Beverages and More’s Rating System
Beverages and More’s cellar master Wilfred Wong is in charge of rating the wines the stores sell, sometimes tasting as many as 40 wines blind in a single day. Wong tastes approximately 4,000 wines per year. He selects all the wines the stores sell as well which has given rise in some circles to accusations of conflict of interest: if the company has an aggressive marketing plan for a particular brand of wine, how can customers tell whether high marks from Wong represent disinterested appreciation or an attempt to push the product? Wong denies these allegations.
On the BevMo! website the company also features wine ratings from the Beverage Tasting Institute, Robert Parker, Jr., the Wine Enthusiast and the Wine Spectator
Beverages and More’s Private Wine Label Vineyard Partners
Beverages and More distributes its own line of custom blended and packaged wines under the private label Vineyard Partners. While the company had not disclosed Vineyard Partners’ sales figures, the CEO has noted publicly that sales of Vineyard Partners wines constitute a significant fraction of the company’s overall revenues.
Beverages and More’s Website: Bevmo.com
Through its website bevmo.com, Beverages and More’s reach extends into all states where selling alcoholic beverages over the Internet is legal. Bevmo.com has become particularly well known for its periodic five-cent sales during which overstock is sold to customers at a huge discount.
announced today that Ken Sadowsky, a beverage industry leader who serves as executive director of the Northeast Independent Distributors Association (NIDA), has agreed to become an investor and advisor. Bai Brands produces the fast-growing Bai and Bai5 lines of beverages powered by the coffeefruit, one of nature’s most powerful antioxidants.
“I am excited to have Ken Sadowsky come aboard as an investor and advisor to Bai,” said Ben Weiss, Bai’s founder and CEO. “Ken has been a major figure in the beverage industry for many years, with a proven knack for associating with brands that are winners. Ken has established a reputation as one of the industry’s most astute trend observers, and I am grateful that he believes in the Bai brand strongly enough to invest in our future. I welcome the opportunity to benefit from his insights and perspectives as part of the network of beverage industry professionals who have supported — and continue to support — the growth of Bai.”
Sadowsky has more than 20 years of operational experience in the beverage industry, with a vast network of relationships with distributors and industry leaders and entrepreneurs. As executive director of NIDA (www.nidaonline.org), he oversees a network of leading multibrand beverage distributors covering nine states. In recent months, Bai has reached distribution agreements with several members of NIDA to significantly enhance distribution of Bai and Bai5 throughout the Northeast.
Sadowsky also serves as a senior beverage advisor to Verlinvest (www.verlinvest.com), a Brussels-based investment holding company founded by the family tied to Interbrew (now Anheuser Busch InBev). He was a principal of Atlas Distributing Inc., overseeing the non-alcoholic beverage division, which he created in 1988 and grew from $50,000 in sales to more than $16 million by 2007. Sadowsky was a director of Energy Brands, Inc. (Glaceau), makers of Glaceau vitaminwater, smartwater, and fruitwater, from 2000 to 2006. He currently sits on the board of directors of All Market Inc., a private company that makes Vita Coco coconut water, and Hint Inc., a private company based in San Francisco that makes Hint Water.
“I am extremely encouraged by what I have seen in Bai — both in the product, which is creating an exciting new segment in the functional beverage category, and in the people involved with building and growing the company,” Sadowsky said. “Bai has charted a very impressive path in a relatively short period of time. I hope to help make Bai an even greater success, the way I have with the other brands in my portfolio.”
About Bai Brands
Harnessing the benefits of coffee’s “superfruit,” Bai Brands produces the innovative line of Bai and Bai5 beverages to meet the demands of today’s health-conscious consumers. Bai beverages offer refreshing, exotic fruit flavors and are powered by the coffeefruit — one of nature’s most powerful antioxidants and, until now, one of its greatest secrets. Based on a scoring method used by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity, or ORAC), the coffeefruit extract found in Bai provides more than 40 times the antioxidant benefit of acai per gram and more than 50 times the benefit of pomegranate. Bai is lightly sweetened with organic evaporated cane juice in its traditional line and organic stevia in its low-calorie Bai5 line. Unlike the over-caffeinated energy drinks saturating the market, a bottle of Bai contains 70 mg of natural caffeine — less than a typical cup of coffee — that is derived from coffeefruit and white tea extract.
Bai beverages are available through an expanding network of retailers and distributors in the Northeast, the West Coast and the Midwest, as well as the Caribbean, Dubai and Panama. Bai won the Best New Functional Drink and Best New Beverage Ingredient awards at the InterBev 2010 Beverage Innovation Awards.
A new study reveals that children were exposed to fewer TV ads for sweets and beverages in 2007, but more fast food ads (as compared to 2003).
Past studies have demonstrated that TV advertising influences the short-term eating habits of children ages 2 to 11, and some research shows ads can also influence daily dietary intake. That’s why major U.S. food companies adopted the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative in 2006, which held that 50% of child-targeted advertising would promote healthier products or good nutrition/healthful lifestyles.
But there was one significant problem: Each company had its own definition of “healthier,” according to Lisa M. Powell, PhD, and colleagues at the University of Illinois at Chicago, whose research will appear in the September issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.