Jim said.

Co’s sweeping strategic change suggests, at minimum, that some staff roles have had to be rethought and performance metrics redefined. Super Coffee team didn’t delve into specifics but acknowledged having “tough conversations with the team,” as Jordan phrased it. “Culture matters . . . as athletes we’ve always embodied that mentality,” he said. “Been transparent and honest with the team . . . I think they understand that you have to continue to evolve . . . A large portion of our workforce is our salesforce and they’ve been adaptable.” He added: “That’s what makes championship teams great, that they’ve been through the hard times together.”

Overseas bottler Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Co has taken an unusual step to boost its mixer biz: acquiring a big spirits brand that mixes well with the mixers. The target was venerable Finlandia Vodka brand, which Coke HBC has distributed for 17 years and now is being acquired from Brown-Forman for $220 mil. “This unique opportunity for us will support our mixability strategy with our core non-alcoholic ready-to-drink portfolio and sharpen our focus on the strategically important on-premise channel,” said Coca-Cola HBC ceo Zoran Bogdanovic. “We are already developing strong plans to take Finlandia to the next level by accelerating and leveraging the brand’s current momentum.” Recall that Coke HBC last Aug acquired Three Cents superpremium mixer brand created by ESM Effervescent Sodas Management for €45 mil as it sought to ride cocktail boom. Brown-Forman had acquired Finlandia from Altia Corp, predecessor co to its current production partner Anora Group, in multiple phases, obtaining full ownership in 2004, as co recounted. Deal is subject to customary closing conditions but anticipated to close in 2d half of this year . . . Hawaii Volcanic Water, which only entered US mainland in 2021, has raised $10 mil with participation from incubator LA Libations and surfer Bethany Hamilton that aims to double door count from 4K currently to 8K in coming year, BevNet reported . . . Ball Corp seems to be further narrowing focus to its bev can biz by putting its aerospace operations up for sale, in deal that could yield over $5 bil, Reuters reported. A deal, if it occurs, would shed activities generating 13% of revenue but allow Ball to shave its $9.7 bil in debt, the wire service assessed. Sources told Reuters the maker of sensors and antennas has attracted the interest of defense players like BAE Systems and Textron, as well as PE firms.

Frazy brand, which last year started with Frazy Cups offering of frozen coffees, bobas, teas and mocktails that are sold DTC, now has expanded into 2.75-oz Frazy Bottles of shelf-stable concentrated coffees in range of flavors and creamer options that can be customized to add user’s name to bottles and level of caffeine. Using milk or altmilk powder for creaming, Frazy is offered starting at $24.99 per 6-pk, each bottle good for 8-oz drink. The dozen initial options include likes of Caramel Macchiato, Vanilla Latte and Chai Tea Latte, with whole milk, oat, almond, coconut and other creamer options available. Founder Balaji Krishnan is serial entrepreneur, mainly in tech space, who birthed Frazy Cups idea during pandemic lockdown as alternative to café runs or home delivery . . . Shades of Black Rifle Coffee: Dallas firefighter who was disgusted at poor coffee he encountered while deployed in military has teamed up with a fire station colleague to launch Firegrounds Coffee, which will enter 326 Walmart stores in Texas late next month. Paul Clarke was tossing a football around with Kyle Lund behind their station when Clarke mentioned idea he’d had of creating his own coffee co, and Lund said count me in, as local Fox 4 news station reported. It’s produced at contract roaster in Dallas and includes whole bean, ground, and pod coffees under names like Bury Up Black, Bubba Brew, Emergency Roast and even the doughnut-flavored Back the Blue as well as cold-brew concentrate and iced coffee in gallon jugs. Caffeinate-a-Station program encourages folks to pay for the java consumed by their local heroes . . . Bangalore, India-based co called Alt Health that’s set up shop in Ft Lauderdale, Fla, is among bevcos that have gotten into the coffee-alternative game. “Our goal has always been to provide clean food options,” said cofounder/ceo Abhimanyu Rishi. “Alt Health is no different. We started by thinking of what we would want in a healthier coffee alternative, and the answer was obvious: chickpeas.” Obvious to them, anyway. Their response: to develop line of half a dozen versions of chickpea coffee, using roasted chickpeas to deliver organic dose of clean energy. It’s out in versions with turmeric, cinnamon, date seed and chicory at Althealth.Life/.

Uncle Matt’s Organic, operating independently again after meltdown of its acquirer Dean Foods, continues to push the envelope on new products. Latest out is Superfruit Punch melding sweet cherries, blueberries and black elderberry into antioxidant machine that also contains 100% daily value of vitamin C thanks to acerola cherry. Packed in 52-oz multiserves, the entry contains just 45 calories per 8-oz serving thanks to sweetening assist from Reb-M version of stevia. It’s breaking in Sprouts later this month and Whole Foods in Aug at SRP of $6.99.

Dealing with financial stresses over past coupla quarters, broadline distributor UNFI has collapsed 4 regions into 3 while dropping 150 mgmt positions. As reported, co surprised investors with 2d soft qtr in a row, performance that ceo Sandy Douglas (the former Coke N Amer chief) termed “disappointing and frustrating” (BBI, Jun 7 and 12). The realignment, which builds on naming of Erin Horvath as coo and Louis Martin as wholesale prexy in Mar, organizes UNFI into an East region stretching west to Tenn and including 22 DCs; a Central Region stretching from the Mississippi River west to the Rockies (16 DCs) and a new West Region spanning 10 states from Utah to Alaska (14 DCs). They’re led, respectively, by Kelly Sosa, Tandy Harvey and Bob Garibaldi, who all continue to report to chief customer officer Steve Dietz. National accts continue to be led by David Matthews. The revamp “will decrease layers of administrative management, increase leaders’ span of geographic responsibility, better align us to serve customers with less complexity, and support faster decision making,” per Douglas. “These changes are also intended to make our company more efficient and more profitable.”