Today's digest covers a mixer brand entering the canned RTD space, Tom Holland's nonalcoholic beer brand and its marketing partnerships, a court victory for major food companies, and a wave of new RTD releases hitting shelves.
Cheeky is extending beyond cocktail syrups and citrus juices with the launch of Cheeky Botanicals, a new line of canned functional tonics debuted at the 2026 Summer Fancy Food Show in New York City. The move signals a broader ambition for the New York-based brand, which has built its identity around bar-program ingredients and home-mixing occasions. Canned mixers are a crowded but growing segment, and brands with existing cocktail credibility have a real shot at shelf space in premium grocery and specialty retail. The Fancy Food Show debut gives the line immediate trade visibility heading into the back half of the year.
Bero, the nonalcoholic beer co-founded by actor Tom Holland, has built its marketing around high-profile partnerships with Chase and fitness chain Barry's rather than traditional advertising. The strategy leans into lifestyle adjacency, positioning the brand alongside financial wellness and performance fitness to reach consumers who may have little interest in legacy beer marketing. It is a useful case study for emerging beverage brands navigating the nonalcoholic category, where differentiation increasingly depends on the communities a brand attaches itself to rather than product specs alone. Holland's celebrity profile provides visibility, but the partnership model adds commercial structure behind it.
Major food companies secured a significant legal victory after a court dismissed a lawsuit claiming their ultraprocessed products are addictive and linked to childhood diseases. The ruling found that plaintiffs failed to establish causation between ultraprocessed food consumption and the health outcomes cited, despite statistical correlations. For CPG manufacturers, the decision removes one legal front that had the potential to reshape formulation, labeling, and marketing practices across the industry. The case drew from the same litigation playbook used against tobacco and opioid companies, so the dismissal carries meaningful precedent value even as public and regulatory scrutiny of ultraprocessed foods continues to intensify.
A new wave of RTD releases is hitting shelves at mid-summer, with Vodkade targeting the spiked sports-drink segment, Wild Tide bringing wine-and-cola combinations to market, and several other brands joining with formats ranging from hard ginger beer on an orange wine base to additional celebrity-backed entries. The variety of formats and base alcohols in this slate reflects how fragmented and experimental the RTD category remains, with brands still testing which flavor and format combinations earn repeat purchase. For retail buyers, the volume of new entrants makes SKU selection increasingly competitive heading into the fall reset season.
AI-powered retail tools are beginning to reshape how shoppers discover and select products, with technology now influencing the path to purchase at the shelf level. A panel at BevNET New York City 2026 brought together sales, marketing, and technology professionals to examine how AI-driven shelf systems are changing product visibility and shopper behavior in physical retail. For CPG brand teams, the practical implication is that share of shelf is no longer purely a function of buyer negotiation. Algorithmic placement and dynamic product surfacing are becoming variables that marketing and sales teams need to understand and plan around.
Sources: BevNet · Food Dive · Food Dive · BevNet · BevNet
More on CPG Careers
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- All roles at Bero
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