Terry Messmer, sales and category manager for Tri Star Energy/Twice Daily, was a finalist for nonalcohol beverages, large chain, in CSP’s 2025 Category Manager of the Year (CMOY) awards.
Messmer (pictured above) directly oversees the complete cooler with category responsibilities for beer, package beverage and dairy, as well as overseeing general merchandise and pre-paid services categories.
- Tri Star Energy/Twice Daily is No. 42 on CSP’s 2024 Top 202 ranking of U.S. c-store chains by store count.
This year's CMOY awards featured 14 winners across seven categories. Winners from both small (99 or fewer stores) and large chains (100 stores or more) were selected for the first time in each category.
Here’s Messmer’s take on what’s happening now in the packaged beverage category.
What specific nonalcohol beverage segments/particular brands proved to be impactful to drive the fortunes of the category?
We saw the emergence of the new ‘sub-category’ in sports drinks of rapid hydration, aka the square bottle drinks, really take off in 2024. They brought life to the category similar to when Bang Energy came out and created the high- performance sub-category within energy. Energy is still evolving with the continued success of the functional energy drinks with great new flavors, marketing and the edition of running limited-edition flavors.
What aspects of this category do you appreciate most?
I love that it’s so dynamic and always evolving. What’s going to be the next big trend? Also, I really enjoy all the people I get to meet and work with: it’s a pleasure to have partners that care as much about their brands as I do about our brand. It’s great to be able to collaborate with great brands and people for the common goal of selling more stuff while keeping it fun.
What have been some of your most vexing challenges in 2024 and into this year pertaining to the category?
Cost increase has continued to put a strain on the retail of some items where we started to see a sales decrease as consumers change their buying habits.
What consumer purchasing trends from last year are you looking to cultivate even further in 2025?
I’m still excited about continuing the growth of rapid hydration. Also, the good-for-you energy category is heating up with the key players looking to drive sales and gain market share.
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