Yontex
FoodBev Media’s Siân Yates rounds up this week’s food and beverage news, including:
Drinktec and BrauBeviale announce joint venture
Messe München and NürnbergMesse have announced a joint venture that will expand their position in the market for the beverage and liquid food industry, named Yontex.
Yontex will bring together Munich’s Drinktec – a trade fair for the beverage and liquid food industry, and Nuremberg’s BrauBeviale – a capital goods fair for the beverage industry in Europe.
The company’s registered office is in Nuremberg, and the new managing director will be Rolf M Keller, previously division manager at NürnbergMesse. Both trade fairs will remain independent brands, keep their names and remain as events at their respective locations in Munich and Nuremberg – under the umbrella of Yontex.
The new company Yontex will present itself for the first time at the BrauBeviale 2023 trade show in Nuremberg from 28 to 30 November.
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs and Diageo dispute deepens
Unredacted details from a filing to the New York Supreme Court have accused Diageo of “mismanagement” and “unfair treatment” of musician Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs.
Combs’ lawsuit against Diageo was filed in May, however, many details were redacted at the time. The court determined on 30 June that the vast majority of the redacted material could be made public.
Among the new allegations made public on 5 July, Diageo is alleged to have previously presented Combs with a watermelon-flavoured version of the DeLeón tequila, despite his “objections and efforts to educate Diageo about the racial history and connotations relating to watermelon”.
Responding to the allegation filed in a document to the New York Supreme Court, Diageo told FoodBev: “Combs supported, publicly endorsed for several years and benefited financially from the success of Cîroc Summer Watermelon. His attempt to recast follow-up discussions regarding innovations for DeLeón is, as is his entire suit, disingenuous and self-serving.”
Monster enters into agreement to acquire Bang Energy’s assets
Monster Beverage and Vital Pharmaceuticals (VPX Sports) have entered into an asset purchase agreement under which a Monster subsidiary would acquire all of Bang Energy’s assets.
The announcement follows last week’s news that a notice of auction for the sale of VPX Sports had been cancelled, with Monster set to complete the acquisition.
The acquisition includes Bang Energy’s performance beverages and related businesses and a beverage production facility located in Phoenix, Arizona, US. The transaction is subject to certain terms and closing conditions, which include obtaining Bankruptcy Court approval.
While Monster said it is hopeful that the transaction will be completed, there is no guarantee that it will receive Bankruptcy Court approval. VPX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Florida, US, in October 2022 to help the company recover from multiple lawsuits that had impacted its “short-term outlook” and a cost impact of “reconstituting the company’s national distribution network that resulted in a summer revenue gap”.
Ofi installs circular biomass boilers at cocoa processing facilities
Olam Food Ingredients (Ofi) has installed two circular biomass boilers at its cocoa processing factories in the Netherlands and Germany.
By using cocoa shells – a by-product of the cocoa production process – as fuel, the boilers generate steam to facilitate the creation of cocoa ingredients from Ofi’s premium cocoa ingredients brand, deZaan, at its factories in Koog aan de Zaan, Netherlands, and Mannheim, Germany, where the latter will be the first cocoa shell boiler in the country.
According to Ofi, the boiler at Koog aan de Zaan will reduce natural gas usage and CO2 emissions at the facility by 50%. Meanwhile, the second boiler at the Mannheim site has the potential to provide up to 90% of the steam required to power the facility, resulting in an estimated annual reduction of approximately 8,000 tons of CO2 emissions annually.
Finnebrogue and Ivy Farm in “world-first” cell-based wagyu partnership
Finnebrogue, one of the UK’s leading food producers, has announced plans to collaborate with cell-based meat company Ivy Farm Technologies, to create one of the “world’s first” commercially available cell-based wagyu beef burgers.
The new partnership will see the two companies work together to produce cell-based wagyu beef burgers once the industry is given the regulatory green light.
Finnebrogue has its own world-class herd of wagyu cattle on its estate in County Down, Northern Ireland – cells from the herd are currently being cultivated by Ivy Farm. The company’s traditional wagyu beef burger was named the UK’s best burger of the year by Which? magazine in 2022.
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