Coca-Cola Co., dependent on soda-fountain sales for one-third of North American volume, has created a new machine that allows consumers to add lime, cherry and other flavors to drinks.
The “Bev-olution” dispenser can create as many as 50 drinks and may arrive in fast-food chains in October, Chris Lowe, president of Coca-Cola’s North America food-service unit, said Monday. Users can make their own beverages by mixing Sprite with a dose of cherry flavor, for example.
Coca-Cola is seeking to revive soft-drink volume in the U.S. after three straight quarters of declines as consumers switch to water, tea and sports drinks, categories where PepsiCo Inc. leads. Coca-Cola may face another threat as McDonald’s Corp., a customer for more than 50 years, tests sales of bottled drinks, including some from PepsiCo and Arizona Beverages.
The new Coca-Cola machine can dispense both soda and noncarbonated drinks such as Powerade at temperatures just above freezing, Lowe said at a Beverage Digest conference in New York.
LOS ANGELES
L.A. may be site of next Anschutz paper
Denver financier Philip An schutz may choose Los Angeles as the location for his next Examiner newspaper, according to a report in trade publication Media Life, which cited a newspaper-industry source familiar with the growth plans of An schutz’s Clarity Media Group.
Clarity officials have confirmed expansion plans, but An schutz spokesman Jim Monaghan declined to comment on the report Monday.
Clarity publishes free daily newspapers under the Examiner name in San Francisco, Washington and Baltimore.
DENVER
Forum to be conduit on health-care reform
The Colorado Health Foundation is funding the launch of the Business Health Forum, whose mission will be to engage the Colorado business community in health-care policy reform. The forum will not take stances on policy or legislation, according to a news release.
Instead, it will “serve as a conduit” for business leaders to increase their participation in the reform debate. The forum will partner with local chambers of commerce and local businesses to sponsor a series of debates statewide.
NEW YORK
Crocs shares rise to record after forecast
Shares of Crocs Inc., the maker of a colorful line of casual shoes, closed at a record high after a Piper Jaffray & Co. analyst boosted its stock-price forecast by 19 percent.
Crocs is worth $96 a share, analyst Jeffrey Klinefelter wrote in a note to clients Monday, raising his prediction from $81. He rates the stock “outperform.”
Shares of Crocs rose $4.41 Monday, or 5.1 percent, to $90.97 in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading.
NEW YORK
Blackstone duo to net $2.33 billion from IPO
Stephen Schwarzman and Peter G. Peterson, who started Blackstone Group LP two decades ago with $400,000, stand to collect a combined $2.33 billion from the largest initial public offering by a leveraged buyout firm.
The 60-year-old Schwarzman will receive $449.2 million for selling some of his holdings, leaving him with a 24 percent stake, New York-based Blackstone said Monday in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Peterson, 80, who’s retiring next year, will get $1.88 billion and retain 4 percent of the company.
WASHINGTON
Wage setback dealt to home-care workers
Home-care workers are not entitled to overtime pay under federal law, the Supreme Court ruled Monday, a setback for a growing labor force of more than 1 million people.
The Labor Department did not exceed its authority when it excluded home-care workers from overtime protection and “courts should defer to the department’s rule,” Justice Stephen Breyer wrote, relieving employers and angering workers’-rights groups.
The Supreme Court also agreed Monday to hear Sprint Nextel Corp.’s appeal of an employment case that could make it harder for workers to prove discrimination allegations.
BROOMFIELD
Vail names exec for Breckenridge resort
Broomfield-based Vail Resorts Inc. on Monday said Lucy Kay will take the reins as chief operating officer of Breckenridge Ski Resort. Kay was most recently vice president of marketing for Breckenridge and Keystone resorts.
WASHINGTON
Treasury auctions $28 billion in T-bills
The Treasury Department auctioned $14 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 4.640 percent and an additional $14 billion in six-month bills at a rate of 4.765 percent.
For a $10,000 bill, the three-month price was $9,882.71 while a six-month bill sold for $9,759.10.
DENVER
Mining group seeks to end cyanide ban
The Colorado Mining Association sought an appeal Monday with the Colorado Supreme Court, seeking to overturn Summit County’s ban on the use of cyanide to recover gold and other minerals from mined ore.
The Summit County ban was overturned in state District Court, but the Colorado Court of Appeals in March reversed the decision and allowed the cyanide ban to remain in effect in Summit, Conejos, Costilla, Gilpin and Gunnison counties.
The mining association said the ban violates state law, which provides uniform standards for the environmental regulation of mines.
DENVER
BioFuel Energy cuts IPO price forecast
BioFuel Energy Corp., a developer of ethanol-production facilities expected to go public this week, has cut its forecast range. The Denver company was expected to price its initial public offering at $16 to $18 per share, but it is now expected to price at $13 to $14, according to MorningNotes, a Boulder-based company that tracks IPOs.
