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.
Honestly, if I had known about this headache I would have shopped elsewhere.
When I heard about the 5 cent sale Bevmo was having for wine, I couldn't pass it up. I got 11 cases which included merlot, chardonnay, champagne, etc. The total came to $655, but would have been about $1100 without the deal. They didn't have 5 cent deals on hard alcohol and beer so I had to have my vendor take care of those items.
The aisles are small and it's difficult to move your cart around them. Also, the people working there are so busy that they hardly have time to stop and answer questions. I'm not sure if they are even that well educated on the wine since I asked about several labels and they hadn't tried it. I guess it's more of a warehouse rather than your local cellar. Overall, the experience was great. We really saved so much money.
As I described with Yank Sing, it cost a lot to buy their wine, so we ran the numbers and found three wines that were cheaper than what it cost to buy theirs (even with their ridiculous corkage fees). My husband and I decided not to have hard liquor (we didn’t want crazy drunkenness at our classy event), so bought wine and some champagne from Bev Mo, and then we just bought the beer and soft drinks from Yank Sing. The greatest thing about this Bev Mo was that they let us return unopened bottles of wine (but if you ice them and the labels come off, its yours). Other Bev Mos will not let you return your wine after your event. Another good thing about them is that they will deliver your wine chilled to your event, although there is a $75 delivery charge, I think.