During Beverage Digest’s recent Future Smarts conference in New York, Editor & Publisher Duane Stanford conducted on-stage interviews with two of the largest independent PepsiCo and Coca-Cola bottlers in the US, Matthew Dent and Dave Katz. Below are key takeaways from those discussions.

Matthew Dent
President & CEO
Buffalo Rock

PRICING GROWTH OUTLOOK. “There's going to have to be a study around the effect on elasticities during the pandemic and what that did for our products,” Dent said, adding that price elasticities are

Coke, Pepsi Bottlers Split on 2024 Volume Performance.

An informal Beverage Digest survey found that US Coke and Pepsi bottlers are expecting carbonated soft drink volume to range from down...

Keurig Dr Pepper has agreed to distribute the fast-growing sports drink brand Electrolit starting in 2024, the companies announced this morning. The long-term deal with Mexico-based Grupo Pisa gives KDP significant access to the...

‘We Want to be the Most Approachable Energy Drink.’

Zoa Energy, launched more than two years ago by celebrity Co-founder Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, is seeking a new equilibrium. In a category where the fastest growth is coming from brands like Celsius that appeal to women as much as men, Zoa has brightened its visual identity, slimmed down its can, taken out the sugar, and cast a wider net. “We’re normalizing...