OAKBROOK TERRACE, Ill. — Today, CSP launches the industry’s first PackBev E-News, a new weekly newsletter that will tackle news, best practices and new products in the packaged-beverage world. It’s difficult to overemphasize the importance of packaged beverages in the convenience-store universe. They’re the No. 1 driver of in-store traffic. They represent 15.4% of store sales contribution, behind only tobacco and foodservice, while topping the list of gross-margin earners at 39.8%.

They’re also fun and the frequent subject of innovation.

At the same time, packaged beverages represent hundreds of SKUs—heavy, single-serve SKUs—and a constant barrage of new products that can keep a category manager busy from sunup to sundown trying to figure out which ones are worth their salt.

Add to that, the fact that the beverage category is going through a dramatic transition, one where carbonated soft drinks fight for share with energy drinks, bottled water, iced tea and any number of other subcategories.

City and state governments regularly float proposals to tax, limit or ban sugar-sweetened drinks even as consumers wage their own war against beverages made with other artificial sweeteners.

With so much going on in the beverage arena, shame on us for not launching a newsletter sooner that presents beverage news, analysis, new products, data and more in your email inbox. And we’re democratic around here, so if you have beverage content ideas you’d like to see, drop me a note at sholtz@winsightmedia.com.

In the meantime, watch for PackBev E-News in your inbox every Monday, or click here to get your own subscription if you happened upon this note from a coworker’s shared email.