Andrew Floor

There’s a need for a new playbook for building and growing beverage brands - one where the brand partner drives the brand and actively works on in-market activation and engagement 👇

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Smaller Brands: This Is Your Window 🔍 Leadership shifts at the top signal deeper shifts below the surface. News that Diageo is reportedly considering replacing CEO Debra Crew—less than two years into her appointment—shouldn't just be viewed as corporate turbulence. It's a clear indicator of the mounting pressures legacy spirits companies face in today’s fast-moving landscape. Multinational giants are navigating: 🔹 Declining performance in key markets (like Latin America) 🔹 The demand for premiumization, with more scrutiny 🔹 Slower innovation cycles 🔹 And the rise of digital-native, purpose-driven challenger brands In this environment, scale can become a liability—while agility becomes a superpower. For mid-sized and smaller spirits brands, this moment matters. ✅ Your size gives you speed. You can pivot faster, make bolder decisions, and get closer to your consumers. ✅ You’re not tied to legacy systems. You can build on what the next generation of consumers truly values—authenticity, identity, sustainability, and story. ✅ You can own niche markets that big players often overlook or can't serve without diluting their positioning. 📈 While giants recalibrate, this is your window to capture market share, gain visibility, and build real brand equity. The opportunity is real—but it won’t last forever. The brands that win will be those who act with intention, clarity, and execution. Let’s keep watching closely. Transitions at the top often reveal tectonic shifts underneath. #SpiritsIndustry #Leadership #PremiumBrands #ChallengerBrands #Agility #BrandBuilding #BeverageTrends #Diageo #MarketShare #ConsumerConnection https://lnkd.in/e_Euz6Az

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Agencies must reinvent, not recover - It’s a matter of survival Clients are quietly moving work in-house using AI, making agencies irrelevant. Do you see that structural shift in your industry / company?

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In QSR, standing still means falling behind. 🚀 🔹 70% of consumers now discover new food brands online first 🔹 60% expect seamless integration between digital and in-store experiences 🔹 1 in 3 Gen Z diners make decisions based on social media presence alone That’s why constant innovation in online-offline marketing isn’t optional — it’s essential. Proud to see Subway Switzerland leading the charge with bold campaigns, hyper-local activations, and a relentless focus on the digital-consumer connection. The QSR game is changing fast — and we’re here to shape what’s next. #QSR #FoodMarketing #Omnichannel #SubwaySwitzerland #MarketingInnovation #DigitalToDoor

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Chicago-based Kraft Heinz made an excellent choice in appointing one of the most experienced and successful global CPG leaders, Steve Cahillane, as its new CEO. Cahillane previously served as CEO of Chicago-based Kellanova and brings deep industry expertise and proven leadership to the role. In 2026, Kraft Heinz plans to split into two companies, temporarily named "Global Taste Elevation" and "North American Grocery". Global Taste Elevation, led then by Cahillane, will include the faster-growing sauces, spreads, and seasonings portfolio, featuring iconic brands such as Heinz, Philadelphia, and Kraft Mac & Cheese. North American Grocery will house legacy brands including Oscar Mayer, Kraft Singles, and Lunchables. The objective of this strategic separation is to increase speed to market, reduce complexity, and strengthen proximity to customers. Cahillane is a longtime Chicago resident and advocate for the city, having graduated from Northwestern University. In his first remarks following the announcement, he reaffirmed Kraft Heinz’s commitment to Chicago. Congratulations, Steve! Please read here the Chicago Tribune coverage by Robert Channick here: https://lnkd.in/gUvbH7hc

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🚨 The beverage industry just witnessed its biggest shake-up in decades. Keurig Dr Pepper announced a €15.7 billion acquisition of JDE Peet's—then immediately revealed plans to split into TWO independent companies. This isn't just another M&A deal. It's a masterclass in strategic transformation: ✅ **The Play:** Create the world's #1 pure-play coffee company ("Global Coffee Co.") with $16B+ in annual sales across 100+ countries. ✅ **The Split:** Separate into a focused North American beverage challenger ("Beverage Co.") with $11B+ in sales. ✅ **The Brands:** Combine powerhouses like Keurig, Jacobs, L'OR, Peet's, Dr Pepper, and Canada Dry under optimized business models. Here's what makes this brilliant: 🎯 **Focus over size.** Instead of building a massive conglomerate, they're creating two laser-focused companies that can dominate their respective markets. 🎯 **Geographic synergy.** JDE Peet's global reach + Keurig's North American dominance = comprehensive market coverage without overlap. 🎯 **Category expertise.** Each company gets leadership teams and resources tailored to their specific market dynamics. The numbers speak volumes: → 33% premium to JDE Peet's stock price → $400M in expected cost synergies → Investment-grade credit profiles for both companies → Expected to close H1 2026 This is what strategic M&A looks like in 2025: acquire to strengthen, then separate to optimize. While others chase scale, the smartest companies are chasing focus. What's your take—will we see more "acquire and split" strategies as companies prioritize specialization over diversification?

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..its a tremendous opportunity to build an AI first company solving real problems for Suppliers and Operators. F&B Insights is helping suppliers build brands in the volume and impact accounts that shape our industry. EMERGING Fund has invested $750,000 directly into local tech platform F&B Insights. The investment follows a $1.8 million investment Emerging made in May and furthers the firm's commitment to back "AI forefront companies" in the food and beverage space https://lnkd.in/gFPfGhWD

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The Real Risk in Alcohol M&A Many alcohol acquisitions struggle not because integration was mishandled, but because the deal itself misunderstood what was actually being bought. Too often, valuation fixates on the visible outputs: current sales, distribution footprint, near-term growth rates. What gets overlooked is the system that created those numbers in the first place. The founder focus, the disproportionate attention, the narrow set of priorities, and sometimes the uncomfortable ways of working that allowed the brand to win long before it ever appeared on a spreadsheet. In alcohol especially, this matters. Demand is not purely functional. It is cultural, ritualistic, and often irrational. Brands grow not just because they are available, but because they mean something in a moment, in a venue, in a social context. Those meanings are rarely captured cleanly in a diligence deck. The assumption is that plugging a brand into a larger organisation automatically accelerates it. In practice, the opposite often happens. What was once the only thing that mattered becomes one priority among many, competing for sales attention, resources, and leadership time. The conditions that created the growth quietly dissolve. This is where due diligence frequently falls short. Not because it lacks rigour, but because it values the wrong things. It tests whether the numbers can scale, but not whether the conditions that created those numbers can survive. It models distribution gains, but not the loss of intensity. It prices the brand, but not the fragility of the system that made it successful. I’ve seen this work far better when founders remain genuinely invested, still noisy, still opinionated, and still holding tension in the system. They are inconvenient, but they protect what made the brand valuable in the first place. Alcohol is a long game. Five years to scale an RTD properly. Seven or more to build a spirits brand that endures. These are not short-term optimisation plays. They are long-term bets that require foresight, patience, and leaders willing to shape the organisation around the brand, not simply absorb the brand into the organisation. The real work of Chairs, Sponsors, and Operators is not celebrating the deal, but being brutally clear upfront about what is being bought, what will be lost in the transition, and what it will genuinely take to make the bet pay off. Without that honesty, even the most exciting acquisition fails to fulfil its potential.

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