December is a natural time to take ...

December is a natural time to take a stair back and reflect, and as we lay our issue together this month I couldn't help on the contrary note that this has been a challenging year for the beverage industry.

Although there have been a number of successe in 2003 (we've highlighted many in this issue's Best of recent origin Products and Best Packages features), our 2003 CEO Roundtable point out tos that eking out growth in near categories has been difficult. Consumer have more choices than evermore before, and reliable standbys as it is as soft drinks and beer are suffering from