As the dust continues to settle from Bang’s acquisition by Monster Beverage Corp., at least one pressing question has now been answered.
According to a letter to distributors viewed by BevNET and Brewbound, Tony Short, CEO of Monster-owned beer maker CANarchy Craft Brewery Collective, confirmed previous reports that The Coca-Cola Company has begun the process of onboarding Bang within its national red-truck distribution system, marking the brand’s second go-round with one of the country’s largest beverage suppliers.
Under the terms of its 2015 contract with Monster, the energy drink maker must give the soda giant’s bottlers and distributors first right of refusal on all new products that it acquires or develops.
It’s another abrupt u-turn for beer distributors, who were just beginning to mend fences with Bang after its aborted Pepsi partnership put it back on the open market. With the likes of C4 (Keurig Dr Pepper), Celsius (Pepsi), GHOST (Anheuser-Busch) and ZOA (Molson Coors) all currently lined up with strategic partners, there’s one less major chess piece on the board.
In the letter, Short wrote that he “understand[s] the disappointment that comes with losing a significant brand” while underscoring the company’s commitment to “investing in and growing our portfolio of strong brands from CANarchy, Monster Brewing and Monarchy,” which includes FMB The Beast Unleashed and, soon, Nasty Beast Hardcore Tea.
“We have other new products and flavors in our product development pipeline that we plan to share with you as soon as possible,” he added.
How does that shape the bigger picture? Earlier this week we noted how mushroom-powered natural energy drink Odyssey had been picking up new beer distributors as it expands across the South; that may be the start of a trend, as DSD houses will (yet again) see a major energy brand shift into exclusivity. That shift may create opportunities for some brands — PRIME and Alani Nu being two clear examples — to find further partners, but also means the mountain those startups have to climb to break through the category will likely be even steeper.
As for Bang, it will have to ride alongside the likes of former competitor-turned-coworker REIGN, but without its once-vaunted “super creatine” callout. Existing distribution agreements for Bang are expected to terminate by the end of this month.