Where Did All Of Kroger's Red Bull Go?

0:05Brad Avery:Welcome to the CPG Week podcast by BevNet and Nosh. I'm Brad Avery here with my co-host, Lukas Southard. Lukas, how are you doing this week? I'm doing pretty well. How about yourself, Brad? Good. I got a Bare Brew Black Coffee here, drinking some canned cold brew. That is B-A-R-E brew. And it's always nice to see a simple black unsweetened coffee in a can. I know it's something that's a challenge for the market. You know, most people don't like it, but I love it. I'm always happy when it shows up in the sample fridge. You're a traditionalist and I give you credit where it credits due. You know, I like my coffee black and hot in the morning and then the afternoon I like something kind of like a sweet treat.

0:48Well, speaking of sweet, let's get into the news of the week.

0:52Brad Avery:Liquid Death and David Protein are two companies facing proposed class action lawsuits, both taking aim at the brand's claims that Its products contain zero sugar despite their use of allulose, a sweetener that has been classified by the FDA as a sugar. The complaints were filed last month for liquid death. They're facing two lawsuits, one in California and the other in New York, which are calling into question the brand's energy drinks, zero sugar claims, while bearing this allulose in its ingredient profile. The FDA recognizes Allulose as a sugar, but it has chosen exercise enforcement discretion over the absence from total sugar listings on nutrition labels.

1:35Brad Avery:However, there is a legal reason that could be opening the doors for these lawsuits coming in. Yeah, this sounds a little familiar to something that Chobani recently faced. Can you go through that a little bit? But Jobani very recently faced a lawsuit that is still ongoing over its use of allulose in yogurt products with a similar sugar-free claim. The U.S. Seventh Circuit Court last month revived a proposed class action case filed against Jobani. And that reversal argued that allulose, although regulated by the FDA and the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, there is backing for arguments that the ingredients should be included under total sugar listings.

2:17Brad Avery:That was the claim of the court. So with this now as a source that these lawsuits can cite, brands are apparently now facing a number of class actions or proposed class actions rather. And Liquid Death and David are just two of them. W.K. Kellogg for its Special K serial has also been on the receiving end of one of these complaints. Yeah, these lawsuits are interesting because they do come at a time when we have a lot of brands using a lot of different alternative sweeteners, allulose being the one in question here. But whether it's sugar, alcohols, or monk fruit, or different types of stevia, we're seeing these kind of sweetener systems evolve and sometimes using many different sweeteners or sugar alternatives within one recipe or formulation.

3:09And it does leave the door open for potential lawsuits from either consumers or brands who are seeing opportunity there. Right.

3:21Brad Avery:It's a challenge because these brands were obeying FDA rules. I mean, the FDA said that they're not going to be enforcing labeling requirements for allulose to be included under total sugar. So by what the FDA has said, they're following suit. But now, you know, with this recent court decision, which is going to extend the case, it's not a final say, but it does provide some ammo for these class action pursuants. And we'll be following this lawsuit as well as any others that include Allulose on BevNet and NOSH. In other legal news, a U.S. district judge in the Northern District of Ohio has allowed Smucker's Uncrustables trademark dispute to continue after he denied Trader Joe's their motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

4:16So Smucker initially filed its trademark infringement lawsuit in October of last year, calling Trader Joe's crustless peanut butter and jelly sandwiches a, quote, obvious copycat, end quote, to Uncrustables. In turn, Trader Joe's followed that up by filing their motion to dismiss the case in January, citing that Smucker had, quote, failed to sufficiently plead the fame of the Uncrustables marks.

4:47Brad Avery:failed to plead the fame that's a interesting phrasing that's why i use the direct quote because you know in these legalese documents it sometimes gets a little uh confusing but uh well smugger is not new to lawsuits over the uncrustables marks and i believe that they recently kind of put chubby snacks out of business with a lawsuit that they filed against that brand Do you remember what happened there? That went all the way back to 2021. And basically, it initially revolved around the shape of Chubby's crustal sandwiches, which were circular, just like Uncrustables. Chubby's reformulated to make theirs look like these cool little clouds.

5:32Brad Avery:Yeah. Yeah, they were fun looking. Chubby continued to be a bit of a bee in the bonnet to Smuckers and Uncrustables and was kind of going after them directly in some marketing and social media posts. They made these very combative posts, right? Yeah. At least that's what it would be perceived as combative. And they called Smucker and Uncrustables out by name a number of times, if I recall correctly. You know, one of those cases of you poke the bear too many times and the bear is going to bite back eventually. And so Smucker eventually took them to court over a similar type of trademark infringement.

6:14And although Chubbies didn't say outright that the lawsuits were the cause of the brand shutting down in 2024, it was pretty clear that the financial burden of going to court against a big food company like Smucker had put at least a significant strain on Chubbies. And I mean, what's interesting about this new lawsuit against Trader Joe's is basically putting all the other Uncrustables-like brands on notice and saying that Smuckers will aggressively protect their brand against other copycats. And there's been a slew of other food companies that have launched into this set, from sunflower seed butter brand Sunbutter's Jammies to a similarly named emerging brand called Jams, as well as Rudy's Rocky Mountain Bakery with the help of Justin Gold.

7:04So there's a lot of these handheld crustless PB &J or Sun Butter and J sandwiches that are out there because the opportunity for these brands to kind of muscle into the kids' snack and school lunch set is pretty big. Well, in a dispute that has not yet turned into a lawsuit, Kroger shoppers may have been noticing that the shelves where Red Bull sits are conspicuously empty.

7:33Brad Avery:And it's an outage that has no clear end in sight as the retail chain stands off with the pioneering energy brand over a proposed 9 % price increase on its 8-ounce cans. The issue is spread across multiple banners, according to reporting from Beverage Business Insights. But the exact source of the contention between the companies remains a point of speculation. Some sources have suggested that Kroger may just be trying to get Red Bull to back off of the pricing action. However, the standoff arrives as Red Bull's vendor contract with Kroger has expired, leading some sets to put up unauthorized placards in various Kroger stores, leading to social media speculation.

8:11Our colleague and BevNet managing editor, Marty Caballero, has been following this under-the-radar dispute, especially through some LinkedIn posts as well as some Reddit posting about the subject. What is kind of interesting is that this is not the first time you see a retailer, especially a retailer with significant amount of scale like Kroger, going up against a pretty major brand. And it's kind of a matter of wills. It will really come down to who's ready to give on pricing on this one. One person that I was reading about posted on LinkedIn about how this has happened to Red Bull in the past with Costco and Sam's Club.

9:01And eventually those club stores ended up caving and bringing Red Bull back in because Red Bull is one of the biggest energy drink brands in the world. And they do drive a lot of sales.

9:14Brad Avery:Yeah, and prices on groceries have been a source of contention for consumers and buyers for the past several years, ever since the big inflation spike in 2022. But this is the first significant pricing that Red Bull's taken in about three years. So for this to be the line in the sand that Kroger's decided to draw is curious. Any other points about why this is happening specifically to Red Bull would be speculation on my part. And I don't want to go down that road. But it is a fascinating case to be following, even if we are just watching from social media. Hey, listeners, fresh for September 1st, lots of new beer jobs this week at CPGjobs.com, including from Outlaw Light and Icicle Brewing, Mike Hess Brewing, R &D Brewing, and Wayfinder Beer add more strong opportunities for beer people.

10:03Beer people, find your next move. Every listing runs here on BrewBound, the beer industry's daily read. If you're hiring, put that opening before brewers, sales reps, and distributor people. Reach passive candidates inside their beer news. Applications go straight to your company. Post your job on cpgjobs.com today. Use code BREWBOUND26. Save on a job listing.

10:25Brad Avery:Your inbox should reflect the parts of CPG that matter to you. Choose from BevNet's seven free newsletters covering beverage, food, beer, spirits, careers, education, and more. Sign up and select your favorites at cpgmedia.com slash newsletter.

11:05millennials contributed 81 % of the private label purchases year over year, even though these demographics only represent just 17 % of all shoppers. Now, by the numbers, private label dollar sales reached$251 billion in 2026, according to Spins, which was up from$247 billion in 2025. and the segment's dollar share was up to 22%. When you break this out into the categories that are driving this growth, it really crosses a lot of the store. Along with meat, poultry, and seafood, some notable categories that I saw that had outsized growth were shelf-stable milk and kombucha and other functional beverages.

11:52The shelf-stable milk was growing 21%, and kombucha and functional beverages grew 11 % compared to negative sales growth among national brands in those categories. So you can see that these are some interesting categories for retailers and private label manufacturers to be seeing some opportunity. Another data point that stood out to me was that private label has moved beyond value shoppers to a broader set of consumers, Households making more than$150 ,000 per year increased private label purchasing by 43 % in the past year.

12:30Brad Avery:Well, you can read more about that report in our coverage on Nosh.com. And in other news of the week, Alison Ellsworth, the co-founder of Poppy, is getting ready to launch a new CPG venture. Details remain under wraps. Peter Rahal's new candy brand, Hall Pass, is launching in Walmart. and the Corporate Bro. Perhaps you've seen his reels on Instagram. Lucas, are you familiar with Corporate Bro? I did check him out after I saw your story, but it wasn't something that came through my algorithm per se. His real name is Ross Pomerantz, and he previously worked in tech sales, turned that into a bit of a comedy influencer, and now he's getting into coffee.

13:14Brad Avery:He is launching a RTD cold brew brand called Dialed Coffee. I spoke with Ross by phone last week, and he gave me the rundown on the business and definitely brings his signature sense of humor to it. You know, when he announced it on LinkedIn, he said, you've seen this playbook before. Slap your face on some white label juice, post about it three times, disappear, apologize on a podcast two years later. Well, this is not that, so he says. And if you want to learn more about it, I wrote all about the brand and his journey into beverage on BevNet. we've seen a couple of celebrity brands fold recently i think most especially uh unwell the energy and yeah the hydration energy and protein drink alex cooper launched uh suddenly folded so i don't want i don't want anyone to speak too soon about how long you hear that you're on notice Lucas has put you on notice.

14:13I'll keep you in my algorithm from now on.

14:17Brad Avery:Thank you for listening. We have coverage all throughout the week on BevNet.com and Nosh.com. Remember, if you enjoy the show, then please like and subscribe on your listening platform of choice. Thank you, and we'll see you next week. Bye, everybody.