Beer Marketer's Insights
Starbucks is broadening its in-store Teavana bevs this summer with launch of Teavana Shaken Iced Tea Infusions in Pineapple Black Tea Infusion, Strawberry Green Tea Infusion and Peach Citrus White Tea Infusion flavors, co brass said at co's annual meeting yesterday afternoon. At meeting, Howard Schultz handed ceo reins over to Kevin Johnson, tho Howard remains chmn and will focus in particular on higher-end Reserve strategy on coffee side. Reporting on that strategy, Howard notes that, a year into intro of nitro cold-brewed coffee, SBUX now has expanded entry to 570 stores in US, Canada, Japan, China and UK. It's also testing new offerings inspired by Seattle Roastery's Affogato menu in 120 Calif stores, 20 of them sporting Reserve bars and the other 100 conventional units. (That Italian-inspired drink is made by pouring hot espresso over cold ice cream.) Schultz also claims co's recently intro'd barrel-aged Starbucks Reserve whole-bean coffee (BBI, Mar 7) is outperforming expectations.
As it awaits go-ahead from regulators for acquisition by Danone, WhiteWave Foods has kept innovation pipeline flowing, offering several protein-rich entries at Expo West. Under its Horizon Organic milk trademark, WhiteWave offered Horizon Organic Protein 15, lowfat milk fortified with 15 g of milk-based protein. It's being offered at $2.99 per single 10-oz bottle and $8.99 per 4-pack and $18.99 per 12-pack, booth staffers indicated. We spotted it in Chocolate sku, but no sell sheets were available and staffers at booth said they couldn't offer more. Also new under WhiteWave's Silk non-dairy brand is Silk Protein & Nutmilk, out in half-gal gabletops only in Original (with 2 g of sugar) and Vanilla (6 g) flavors. It's formulated from almond cashewmilk with pea protein, and offers 10 g of protein per serving. WhiteWave staffers said it commands just mild premium, at $3.49, over non-protein-fortified Silk nutmilks, at $3.29. It's edged out into market since late last year and can be found in Walmart and Target stores.
PepsiCo last night confirmed departure of 7-year vet Chris Lansing as head of its Premium Nutrition & Venturing div, saying her role is to be picked up by former subordinate Andrea Theodore, who's been running Naked and Izze businesses out of Monrovia, Calif. Andrea, who's spent 5 years on those brands, takes vp/gm title and will "continue to lead Naked and Izze businesses and will now also assume full responsibility for KeVita," recently acquired probiotic/kombucha play, per statement from Pepsi. She came to Pepsi after long run at P&G involved with fabric care, personal care, snacks and other businesses. PEP didn't offer any rationale for Lansing departure barely weeks into her hands-on stewardship of KeVita (BBI, Mar 22), saying only, "We thank Chris Lansing for her 7 years of leadership and wish her the best as she chooses to pursue other opportunities outside of PepsiCo." So if Pepsi's wrestling with any post-acquisition issues at Oxnard, Calif, co, it's not saying just yet.
In keeping with recently stated vision stressing stepped-up innovation, incoming Coca-Cola ceo James Quincey has undertaken broad reorg, including creation of new post of chief growth officer, to be filled by 28-year KO vet Francisco Crespo, most recently based in Mexico. In new role Crespo will be responsible for driving growth across 5 strategic bev categories as KO moves beyond focus on just CSDs and noncarbs. Those 5 clusters are sparkling, juice/dairy/plant-based, tea & coffee, water & enhanced waters, and energy.
With likes of Fever-Tree, Q Brands and East Imperial, US market may seem to be enjoying access to unprecedented rich array of tonic water and related mixer brands. Apparently, it hasn't been enough to impress husband-and-wife team of Mary Pellettieri and Noah Swanson, who're intro'ing new line of craft tonics called Top Note Tonic from their Milwaukee base. New entry from co doing biz as La Pavia Beverage is being offered in 4-packs of 8.5-oz bottles priced at $6.99, in Indian Tonic Water, Bitter Lemon and Ginger Beer flavors. Each bottle is claimed to support 2 cocktail servings. "Tonics had become commoditized. They'd deviated from their origins and didn't taste good. I saw a need for better tonics that were balanced," said Pellettieri, a botanist by training who's spent 20 years in beer biz, including long run at Goose Island, where she helped launch Matilda, Sofie and 312. Mary had initially intended to create herbally infused beers, but decided the herbal syrups were more interesti
Driving toward more elevated coffee offering, Dunkin' Donuts is ditching its popular but dessert-like Coffee Coolatta this summer, offering instead a more coffee-centric Frozen Dunkin' Coffee made from coffee extract, sugar and dairy. "Our Coffee Coolatta isn't good enough," declared svp brand mktg Chris Fuqua, per account by Business Insider, which was among media invited to open house at DUNKIN's Mass hq. In some versions Coffee Coolatta boasted as many as 990 calories, tho, as Biz Insider pointed out, Frozen Dunkin' Coffee itself can range as high as 840 calories.
Buoyed by new mgmt team with significant corporate experience, cold-pressed Invo Coconut Water has added its first certified-organic entries and also added a more functionally oriented subline called Coco Collisions that seems to mash up cold-pressed juice and coconut water segments.
Game of chicken seems to be intensifying in Philadelphia over inauguration of soda tax loathed by CSD marketers. PepsiCo has written to Philadelphia retailers to let them know it would be pulling larger package sizes from city stores, beginning this past Mon, as it reports continued sales slowdown since tax began, reported local ABC affiliate 6 Action News. "Because of the Philly Beverage Tax, people are buying far fewer taxed beverages - particularly those in larger package sizes because they now cost so much more," said one retailer, reading part of notice from co. It appears Coca-Cola will also focus on smaller package sizes as it seeks to weather market challenges. So far, city officials aren't backing down, insisting that any moves by PepsiCo are a smokescreen. "Pepsi's reasoning for their layoffs and for no longer distributing certain beverage sizes is all self-reported by a company that is actively fighting to overturn the beverage tax in court," said a city spokesman.
Lansing, Who Took Hands-On Role Running KeVita at Pepsi's West Coast Incubator, Said to Be Resigning
Chris Lansing, the high-energy head of PepsiCo's Naked Emerging Brands incubation unit who opted to keep hands-on role with newly acquired KeVita, is said to have tendered resignation in recent days, barely weeks into tenure on KeVita. It's not clear from outside yet whether move was prompted by issues at PEP or whether personal considerations may have played a part, but it would seem to be a blow to PEP's strategy of having Oxnard, Calif-based KeVita serve as sort of fulcrum for further innovation pushes. As an indie operating unit, KeVita was to be among trio of operations reporting into Lansing's Premium Nutrition & Venturing div, along with Naked Emerging Beverages (which includes both Naked Juice and Izze sparkling bevs) and Venturing & Scouting arm seeking additional properties. Lansing has served 7 years with PEP out of its Naked operations in Monrovia, Calif, joining co from Peet's Coffee & Tea after earlier jobs at Hershey and P&G.
SF-based Forager Project added a Simple Greens entry to its probiotic smoothie subline, now at 4 flavors. It also added a 48-oz organic Cashewmilk in Original, Chocolate, Vanilla and Unsweetened, priced at $5.99 and rolling out thru Whole Foods and Sprouts Farmers Market chains. It replaces what had been a 28-oz kefir Cashewgurt . . . Austin-based Chameleon Coffee, which launched as concentrate-only cold-brew and has expanded into RTD and kegged versions, finally is taking step into whole bean coffee with addition of Mexican Chiapas, The Day Breaker and Dark, Black & Bold offerings. Price hasn't been set yet on 12-oz bags, which will launch in NY and maybe Tex. Meanwhile, refrigerated RTD offerings have enlisted LA's Haralambos Bev as DSD partner, said founder Chris Campbell . . . Organic Valley has taken its popular RTD Organic Fuel protein entry into powder format, offering it in 12-oz canisters in Vanilla and Chocolate, exclusively at Whole Foods thru Jul . . . NY-based Honeydrop has added an Echinacea Lemonade to its cold-pressed lemonades, priced at $3.49-3.99 per 10-oz bottle. It joins Lemon Lime'Ade, Pomegranata, Basil and Strawberry sku's.