Express Checkout #114

Hello hello!

This week, we had the pleasure of sitting down with JW Wiseman, Founder of Curious Elixirs—a pioneering non-alcoholic cocktail brand celebrating an impressive 10-year anniversary! Curious Elixirs is proving that being "sober curious" is more than just a passing trend. As Wiseman puts it, we're only "a quarter of the way into a 40-year revolution" in drinking culture.

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News From the Week

• Can’t beat ‘em? Join ‘em. Celsius Holdings is making power moves in the energy drink space, announcing plans to acquire fast-growing competitor Alani Nu for a whopping $1.8 billion.

  • Why this makes perfect sense: While both brands share a health-conscious audience, they target different demographics. Celsius built its empire with a gender-neutral audience through fitness associations, while Alani Nu has specifically targeted women with innovative flavors and aspirational influencer marketing (think: Addison Rae, Kim Kardashian), building a social following that's 92% female.

  • While Celsius (the #3 energy brand in the US) grew volume by 38% through Q3 2024, Alani Nu (currently #5) saw volume increase by a staggering 62.7% during the same period.

  • Market consolidation continues: This isn't the first big move in the energy and wellness space recently. Nutrabolt (maker of C4 Energy) invested $90 million for a 20% stake in Bloom Nutrition, Keurig Dr Pepper acquired GHOST for approximately $1 billion (60% stake), and just last month, Safety Shot acquired Yerbaé brands.

  • As traditional energy drink leaders Monster Energy and Red Bull see their volumes declining (down 1.9% and 3.8% respectively in the first three quarters of 2024), these strategic acquisitions position newer, BFY brands to potentially reshape the energy drink landscape.

CPG & Consumer Goods

• Sparkling water? Out. Better-for-you soda? In. Spindrift, the massive flavored sparkling water brand, is jumping into the booming healthier soda market with a new line of sodas in nostalgic 90s flavors, like Orange Cream Float, Strawberry Shortcake, and Shirley Temple.🥤 

  • After being acquired by Gryphon Investors for $650M in late 2024, this is Spindrift's first major move to capitalize on their investment.

  • While the timing of this feels almost too on-the-nose (following Olipop's recent $1.85B valuation and Poppi’s Super Bowl stardom), Spindrift ~isn’t like the other girls~, entering soda with built-in trust and the distribution to match.

  • They're positioning with 20% not-from-concentrate juice, zero added sugar (or stevia), and taking direct shots at competitors with statements like "no added distractions like prebiotics that may or may not work." 👀 

• Carving a new David. In a moderately controversial change, the (equal parts successful and polarizing) David protein bar brand updated its ingredient profile to improve taste, texture, and shelf stability while maintaining the core nutrition of 28g protein, 150 calories, and 0g sugar.

  • Here’s what they did: They reduced allulose (which caused Maillard browning and hardness over time) and replaced it with maltitol, eliminating polydextrose to prevent hardening. Stevia and monk fruit were swapped for sucralose and acesulfame potassium, and natural and artificial flavors were used to create more intense, dessert-inspired flavors without increasing caloric impact.

• Coke enters the prebiotic chat. Coke is launching a new line of prebiotic sodas called Simply Pop under the Simply juice name, featuring five fruit-forward flavors made with 6 grams of prebiotic fiber and no added sugar.

• Another celeb tequila. 🙄 Look: I love Megan Thee Stallion, but launching a tequila in the year of our lord 2025 feels late…

• Gardening in a bottle. BRĒZ, a rapidly growing cannabis beverage brand has launched its latest innovation, BRĒZ Spirit, with a limited 1,000 bottles. BRĒZ launched in 2023 and has grown quickly, pushing $30M in revenue across DTC and ~2,000 stores.

  • And the trends agree: The cannabis beverage category writ large is growing significantly ($1.83 billion in 2023, projected to skyrocket to $81 billion by 2032), as consumers move away from alcohol and THC products become legalized—or at least commercialized.

  • Liquor stores now have dedicated THC sections for the onslaught of brands entering the space. Major retailers like Total Wine & More are seeing strong growth and investing heavily in the space. Distribution is expanding rapidly through new channels - DoorDash just launched THC/CBD product delivery in legal markets.

    • Brands include: Cann, Nowadays, Cantrip, Artet, Magic Cactus, Calexo, TBD, Wynk, Ayrloom, Flyers, Uncle Arnie's, Choom, Louie Louie, and Seth Rogen's Houseplant…just to name a few.

eCommerce

• Buy with Prime grows. Adidas is joining Amazon's Buy with Prime program, bringing the service to adidas.com and the adidas app. This integration will give Prime members access to fast delivery and easy returns when shopping directly on Adidas platforms. The new feature will launch in Spring 2025.

• Online to offline. Lucky has partnered with Ulta Beauty to enhance the beauty shopping experience by connecting DTC websites with Ulta's in-store inventory in real-time. This collaboration allows customers to check product availability at nearby Ulta locations, facilitating same-day pickup or delivery.

  • Lucky already partners with retailers like Sephora, Best Buy, CVS, and Nordstrom!

Retail

• Welcome to the new generation of retail. IKEA plans to open eight new format stores in 2025 in the US. Seven of these will be Plan & order points with Pick-up. The eighth location will be a Pick-up point in Santa Monica.

  • Plan & order points with Pick-up are smaller format stores where customers can plan and order home furnishing solutions like kitchens, bathrooms, and closet storage systems with IKEA staff, and pick up their purchases at their convenience.

• A sad day for the DIYers. Joann is set to close all ~800 stores nationwide after 82 years in business, following a bankruptcy filing and a sale process.

• Maybe not “forever” after all…Forever 21 is set to close at least 200 of its 350 stores as it prepares for a potential second bankruptcy, following increased competition in the fast fashion sector. The company aims to find a buyer for its remaining U.S. stores, or face liquidation if unsuccessful.

Funding news

• Plant-based is still cooking. Blackbird Foods, a New York-based producer of vegan pizzas and wings, has been acquired by Ahimsa Companies. Ahimsa has previously acquired other leading plant-based food brands Wicked Kitchen and Simulate.

• We hope it stays weird. Aura Bora, a San Francisco-based sparkling water brand, has been acquired by the New York-based private-equity firm Next in Natural for an undisclosed amount.

  • Despite its successful growth and cult-like following, the challenging fundraising environment made it difficult for Aura Bora to secure further investment, prompting the decision to sell. The company's CEO, Paul Voge, plans to remain with the brand to ensure a smooth transition into its new ownership.

• Love me some bourbon. Brother's Bond Bourbon, a Plano-based whiskey brand founded by Ian Somerhalder and Paul Wesley, has secured $7.5 million in funding to expand its presence in the U.S. and international markets.

  • Ian is also the founder of the fast growing supplement brand The Absorption Company.

• The NA bev everyone should be talking about. Constellation Brands has taken a minority stake in Hiyo, a non-alcoholic beverage brand that offers a social tonic crafted with adaptogens and botanicals. This partnership aims to expand Constellation's non-alcoholic portfolio and meet the growing consumer demand.

• Pet is booming! Oh Norman!, a pet wellness brand co-founded by Katie Hunt and Kaley Cuoco, has secured $200,000 in funding from Mars Petcare through the Leap Venture Studio & Academy accelerator program.

Weekly Pickups

Pizza soda, yeah you hear that right. Perfy (a brand I advise) sent over their newest LTO, Pepperoni Pizza. It tastes like a pizza shop smells like, it’s wild.

@nate.rosen

Yes pizza flavored soda exists and yes it tastes and smells like a soda shop Thanks for sending this over @perfy #cpg #soda #pizza

See ya next week!

Nate + Jenna :)

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