Creations Continues. Fanta Reformulates. Sports Drinks Ambitions.
Meals Marketing. Smartwater Gets Smarter.

Coca-Cola’s North America Operating Unit hosted executives from its franchised bottling system at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta recently to discuss market plans for 2023. Next year’s playbook is centered on “Epic Bets,” Coke North America representatives told bottlers in attendance. The bets include 1) marketing Coca-Cola during...

Niagara Bottling, one of the largest beverage manufacturers in North America, is seeing a continued shift by brands from hot fill and retort beverage processing to aseptic processing for beverages that are sensitive to certain microorganisms that could cause spoilage. Aseptic filling uses high temperatures for a short period of time to sterilize a beverage liquid. The liquid is then cooled to ambient temperatures and placed into a sterilized package within a sterilized processing environment until capped and sealed. Hot fill and retort methods, also used to package drinks that contain few or no preservatives, require heavier packaging, including glass, to withstand high temperatures for longer periods and during the filling process. According to Niagara VP of Commercialization...

In the third quarter of this year, many of the public beverage companies and retailers tracked by BD once again saw their stocks shed more value or stay in the red compared to the first six months of 2022 as they continued to...

Pabst Brewing has discontinued its Pabst Blue Ribbon Hard Coffee product and is depleting existing inventory, two distributors told BD. One of the distributors said the core SKU is now unavailable to them. The distributors...

PepsiCo will unveil a new lemon lime soda called Starry at the annual NACS show for convenience store operators that starts today, according to company sources. While details are scarce, BD has learned that the drink is a new brand within the lemon lime soda category dominated by Coca-Cola’s Sprite. Starry will include regular and zero sugar versions, according to the sources. It will be available nationally starting in...