The latest news, trends, analysis, interviews and podcasts from the global food and beverage industry

Monster Beverage has won US bankruptcy court approval to acquire Bang Energy owner Vital Pharmaceuticals (VPX Sports) out of Chapter 11 for $362 million. Monster and VPX Sports entered into an asset purchase agreement on 3 July 2023 under which a Monster subsidiary would acquire all of Bang Energy’s assets. The acquisition includes Bang’s performance beverages and related businesses and a beverage production facility located in Phoenix, Arizona, US. The sale means Bang will survive bankruptcy, however, it follows VPX Sports’ plans to make more than 450 of its employees redundant.

VPX Sports 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”. Bang told FoodBev: “As we move forward with this transaction, we are required to comply with the federal WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) Act to inform a group of our employees that they may be impacted by a future workforce reduction. We are communicating with our teams openly and transparently.” It also said that it welcomed the Federal Trade Commission’s decision to end its merger review process early on 3 July. The judgement is subject to further customary closing conditions.