Business

Gatorade is entering the energy drink category with a caffeinated spin-off called Fast Twitch.
The new drink is slated to launch in February, but NFL players will be drinking it on sidelines during the upcoming season as part of an exclusive deal with the league.
A bottle of Fast Twitch contains nearly as much caffeine as two 12-ounce cans of Red Bull.

Fast Twitch, from the makers of Gatorade
Source: PepsiCo

Gatorade is entering the energy drink category with a caffeinated spin-off called Fast Twitch.
It represents yet another example of beverage companies blurring the lines between drink categories, seeking to leverage existing brand loyalty while entering fast-growing categories. Gatorade’s parent company, PepsiCo, has already expanded Mountain Dew into alcoholic and energy drinks.

The company says Fast Twitch is designed to give athletes an extra boost before their workouts. The market for preworkout powders is growing, fueled by industry leaders such as Cellucor C4 and RSP Nutrition. But few preworkout drinks exist, and many consumers instead turn to carbonated, sugary energy drinks.
Anuj Bhasin, general manager of Gatorade, said roughly 32 million consumers reject the energy drink category for the negative health effects. Fast Twitch aims to attract those consumers, offering plenty of caffeine but no sugar or carbonation.
The new drink is slated to launch in February, but NFL players will be drinking it on sidelines during the upcoming season as part of an exclusive deal with the league. Bhasin said Gatorade worked with the NFL and its sports performance experts to develop the specific formula.
The finished product comes in a petite 12-ounce bottle with brightly colored packaging. While smaller, it tastes pretty similar to traditional Gatorade. A bottle of Fast Twitch contains electrolytes, B-vitamins and 200 milligrams of caffeine. For comparison, a 12-ounce can of Red Bull has nearly half as much caffeine but 37 grams of sugar. Bolt24, another recent offshoot of Gatorade, has just 75 milligrams of caffeine in its Energize line, which is being phased out.
“Two hundred milligrams is the right amount to help athletes seeking benefits for exercise performance,” said Matthew Pahnke, senior principal scientist at the Gatorade Sports Science Institute.

Since its creation nearly six decades ago, Gatorade has built its brand on hydration, spreading the word about the benefits of electrolytes and carbohydrates. But caffeine is a natural diuretic, removing salt and water from the body. As a result, Fast Twitch is meant to precede drinking a more hydrating beverage during an actual workout, the company says.
“We know athletes will mix and match things,” Pahnke said.
Fast Twitch will target consumers who are 18 years old or older due to the high caffeine content, according to Bhasin.

Reenergizing sports drinks

Fast Twitch follows a broader push by Pepsi into energy drinks.
Over the last three years, the company bought Rockstar Energy for $3.85 billion, launched Mtn Dew Rise Energy with the endorsement of NBA superstar Lebron James and acquired a minority stake in up-and-coming energy drink maker Celsius for $550 million.
Celsius is a potential competitor for Fast Twitch. The upstart markets its beverages as “fitness drinks,” and its marketing shows models swinging kettle bells and stretching.
Another challenger also has ties to Gatorade’s parent company. Bang Energy, which recently ended an acrimonious distribution deal with Pepsi, markets itself as a preworkout or recovery drink. Beyond being highly caffeinated, it touts “super creatine,” which claims to boost muscle performance, but no sugar.
But Pepsi is already the dominant leader in the U.S. sports drink category, holding 73.2% market share with Gatorade and G Zero, according to Euromonitor International data. Bodyarmor jumped to second place in 2021 with 11.7% market share, overtaking Coca-Cola’s Powerade. Coke purchased full control of Bodyarmor in November for $5.6 billion in a play to increase its market share.
Changing consumer tastes led to slowing sales growth for the sports drink market, even as U.S. adults exercise more. Years of backlash from lawmakers and pediatricians about sports drinks’ high sugar and calorie counts didn’t help either.
But Gatorade staged a comeback, focusing on options with more electrolytes and less sugar, such as recent spin-offs G Fit, Gatorlyte and Bolt24. In the second quarter, Pepsi reported double-digit revenue growth for the Gatorade brand.
However, not all of Gatorade’s innovations have paid off. An organic version of the drink released in 2016 failed to take off and was discontinued several years later.
Energy represents an opportunity in a fast-growing segment, but it lacks trust from consumers who exercise. Gatorade, on the other hand, has earned plenty of trust from that customer base.
“We found this to be the sweet spot of bringing a new brand to market, with the distinction of being from the makers of Gatorade, much like Propel,” Bhasin said.

WATCH LIVEWATCH IN THE APP More

Petco and Chewy said pet owners aren’t trading down from premium foods for their animals.
The comments are in line with the trend of pet owners increasingly feeding their animals with food more like what they’d feed themselves.
Still, both companies noted softening demand for items like toys and leashes and lowered their financial outlooks for the year.

A customer carries a dog near a Petco Animal Supplies shopping bag outside a store in New York.
Angus Mordant | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Pet owners might feel squeezed by inflation, but they’re still pampering their animals when it comes to food.
This week, pet products retailer Chewy said it’s not seeing any significant trade down among shoppers in pet food. Rival pet retailer Petco made similar remarks last week, though both noted a pullback in spending on products such as leashes and toys.

The comments are in line with the trend of pet owners increasingly spoiling their cats and dogs with foods that are more like the dishes they’d feed themselves or other family members. To capitalize on the ongoing shift, Petco recently partnered with snack bar maker Clif to sell a version for pets. It also launched a line of frozen, human-grade meals for dogs.
“Pet parents are driving one of the biggest trends the pet industry has seen as they increasingly seek out fresh, human-grade food for all members of the family,” Petco CEO Ron Coughlin said in a release. 
Coughlin said the growing “humanization” of animal companions is being led by Gen Z and Millennial consumers who are “hyper focused” on their pets’ health and wellness.
In addition to more premium foods, Chewy and Petco see their health products and services as a way to better compete with the low-price offerings from retailers such as Amazon and Walmart. Earlier this month, Chewy expanded its health offerings with CarePlus, a line of pet wellness and insurance offerings.
For its second quarter, Chewy said net sales rose 12.8% from a year ago to $2.43 billion as shoppers shifted toward more fresh and premium food products. Petco said its sales rose 3.2% to $1.48 billion and reported a similar shift.

Still, the pet category isn’t shielded from the soaring inflation that’s pressuring consumers. 
Both Petco and Chewy reported softening demand in products such as crates, beds, leashes and toys over the summer months. Chewy noted that such items don’t have to be replaced as often as some other items, and that shoppers are opting to skip on them as prices rise.
Chewy said the downturn in such products is temporary and that it expects demand will recover. Brian LaRose, Petco’s chief financial officer, also said orders for the products “are delayed, not canceled.”
Still, both companies tightened their full-year guidance, in part because of the softened demand. Both companies lowered their revenue guidance for the year. Petco said it now expects adjusted earnings per share of 77 to 81 cents. It previously forecast 97 cents to $1.
Petco’s shares are down down around 24% year to date, while Chewy’s stock is down around 41%.

WATCH LIVEWATCH IN THE APP More

Nio reported a 6% rise in electric vehicle deliveries in August versus July, while rivals Xpeng and Li Auto saw a fall.
Shares of Nio, Xpeng and Li Auto fell in U.S. pre-market trade.
The carmakers have been impacted by a weaker Chinese economy and supply chain disruptions caused by a resurgence of Covid-19 in China and subsequent lockdowns.

Nio managed to grow deliveries of its electric vehicles in August versus July. However, rivals Li Auto and Xpeng saw a sharp fall in deliveries. EV players continue to face supply chain disruptions for the resurgence of Covid in China as well as weaker consumer demand due to a difficult economic environment in the country.
Future Publishing | Future Publishing | Getty Images

Stocks of Chinese electric vehicle makers Nio, Li Auto and Xpeng fell in U.S. pre-market trade on Thursday after the latter two start-ups reported a sharp fall in August car deliveries.
Here are the August delivery numbers for the three companies:

Li Auto: Delivered 4,571 vehicles in August, down 56% versus July’s number of 10,422 cars. That figure is also down 51% year-on-year.
Xpeng: Delivered 9,578 vehicles in August, down 16% versus July’s number of 11,524 cars. However, that represents a 33% year-on-year rise.
Nio: Delivered 10,677 vehicles in August, up 6% versus July’s number of 10,052 cars. That was also a 81.6% year-on-year rise.

Nio was the only company to grow on a monthly basis in August. U.S.-listed shares of all three carmakers were down around 2% in pre-market trade.
The Chinese economy is facing a number of challenges including a resurgence of Covid-19 that has seen major cities like Shanghai locked down. In the last few days Shenzhen, China’s tech hub has enacted Covid restrictions and on Thursday, the mega city of Chengdu went into lockdown.

While some cities may have opened up again, consumer sentiment remains fragile and uncertainty prevails as a result of China’s “zero-Covid” policy.
The world’s second-largest economy is also facing a power crunch which is impacting electric vehicle charging stations. Last month, Tesla and Nio suspended some of their charging services.
These issues are filtering through to EV sales.

Bill Russo, CEO at Shanghai-based Automobility, told CNBC, the numbers are “reflective of lingering supply chain issues as well as the fact that they’re on the premium end of the price range and with the weakening economy, people are looking toward affordability and that’s squeezing some of the higher priced models.”
Last month, Xpeng said it expects to deliver between 29,000 and 31,000 electric vehicles in the third quarter of the year. This guidance disappointed investors.
Xpeng President Brian Gu said the guidance reflects the fact that the industry is entering a “relatively slow season” and that traffic in stores is less due to the Covid situation.
Yanan Shen, president of Li Auto, said in an earnings call last month that the Covid outbreak “severely affected” the company’s supply chains and that there are remaining “disruptions and difficulties.”
Shen also said there had been a slowdown in order intake for its flagship Li ONE sports utility vehicle.
Li Auto began to deliver its new L9 car to customers at the end of August. And the company said it is planning to launch and deliver a large SUV called the Li L8 in early November. That could be affecting sales of its Li ONE, according to Russo.
“Li has major new product launches with the L9 and L8 which is also impacting consumer demand for Li ONE. When new products come out, demand for the older model often suffers,” Russo said.
To spur demand, China said last month it would extend its tax exemption for new energy vehicle purchases until the end of 2023.
Competition continues to heat up in China’s electric vehicle market. Alongside Li Auto’s new cars, Xpeng plans to begin deliveries of its new G9 SUV in October and launch two new vehicles next year.

WATCH LIVEWATCH IN THE APP More

SMALL BUSINESS PLAYBOOK 2022
Event Videos

Hiring at U.S. small businesses with fewer than 50 employees has slowed for five straight months, according to data from Paychex and IHS Markit.
But Paychex CEO Marty Mucci said that is not because of a lack of demand for workers.
Fifty percent of small business owners said it was harder to hire in the third quarter of 2022 than it was a year ago, according to a recent CNBC/SurveyMonkey Small Business Survey.

While some companies have slowed the pace of hiring due to concerns about an economic slowdown, the demand from small businesses for new workers has not yet shown signs of declining, Paychex CEO Marty Mucci said.
“We’re still not really seeing any strong recessionary measures here for small business,” Mucci said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Tuesday.

Hiring at U.S. small businesses with fewer than 50 employees has slowed for five straight months, according to data from Paychex and IHS Markit, but Mucci said that has more to do with a lack of applicants than a reflection of small businesses pulling back.
“For small businesses, the toughest thing is they have the demand, and they have the need for workers — they just have a little bit harder time finding it,” he said.
That is counter to what is happening at some larger companies. In August, private payrolls grew by 132,000, a drop from the 268,000 gain seen in July, according to ADP’s monthly payroll report.
ADP chief economist Nela Richardson told CNBC that the data “suggests a shift toward a more conservative pace of hiring, possibly as companies try to decipher the economy’s conflicting signals.”
“We could be at an inflection point, from super-charged job gains to something more normal,” she added.

But the ADP data showed that while companies with 500 or more employees grew by 54,000 and medium-sized businesses added 53,000, those with fewer than 50 employees saw a 25,000 gain.

A “Now Hiring” sign is posted at a Panda Express restaurant on August 05, 2022 in Marin City, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

Impact of having to pay higher wages

Mucci said that there are small businesses that are feeling the “inflationary pressure of wages.”
Hourly earnings on average were $30.71 in August, up $1.51 from the same month last year, according to Paychex. Hourly earnings were up 5.18 % in the month, matching a record set in May dating back to 2011.
The difficulty of both finding workers and having to pay higher wages could lead to a continued slowing of hiring activity, Mucci said, adding that “both of these things are going to slow [hiring] down a bit.”
Fifty percent of small business owners said it was harder to hire in the third quarter of 2022 than it was a year ago, according to a recent CNBC/SurveyMonkey Small Business Survey, while 28% say they have open roles they haven’t been able to fill for at least three months. While those figures are relatively unchanged from previous quarters, it highlights the difficulty around hiring that many small business owners are facing.
There were 11.24 million job openings in July, with openings outnumbering available workers by nearly a 2-to-1 margin, according to the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey.
Friday’s August nonfarm payrolls release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics is expected to further the view that hiring demand remains high.
That labor crunch has forced many small businesses to reduce hours or close on certain days, Mucci said. However, he noted there are record numbers of workers with at least two jobs, according to federal labor data. In July, there were 433,000 workers with two full-time jobs, compared to 401,000 in July 2021, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“A lot of people are looking for a second job, and hopefully small businesses will be the positive recipient of that,” he said. More

Tipping 20% at a sit-down restaurant is still the standard however, consumers are less inclined to give as much for a carry-out coffee or take-away snack.
“Part of it is tip fatigue,” says Eric Plam, CEO and founder of Uptip.

At the Sweetly Bakery & Cafe in Battle Ground, Washington, near Portland, customers seem to be feeling a little less generous lately.
With inflation near record highs and consumers increasingly cash-strapped, gratuity isn’t what it used to be.

“Since everything got more expensive, we’ve seen a decline in tipping,” said Sweetly’s owner Irina Sirotkina.

The Sweetly Bakery & Cafe in Battleground, Washington
Source: Irina Sirotkina

‘Point-of-sale tipping is what people resist the most’

Even though many Americans said they would tip more than usual once business activities resumed after the pandemic, consumer habits haven’t changed much in the end. 
Tipping 20% at a sit-down restaurant is still the standard, etiquette experts say. But there’s less consensus when it comes to a carry-out coffee or take-away snack.
Overall, tipping has remained largely flat at quick-service restaurants, according to Toast’s most recent restaurant trends report. Tips average 17%, nearly unchanged from a year ago.
But when it comes to takeout, customers are tipping less — now down to 14.5%, on average, after climbing earlier in the pandemic, the restaurant software vendor found.
Other payment software providers have also reported that these types of tips have fallen over the last year. For example, Toast’s rival Square found that the average tip at quick-service restaurants, which includes cafes and coffee shops, fell from 17.2% to 15.2% from March 2021 to the end of February, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.

Part of it is tip fatigue.

CEO and founder of Uptip

“Part of it is tip fatigue,” said Eric Plam, CEO and founder of San Francisco based start-up Uptip, which aims to facilitate cashless tipping. 
“During Covid, everyone was shell shocked and feeling generous,” Plam said. Now, “you are starting to see people pull back a little bit,” he noted, particularly when it comes to point-of-sale tipping, which prompts customers to tip even before they’ve received the product or service.
“This point-of-sale tipping is what people resist the most,” he said, “compelling you to tip right there on the spot.”

Service workers rely on tips to boost wages

However, transactions are increasingly cashless and workers in the service industry are earning minimum or less than minimum wage so having a method to tip is critical, Plam added.
In fact, the average wage for fast food and counter workers is $14.34 an hour for full time staff and $12.14 for part-time employees — including tips — according to the most recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

A landmark bill in California aims to raise the minimum wage to up to $22 an hour for fast-food and quick-service workers at chains with more than 100 locations nationally. California’s current wage floor is $15.50 an hour.
President Joe Biden and many Democratic lawmakers have pushed for a $15 hourly wage floor across the U.S. The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour and has remained unchanged since 2009.
“We are sympathetic but it doesn’t feel good,” Plam said of point-of-sale tipping. “Now that the pandemic is essentially over, its starting to shake out now,” he added. “The good news is we’re rethinking it.”
Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube.

WATCH LIVEWATCH IN THE APP More

“Do you feel your job description has changed since you were hired?” “What prompted you to start looking for another position?” Such questions are typical of the exit interview, to which an email from hr may invite you after you have handed in your notice. Do you accept? And if so, how honest should you be with your soon-to-be-ex-employer during the discussion? Just like humans, corporate entities do not want to admit their faults. As such, many companies deal with resignations badly. Exit interviews may help them do better. More important, understanding why workers leave is critical if you want to stop more of them heading for the exit. Recruiting and training top talent is a big cost for firms, particularly those in the service sector, so anything that can be done to reduce staff turnover is valuable. Poaching is part of any competitive industry, so knowing what drew an employee to a different firm can be useful, too. Former employees who leave happy can in future fill a role as corporate ambassadors. For firms the best exit interview is the one that doesn’t happen. A study conducted by the Harvard Business Review concluded that they should be “the culmination of a series of regular retention conversations”. Such attempts will not work every time, or even often—staff churn is a fact of corporate life. For unsalvageable cases, some firms arrange a one-to-one conversation with the leaver’s manager. Others offer an online form, which is less personal but provides the opportunity to collate feedback easily. Such exchanges are best scheduled after the initial rush of emotion has passed but before the employee has checked out mentally. The information gleaned can be revealing. In some firms, it travels all the way up to the board. The incentives for a departing employee are less clear. (If you are pursuing legal action against your employer, your lawyer is likely to tell you to avoid the interview altogether.) It is tempting either to ignore everyone and just walk away or, conversely, to really let rip. “When one burns one’s bridges,” wrote Dylan Thomas, “what a very nice fire it makes.” But letting off steam by unburdening yourself of all the wrongs and little things that ever upset you is a shallow game.The bottom line is, you never know. You can be denied a reference or unnecessarily complicate the paperwork related to your stock options and pension plan. Or you could miss a chance to turn a former employer into a client. Your columnist, a guest Bartleby, has no immediate plans to leave her current job. But if she ever did, and was asked to participate in an exit interview, she would agree to do so—and would advise you to do the same.As in any break-up, the one with an employer involves dealing with elusive concepts such as decorum (“It’s not you, it’s me”) or closure (“Thank you for everything”). It is also transactional. As such, it pays not to be too candid. Whether the process happens over the phone, on Zoom, in person or in an online form, refrain from speaking your mind too freely. It is better to be excited about your new chapter than to unleash vitriol on colleagues who were unkind or censorious over the years. Being too diplomatic is safer, unless it devolves into insincere platitudes. “This place is toxic” is bad; “the thing I admire about the leadership team is their long-term vision” may be worse. To strike the right balance it is useful to think of the exit interview as a performance appraisal in reverse. Outlining what you enjoyed most about the place (the pay, the camaraderie or the coffee) is a good place to start. Explaining what drew you to another employer can be particularly instructive. Gentle suggestions about what you would improve are fair game. Always remember that notes from the interview are official documentation that can be reviewed. Whatever you do, do not post rude comments about your former employer on social media.In his book “Liar’s Poker”, Michael Lewis tells the story of a senior trader quitting Salomon Brothers after being offered much more money by Goldman Sachs. His managers pleaded for him to stay, invoking loyalty to the firm; the trader retorted that if they wanted loyalty they should have hired a cocker spaniel. But a good exit interview should be about mutual graciousness when neither party has anything else to lose. For an employee to deny such a conference shows pettiness and resentment. For a company it is one last chance to leave a good impression. If you decide to part ways, why not do so on amicable terms?Read more from Bartleby, our columnist on management and work:Is travelling to work always a waste of time? (Aug 25th)When to trust your instincts as a manager (Aug 18th)Why employees want to work in vilified industries (Aug 13th)For more expert analysis of the biggest stories in economics, business and markets, sign up to Money Talks, our weekly newsletter. More

Hornsea 2 is situated in waters roughly 89 kilometers off the coast of Yorkshire, England.
According to Danish energy firm Orsted, it has a capacity of more than 1.3 gigawatts.
The U.K. is home to a mature offshore wind sector that looks set to expand in the coming years.

One of the turbines at the Hornsea 2 offshore wind farm. According to Danish energy firm Orsted, the facility has a capacity of more than 1.3 gigawatts.

A facility described by Danish energy firm Orsted as the “world’s biggest offshore wind farm” is now fully operational, with its 165 turbines set to help power in excess of 1.4 million U.K. homes.
Situated roughly 89 kilometers (approximately 55 miles) off the coast of Yorkshire, England, the scale of Hornsea 2 is considerable.

According to Orsted, it has a capacity of more than 1.3 gigawatts and stretches across an area of 462 square kilometers — more than half the size of New York City. Hornsea 2, it added, uses Siemens Gamesa turbines with blades measuring 81 meters, or more than 265 feet.
“One revolution of the wind turbine blades can power an average UK home for 24 hours,” the company says.
It is the latest step forward for the Hornsea 2 project, which generated its first power in Dec. 2021.
The development comes as European countries attempt to wean themselves off Russian fossil fuels, including gas, following the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine in February.  
“Current global events highlight more than ever the importance of landmark renewable energy projects like Hornsea 2, helping the UK increase the security and resilience of its energy supply and drive down costs for consumers by reducing dependence on expensive fossil fuels,” said Duncan Clark, head of the U.K. region at Orsted.

Read more about energy from CNBC Pro

The U.K. is home to a mature offshore wind sector that looks set to expand in the coming years, with authorities aiming for up to 50 GW of capacity by 2030.
The European Union, which the U.K. left in January 2020, has previously laid out a 300 GW target for offshore wind by the middle of this century.
Across the Atlantic, the U.S. has a long way to go to catch up with Europe. America’s first offshore wind facility, the 30 megawatt Block Island Wind Farm, only started commercial operations in late 2016.
Change is coming, however, and in Nov. 2021 ground was broken on a project dubbed the United States’ “first commercial scale offshore wind farm.” More

There are many ways to save money on flights.
But booking airfare on a certain day of the week isn’t one of them, according to data from Google Flights.

Booking mid-week — and especially Tuesdays around midnight — is often cited as the best time to purchase flights. But in the past five years, U.S. airfares purchased on Tuesdays, Wednesday or Thursdays have been only 1.9% cheaper on average than airfares purchased during the weekend, according to Google Flights.
“If your trip is just a couple of weeks away, don’t wait for Tuesday to roll around — book your flight now in case the price goes up,” wrote James Byers, Google Flights’ group product manager, on a blog post published yesterday.

Strategies that work

While the day of the week travelers book may not matter much, the day they fly does, according to Google Flights’ research, which examined five years of historical flight data from Aug. 1, 2017 to Aug. 1, 2022.
“On average, flights that depart on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday have been 12% cheaper than weekend departures,” wrote Byers. “If you exclude international destinations, the potential savings jump even higher to 20%.”

Travelers looking to save money should avoid flying on Sundays, according to Google Flights.
Westend61 | Getty Images

Another common strategy — booking early — also works, according to the data. For U.S. domestic flights, airfares have been lowest between three and eight weeks before a departure date, with prices “bottoming out” 44 days out, according to the research.

Non-stop flights cost on average about 20% more than connecting flights, according to Google Flights, but flights with stops also increase the risk of interruptions.
An Instagram poll by the travel insurance company World Nomads indicated more than 1 in 3 respondents spent up to $250 on flights, meals or hotels because of flight delays or cancellations this summer, while 12% reported spending between $500 to $1,000.

More ways to save

Travelers with flexible flying days can use Google Flights’ “date grid” function to quickly ascertain the cheapest dates to depart and arrive in a given week.  
Those who want to travel for a specific duration — say, two weeks — but are flexible on when, can use the “price graph” function to see the cheapest times to fly too.
Price tracking also eliminates the need to search again and again to price-check a desired route. Search the route once, hit the button to “track prices” and Google Flights will send notifications of airfare changes via email.  

‘Best times’ to book

Based on its historical data, Google Flights also suggests the “best times” to book flights for peak-period travel and popular routes.  

Travelers hoping to save money on airfare to Europe are advised to plan the earliest, while summer vacationers can consider making plans weeks, rather than months, in advance. More