Chicago, U.S.A. — The National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA) and The Gatorade Company have teamed up to declare July 11, 2012, a day when U.S. sports takes a break from competition, the first annual National Recovery Day.

With high school athletes suffering two million injuries each year(1), National Recovery Day has been established to focus the attention of athletes on the importance of proper athletic recovery in order to continuously perform at their best.

The Gatorade Sports Science Institute recommends the following fueling guidelines for proper athletic recovery:

1. Studies show that consuming about 20g of protein as soon as possible following training or competition, can help enhance the muscle recovery process.
2. To speed up your body’s muscle recovery between games or practices, consume approximately 1/2 g of carbohydrate/pound of body weight* when the next workout is less than eight hours away.
3. Drink 16-24 ounces of fluid with sodium for each pound of body weight lost during exercise following a workout or game.

Athletes are constantly on the move from one workout to the next, and proper recovery is essential not only for rebuilding muscle but for sustaining strength. The focus on post-competition routines has been brought to the national stage leading up to and on National Recovery Day with professional athletes including the NY Yankees’ Derek Jeter, Washington Redskins’ Quarterback Robert Griffin III and Carolina Panthers’ Quarterback Cam Newton discussing how proper athletic recovery has allowed them to evolve as an athlete and achieve success in their respective professional sports careers.

As part of National Recovery Day, NATA and Gatorade are asking athletes and athletic trainers nationwide to share their recovery tips on Gatorade’s Facebook and Twitter pages and NATA’s Facebook and Twitter pages.

“How athletes treat their bodies is critical to their performance,” said incoming NATA President Jim Thornton, MA, ATC, PES, CES. “How they prepare and recover physically and how they fuel their bodies before, during and after training or competition all make a difference. We hope that National Recovery Day will serve as a reminder to athletes worldwide to do everything possible to set themselves up for athletic success.”

“We are pleased to team with the National Athletic Trainers’ Association on this effort to emphasize the importance of athletic recovery,” said Asker Jeukendrup, global senior director, Gatorade Sports Science Institute. “By combining our areas of expertise, we are working to ensure athletes are aware that recovering well is the key to coming back a stronger and better athlete.”

For more information on National Recovery Day, please visit www.nata.org or www.gatorade.com.

Image Courtesy of  Herbert Kratky / Shutterstock.com

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Kansas City, U.S.A. — As the Major League Baseball (MLB) All-Stars take the field the night of July 10 on FOX, Pepsi MAX is announcing an All-Star roster of its own – the fan-selected Pepsi MAX MLB Field of Dreams American League (AL) and National League (NL) teams comprised of some of baseball’s greatest legends.

Baseball fans across the country voted for their favorite MLB legends on the Pepsi MAX MLB Field of Dreams AL and NL ballots earlier this year at MLB.com/PepsiMAX to determine the rosters. From the ballots cast, two lucky consumers – Johnny Perotti representing the AL and Stephen Katchmark representing the NL – have been randomly selected to take the field with the MLB legends in an AL vs. NL match-up, and will campaign for votes to see who will have home field advantage for the Pepsi MAX MLB Field of Dreams Game.

To announce the Pepsi MAX MLB Field of Dreams AL and NL teams, actor Jay Mohr was on hand at the Pepsi MAX footprint at MLB All-Star FanFest earlier on July 10 with Cal Ripken, Jr. representing the Pepsi MAX MLB Field of Dreams AL team and Mike Schmidt representing the Pepsi MAX MLB Field of Dreams NL team.

The Pepsi MAX MLB Field of Dreams American League team includes:

• Catcher – Yogi Berra
• First Base – Frank Thomas
• Second Base – Rod Carew
• Shortstop – Cal Ripken, Jr.
• Third Base – Brooks Robinson
• Outfielders - Ken Griffey, Jr., Rickey Henderson and Reggie Jackson
• Starting Pitcher – Jim Palmer
• Relief Pitcher – Dennis Eckersley
• Designated Hitter – Paul Molitor

The Pepsi MAX MLB Field of Dreams National League team includes:

• Catcher – Johnny Bench
• First Base – Fred McGriff
• Second Base – Ryne Sandberg
• Shortstop – Ozzie Smith
• Third Base – Mike Schmidt
• Outfielders – Andre Dawson, Tony Gwynn and Stan Musial
• Starting Pitcher – Randy Johnson
• Relief Pitcher – Trevor Hoffman

“It’s exciting to be part of the Pepsi MAX MLB Field of Dreams program because it connects directly with the fans,” said Cal Ripken, Jr., Baseball Hall of Famer and Pepsi MAX MLB Field of Dreams AL shortstop. “The guys on the AL and NL rosters are some of the greatest players of all time, and it’s truly an honor to be chosen by the fans for their Field of Dreams Team.”

Perotti, a Rochester, NY resident and five of his friends will join five MLB Legends from the AL roster for a baseball game against Katchmark, who is from Washington D.C., his five friends and five MLB Legends from the NL team.

Now it’s up to the fans to decide which team will have home field advantage. Between now and August 15, 2012 fans can go to MLB.com/PepsiMAX to view videos from Perotti and Katchmark and vote for which hometown - Rochester, NY or Washington, D.C. – will host the Pepsi MAX MLB Field of Dreams Game. Once determined, Pepsi MAX will plan the baseball game in the winner’s hometown.

“Pepsi MAX is looking forward to creating a once-in a lifetime experience for Johnny Perotti and Stephen Katchmark,” said Heidi Sandreuter, Senior Director, Pepsi Sports Marketing. “It’s not every day that you get to take the field with some of the greatest players of the game and we are excited to find out which hometown will be hosting the Pepsi MAX MLB Field of Dreams Game.”
For more information on the Pepsi MAX MLB Field of Dreams program, visit MLB.com/Pepsi MAX.

Image Courtesy of Aspen Photo / Shutterstock.com

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New York, U.S.A. — PepsiCo, Inc. announced July 10 the opening of a new food manufacturing facility in Wuhan, China. The plant, which is PepsiCo’s sixth food manufacturing site in its Greater China Region, is part of the company’s plans to drive the continued growth of its China business and expand further into central and western China.

The Wuhan plant is the first foods facility built by PepsiCo in China in line with the criteria established by Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), the world’s leading green building standard. With state-of-the-art technologies and processes, the plant is expected to use 30 percent less water and 20 percent less energy compared to the 2006 baseline for PepsiCo China Foods manufacturing plants, reducing operating costs in the long term. Three existing plants in PepsiCo’s manufacturing network in China are LEED-certified: Pepsi bottling plants in Chongqing, Nanchang and Kunming.

The PepsiCo plant in Wuhan, which includes 25,000 square meters of production space, is equipped with one of the most advanced potato chip production lines in the world and has the capacity to produce approximately 15,000 tons of Lay’s potato chips annually. Lay’s is the world’s largest food brand and China’s top-selling chip brand.

PepsiCo Chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi officially opened the new Wuhan plant at a ceremony attended by Mr. Jia Yaobin, executive vice mayor of the Wuhan Municipal Government, and other leading Wuhan officials. Saad Abdul-Latif, CEO of PepsiCo Asia, Middle East, Africa; Tim Minges, chairman of PepsiCo Greater China Region; and Katty Lam, president of PepsiCo Greater China Region Foods also attended the event.

Mr. Jia Yaobin said: “PepsiCo is one of the most successful consumer goods companies in the world, and its products are well-known and popular in China. We thank PepsiCo for the contribution it has made to the development of Wuhan and the Dongxihu District. From the local government’s perspective, we recognize the significant role played by the business community in promoting local economic development, and we will continue to support PepsiCo in growing its business in Wuhan and the central and western regions. We wish PepsiCo even greater progress here in China.”

“PepsiCo has a strong and growing food and beverage business in China, and we’re making investments to drive sustainable long-term growth,” Nooyi said. “The Wuhan plant is a crucial piece of our growth strategy, as it opens new opportunities for PepsiCo in central and western China and will allow more Chinese consumers to enjoy Lay’s and other great PepsiCo brands. It also continues our commitment to sustainable development, which we believe is a key driver of both China’s and PepsiCo’s future success.”

Since entering the Chinese market in 1981, PepsiCo has established a leading position in China’s rapidly growing food and beverage industry.

Earlier this year, PepsiCo completed a strategic beverage alliance with Tingyi (Cayman Islands) Holding Corp. (Tingyi), one of the leading food and beverage companies in China. The PepsiCo-Tingyi beverage system is the No. 1 liquid refreshment beverage player in China and provides Chinese consumers with some of the country’s most popular beverage products, including: Pepsi, China’s top-selling cola; Mirinda, China’s top-selling flavored carbonated soft drink; Gatorade, one of China’s top-selling sports drinks; China’s top-selling tea and water brands, sold under Tingyi-Asahi Beverages Holding Corp. Ltd’s Master Kong brand name; and China’s second-largest juice portfolio. China is expected to become the world’s largest beverage market by 2015.

PepsiCo is also a major agricultural company in China, having opened eight sustainable demonstration potato farms and invested in agricultural farm development. Over the past 12 years, more than 10,000 Chinese rural households have benefited from PepsiCo’s agricultural projects in China. PepsiCo signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Agriculture of the People’s Republic of China in September 2011 to promote sustainable agriculture projects and accelerate the development of the Chinese countryside.

Image Courtesy of   http://www.pepsico.com

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Starbucks is expanding its multi-billion dollar company even further with a chain of juice bars, set to open next year. The world wide famous coffee shop chain is the largest in the world and now has plans to break into the health food market, a 50 billion dollar industry. The corporation bought the juice company Evolution Fresh for $30 million in cash last week.

Since the news was announced, stocks in Jamba Inc. have declined while stocks in Starbucks have increased. Jamba, a popular smoothie and juice chain with 752 juice bars in the U.S has been struggling the past few years. Revenues have declined as competition increased with major companies such as Starbucks and McDonald’s Corp introducing competing products.

Jamba CEO James White said “We will continue to accelerate our product innovation and, while we welcome new entrants to the marketplace, we will adjust our strategy as needed.” CEO of Starbucks, Howard Schultz argued that Jamba suffered after it moved toward a more commodity business and away from what popular independents do well.

Speaking about the new business venture Schultz said “We think we can build a major business”. Starbucks recently dropped the word ‘coffee’ from their famous Mermaid logo, suggesting that they don’t want to be only associated with coffee anymore. This is a move proven to be effective by other companies that have expanded their products.

Apple Inc. dropped the word computer from its name four years ago placing a stronger focus on consumer electronics, such as iPods, iPads and iPhones. PepsiCo was also once called Pepsi-Cola, before it became a broader beverage and food company. Starbucks says its developing consumer products business will one day be on par with its coffee shops in sales, although this prospect is at least several years away.

Bob Goldin, executive vice president at food service consultancy Technomic said “It has interesting potential, but I don’t know if it has the broad appeal that coffee has”. Morningstar analyst R.J. Hottovy argues a different prospective, “Starbucks is smart enough that, if it’s something that doesn’t work, they can pull the plug pretty quickly”.

President of channel development at Starbucks, Jeff Hansberry, notes that Evolution Fresh uses a special process called high-pressure pasteurization, which preserves the juice without heating it so the nutrients and taste are not lost. Although Starbucks have not yet released the number of juice bars they will be opening, it is official that the first of the juice bars will open on the West Coast of the U.S next year.

Brendan Howard / Shutterstock.com

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