Today's roundup covers a CEO appointment at Ocean Spray, a product launch wave in better-for-you beverages, beef tallow's comeback in mainstream food, a brand navigating regulatory and financial headwinds, and a Bai founder re-entering the market with a new concept.
Ocean Spray has appointed Abigail Buckwalter as president and CEO, bringing her over from a senior role at Nestlé Health Science. The cooperative has been working to modernize its brand identity and broaden its product portfolio beyond juice, and a leader with a health-science background signals a continued push into functional and better-for-you positioning. Buckwalter's background in health-focused nutrition at a company the scale of Nestlé gives her direct experience managing both innovation pipelines and complex stakeholder relationships, the latter being especially relevant at a grower-owned cooperative where internal alignment matters as much as external brand execution.
Caliwater has added a dragon fruit variety to its lineup, developed in partnership with artist Benson Boone, while Alani Nu is extending its flavored beverage range with a Purple Cotton Candy SKU. Health Ade, oHy, and Cure Hydration are also releasing summer-oriented tropical and raspberry flavors. The simultaneous movement toward dragon fruit across multiple brands, including Yesly, points to a category-wide read on summer 2026 consumer preferences rather than isolated product decisions. For buyers and category managers, the convergence on a single hero flavor in the same season will test shelf differentiation and could accelerate retailer scrutiny of redundant SKUs.
Conagra, Utz, and other major food manufacturers are introducing products made with beef tallow, the rendered animal fat that has gained significant consumer attention following recent dietary guideline updates associated with RFK Jr.'s MAHA platform. For decades, tallow was largely phased out in favor of vegetable oils after public health guidance shifted against saturated fats. The reversal now underway puts R&D, regulatory affairs, and marketing teams at large CPGs in an unusual position: reformulating toward an ingredient they spent years removing. How quickly smaller, agile brands respond to or ahead of this shift could influence how retailers allocate shelf space in snacks and cooking fats over the next 18 months.
BRĒZ, the THC-infused beverage brand, is working to reposition itself after a difficult 2025 that included both regulatory pressure and financial strain. The brand is adjusting its go-to-market strategy to account for shifting compliance requirements around hemp-derived cannabinoids, a landscape that has tripped up several category entrants over the past two years. BRĒZ's situation illustrates the structural risk built into operating in a category where federal and state rules remain unsettled. Brands and the operators who carry them are navigating a compliance environment where a single regulatory change can require rapid reformulation, channel reconfiguration, or both simultaneously.
Ben Weiss, founder of Bai Brands, has returned to the beverage industry with Crooked Pop, a hard soda concept he presented at BevNET Live 2026 in New York City. Weiss built Bai into an acquisition target for Dr Pepper Snapple at $1.7 billion by identifying an early gap in the better-for-you beverage market. His return via hard soda, a segment that has had mixed commercial results for most brands that have attempted it, is notable both for the category bet itself and for what it says about founder confidence in consumer appetite for premium, flavor-forward alcohol-adjacent drinks. The hard soda segment will likely see increased investor and retailer attention given his involvement.
Sources: BevNet · BevNet · Food Dive · BevNet · BevNet
More on CPG Careers
- All roles at Ocean Spray
- All roles at Caliwater
- All roles at BRĒZ
- All roles at Crooked Pop
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