Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP) Burlington, Mass., and Plano, Texas, announced its first quarter results, which ended March 31, reporting a 4.4 percent net sales growth to $2.61 billion, compared with $2.5 billion a year ago. 

IRI updated the report “Consumer Spending Tracker: COVID-19 Impact” to capture the most recent insights. The most recent report sources sales data from the IRI POS Data ending April 12. For the United States, sales trends remain elevated but are down significantly from its peak. Total store sales were up 14.3 percent for that time period. For edible, sales were up 18.8 percent; however, for the week timeframe, non-edible sales were down 0.8 percent.

Across geographies, consumer demand appears to be beginning to stabilize toward previous year trends, although in some categories demand is significantly higher or lower than the previous year, according to recent information from Information Resources Inc. (IRI), Chicago.

As efforts accelerate worldwide to provide relief from the ravages of COVID-19, Purchase, N.Y.-based PepsiCo Inc. and The PepsiCo Foundation announced a more than $45 million initiative focused on helping people and communities most affected by this virus.

As the COVID-19 outbreak accelerates in Europe and the United States, governments, businesses and consumers are rapidly changing behaviors. In its March 26 report titled “COVID-19 Impact: Consumer Spending Tracker for MULOC Retailers – US, UK, France, Italy, NZ,” Chicago-based Information Resources Inc. (IRI) collaborated with its partners at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) to analyze the latest consumer purchases in these respective countries.

The Coca-Cola Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Atlanta-based The Coca-Cola Co., announced it is awarding a total of $13.5 million in grants to five nonprofit organizations that are working on the front lines of the U.S. and Canadian humanitarian response to the coronavirus pandemic.

PepsiCo Inc., Purchase, N.Y., it will provide enhanced benefits to all U.S.-based employees and additional compensation to U.S. frontline employees — the women and men who make, move and sell products — amidst the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The Bitter Housewife announced that its signature Old Fashioned Aromatic bitters have been reformulated to be free of alcohol and sugar, then mixed with carbonated water for a beverage that can be consumed any time of day, the company says.