The manufacturers of these products have failed to show that the direct addition of caffeine to their malt beverages is “generally recognized as safe” by qualified experts. Rather, there is evidence that the combinations of caffeine and alcohol in these products pose a public health concern.
“Consumers should avoid these caffeinated alcoholic beverages, which do not meet the FDA’s standards for safety,” says Joshua M. Sharfstein, M.D., FDA’s principal deputy commissioner.
The agency has given the firms 15 days to respond to the warning letters and then may proceed to court to stop their sale. In addition, other alcoholic beverages containing added caffeine may be subject to agency action in the future if scientific data indicate that the use of caffeine in those products does not meet safety standards.
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Beverages and More is an alcoholic beverage retailer that operates 104 superstores, 48 in Northern California, and 46 in Southern California and 10 in Arizona. Store locations target the major metropolitan “foodie” markets of San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles and San Diego.
The stores sell over three thousand types of wine, twelve hundred types of beer and fifteen hundred types of distilled beverages as well as an assortment of non-alcoholic beverages, gourmet foods, cigars and drinking accessories (wine goblets, shot glasses etc.) Stores are designed to be easily navigated even by customers who are relatively new to enjoying gourmet wines, beers and spirits, and customers are given frequent opportunities to sample both alcoholic and non-alcoholic wares. You must be over 21 to enter a Beverages and More location.
The company is privately held and in 2009 reported profits of well over $500 million.
An early CEO Bannus Hudson once described Beverages and More’s business model as a candy store for adults, and indeed with what may seem to many companies as every intoxicating beverage under the sun crowding its shelves, the description is not too far off.
In 1996 Beverages and More was the recipient of Wine Enthusiast Magazine’s award as Retailer of the Year, and in 2008, the company was singled out by the Tasting Panel magazine for a Lifetime Achievement award.
History of Beverages and More
The company was founded in Concord, California in 1994 by an investment group headed by Steve Boone who had previously developed the Liquor Barn, a very successful discount alcoholic beverage outlet that was purchased by supermarket giant Safeway in the 1970s. The first Beverages and More opened in Walnut Creek and followed many aspects of the Liquor Barn model including rapid expansion and a huge amount of floor space, generally in excess of 10,000 square feet. However, Beverages and More targeted a more upscale clientele than its predecessor by selling specialty foods and establishing an in-house rating system that scores the wines it sells on a scale between one and one hundred.
Beverages and More’s initial expansion proved to be unsuccessful. In 1998, after nearly going broke, the companies closed stores in Florida and Nevada, and decreased the square footage of their average retail outlet to 7,000 square feet. By 2000 the company had become the second largest alcohol retailer in the nation and was in the black again, earning more than $130 million that year. Since its inception, customers had nicknamed the company “BevMo!,” which became the domain name of the company’s popular website and online store that same year. The nickname is also frequently used to brand the company.
In 2006 the company was acquired by a private equity firm based in New York and London called TowerBrook Capital Partners, L.P. The company’s future plans include continued expansion both throughout California and Arizona and into other states.
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.
Here’s what the researchers found:
* Between 2003 and 2007, daily average exposure to televised food ads decreased by 13.7% among children ages 2 to 5 and by 3.7% among children ages 6 to 11, but exposure increased by 3.7% among teens ages 12 to 17.
* Ads for sweets aired less often, with a 41% decrease for 2- to 5-year-olds, a 29.3% decrease for 6- to 11-year-olds and a 12.1% decrease for 12- to 17-year-olds.
* Beverage ads decreased by 27% to 30% across the three age groups, with substantial cuts in ads for sugar-sweetened beverages.
* But exposure to fast food ads increased by 4.7% for children 2 to 5, by 12.2% for children 6 to 11 and by 20.4% for teens 12 to 17.
Dr. Powell and her colleagues chalk up the last statistic to the power of branding. They also found a racial gap in advertising, with African-American children viewing 1.4 to 1.6 times as many food ads per day.
The researchers recommend continued monitoring of ads targeted toward children, as well as nutritional assessments for advertised products.
Our vendor highly recommended that we buy our own wine, so when we saw that the 5 cent wine sale was going on at BevMo! We bought two crates each of Stanza Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiloh Road Chardonnay. Because of the sale, we saved over $400 on wine. We intend to return the unused wine to the store, but the last reviewer is making me worried if they'll take it back or not. I will not tell BevMo! the wine was for a wedding.
Bevmo was great. I waited for the wine to be on sale to buy it, used the ClubCard to get discounts, etc. Almost every time I confirmed with the checkout staff that we could return anything, and their answer was always that we can return anything that is not opened or chilled.
It all worked well until the day I tried to return our leftover wine. The employee working the return desk asked us why we wanted to return and we said it was leftovers from our wedding. The employee then said - well, we accept all returns, except for weddings. I was furious and I told the employee it was not acceptable - nobody told me that, it is not written anywhere, and if I had not told them it was a wedding they would have accepted my return. I fought for 10 minutes and threatened to go to a different store and return it there, by lying on the reason. The employee then consulted with someone else, tried to find the printed "rules" for returns, could not do so, and ended up accepting our returns.
In essence, don't trust the "you can return" policy at Bevmo, or if you do, do not tell them it was for a wedding or a party.