RPC Bites #63: Aldi Kefir - copycat or collab? No more carbon credits for Brewdog and a rollercoaster for Carlsberg's portfolio

Welcome back to RPC Bites. Our aim in the next 2 minutes is to provide you with a flavour of the key legal, regulatory, and commercial developments in the Food & Drink sector over the last fortnight… with the occasional bit of industry gossip thrown in for good measure.

Aldi kefir - copycat or collab?

Discount supermarket giant, Aldi is no stranger to pushing the boundaries of IP law, often crossing the line between "inspired" alternative products and "copycat" products. It was no surprise then, when it recently launched its own-label kefir named "Beautiful Everyday", with a stark likeness to Bio-tiful Gut Health's kefir range.

However, after much social media buzz, a review of the UK Trade Mark Register seemingly confirmed that Aldi's Beautiful Everyday was born from a collaboration between the discounter and market-leading kefir brand, Bio-tiful Gut Health - the Register revealed that Bio-tiful Dairy Limited (the owner or Bio-tiful Gut Health) owns a UK trade mark for 'Beautiful everyday' and the logo associated with Aldi's new product.

The question on the industry's lips is why has the collab been kept under wraps? Neither Aldi nor Bio-tiful seem to have publicised the collab. Aldi's marketing team appear to have changed tack this time around – perhaps creating the illusion of a copycat product to drive online engagement and sales given the viral status that copycat products tend to garner? What's clear is that for Aldi, there's a multitude of benefits to the collab; it's tapping into a fast-growing market armed with Bio-tiful's trusted branding and know-how which could drive Bio-tiful's loyal customer base through Aldi's doors – particularly as Beautiful Everyday is almost 25% cheaper. But what's in it for Bio-tiful? Beyond the sales volume that Aldi can offer, it's difficult to see the incentive for the brand – or is it simply a way to avoid falling victim to inevitable discounter copycatting?

No more carbon credits for BrewDog

Having been dubbed the first (alleged!) carbon negative brewery in 2020, four years on, BrewDog has announced that it is exiting the carbon credits market to "focus on reducing emissions in [its] operations and supply chain". This means that come November, the brewer will no longer be able to make carbon negative claims – the basis for those claims being that it had purchased carbon credits i.e., a tradable "credit" issued by an independently verified carbon crediting programme, which represents a specified reduction or removal of carbon dioxide or greenhouses gases from the atmosphere, to offset carbon emissions from its brewing practices.

BrewDog cites the "unsustainable" nature of the carbon credits market as its reason for moving away from a carbon credit-based system. In recent years the spike in companies seeking to bolster their green credentials by offsetting their carbon emissions with carbon credits has resulted in a multitude of carbon credit schemes, some perhaps more precarious than others, with various research projects reporting that a number of these schemes overestimate the level of carbon reductions being facilitated.

Although BrewDog has received some backlash for seemingly rowing back on its environmental commitments, against the backdrop of: (i) the EU proposing to adopt stricter requirements on green claims based on carbon credits under the Green Claims Directive, and (ii) the ASA's updated guidance on "carbon neutral" and "net zero" claims based on offsetting requiring proper substantiation, its approach might be welcomed by some as a sensible reconsideration of its green claims marketing. 

Carlsberg loses San Miguel and gains Britvic

Carlsberg Marston’s Brewing Company (CBMC), the UK subsidiary of the Carlsberg Group which brews beers like Carlsberg, Marston's, Erdinger, Hobgoblin and more, has recently confirmed that its exclusive licence to brew and distribute San Miguel in the UK will end on 31 December 2024. From 1 January 2025, the San Miguel brand, owned by Spanish brewery, Mahou San Miguel (MSM), will be distributed and sold in the UK by Budweiser Brewing Group (BBG), the UK & Ireland arm of AB InBev. San Miguel will join MSM's other leading brand, Mahou in the BBG portfolio strengthening the existing relationship between MSM and BBG. Read more here.

Meanwhile, on 8 July 2024, Carlsberg Group announced a further shake up: in a bid to significantly reduce its debt and focus on its pub estate, Marston's has sold its stake in CBMC (a Carlsberg Marston's joint venture) to Carlsberg Group, and soft drink giant Britvic, (the owner of Robinsons, Fruit Shoot, J2O and more) has accepted the brewer's £3.3bn bid for the business. The revised deal (Britvic initially rejected Carlsberg's £3.1bn bid) equates to £12.90 per share in cash and a special dividend payment of 25p per share. For Carlsberg, Britvic's appeal seems to be in its bottling deal with PepsiCo. Carlsberg is PepsiCo's bottler across Europe and Asia whilst Britvic has been PepsiCo's bottler in the UK – therefore, the acquisition allows Carlsberg to expand its relationship with PepsiCo. Read more here.

Malibu x Oatly - Pina Oatlada anyone? 

Global oat milk producer, Oatly is joining forces with rum-based spirit brand, Malibu to offer customers the 'Pina Oatlada'; a Pina Colada flavoured dairy free soft serve ice cream. The Pina Oatlada will have an ABV of 1.5% and be made from Oatly's oat-based soft serve which, as it stands, can only be found on Amazon and in restaurants and takeaways. In similar fashion, the Pina Oatlada will be available in selected UK venues, including Mrs Riot (London), Pong & Duck (Manchester) and Three Sisters (Edinburgh). The unusual pairing seems to come from a desire for both brands to reach new and diverse audiences.

Meatly takes a leap for lab grown meat

Meatly has become the first company in the word to gain regulatory approval to sell cultivated meat-based products in the UK and Europe. In collaboration with plant-based high protein pet food company, Omni, Mealty will sell its lab cultivated chicken in the form of canned wet food for cats.

Mealty's lab-cultivated chicken is made by taking a single sample of cells from a chicken egg and enriching them in a controlled lab with the vitamins, minerals and amino acids necessary for the cells to grow into meat. In doing so, Mealty is hoping to revolutionise the pet food market by offering a more environmentally friendly, sustainable and ethical pet food.

That being said, Meatly's success in the pet food space doesn’t necessarily mean we'll see similar strides when it comes to human consumption of lab grown meat. Although the FSA has confirmed to the Grocer that it is currently dealing with two applications for approval of cultivated meat for human consumption by Ivy Farm and Vital Meat, it did not give an indication as to when those applications might be determined. If the FSA's novel food application process is anything to go by, companies could be facing a long battle; CBD brands are only now progressing to the risk management stage of that process after over 2 years, as reported in Issue 62 of RPC Bites.