Enliven

Tim Harms is the CEO of Enliven, the nation’s leading beverage vendor management and negotiation partner. Enliven helps restaurant chains, c-stores, theme parks, entertainment venues, hospitals and airports structure world-class beverage partnerships, generating over one billion dollars in savings and incremental revenue for clients since its founding. A trusted advisor, Harms brings deep expertise in structuring exclusive pouring rights agreements that align financial, supply chain and brand objectives. He is especially skilled in guiding clients through the complex ecosystem of Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Keurig Dr. Pepper negotiations and has helped unlock transformational value for organizations across the globe.

McDonald’s just launched six crafted sodas and refreshers across nearly 14,000 U.S. restaurants. Dirty Dr. Pepper with cold foam. Mango Pineapple Refresher with boba pearls. A Red Bull Dragonberry Energizer that has nothing to do with Coca-Cola.

This isn’t a test market anymore. It’s a $100 billion category bet, complete with a new in-restaurant role (beverage specialist), a dedicated category team and a national platform built from the ashes of CosMc’s.

If you operate 50+ locations and your beverage strategy still starts and ends with a fountain contract, this is the moment to pay attention.

Beverage Is a Platform Now, Not an Add-On

For decades, fountain soda was the most profitable item on the menu and the least strategic. Operators netted $1.80–$2.50 per pour at 80–90 percent margins, but the category was invisible. Every restaurant poured the same Coke. The strategy started and ended with bundling and value pricing.

That’s changed. Dirty sodas and crafted refreshers are pushing consumer willingness-to-pay past $5.00, sometimes approaching $7 or $8. Menu penetration for dirty sodas sits at just 2%, but the category is growing at 42 percent, with average pricing of $5.50 and prices climbing 6% quarter over quarter.

The economics are striking. A standard fountain soda may generate roughly $2.15 in gross profit on a $2.50 sell. A crafted dirty soda at $5.50 costs maybe $0.50–$0.90 more to make (syrups, creams, cold foam, boba), but grosses $4.25–$4.75. For less than a dollar in added ingredient cost, operators nearly double the profit per serve. And unlike food innovation, which requires new equipment, training and supply chains, beverage customization scales on existing infrastructure.

Consumers aren’t comparing these drinks to a fountain pour. They’re comparing them to a $6 Starbucks or an $8 smoothie. The reference price has shifted, and with it, the profit opportunity.

McDonald’s isn’t alone. Taco Bell has set a $5 billion beverage revenue target by 2030 through its Live Más Café concept. Swig, the chain that essentially invented dirty soda, grew 46 percent in 2025 to 146 stores. Drink offerings among major chains have surged over the past year. The category is moving fast, and the biggest players are treating it as a primary growth driver, not a side project.

The Red Bull Signal You Shouldn’t Ignore

Here’s the part of the McDonald’s story that matters most for operators thinking about their own deals.

McDonald’s is one of Coca-Cola’s most important fountain accounts. Yet McDonald’s is bringing in Red Bull for an energy drink, despite Coke owning a significant stake in Monster Energy. McDonald’s looked at the energy category and made a call—their exclusive partner didn’t have the best product in that lane.

This is a structural shift in how beverage deals get made. For years, pouring-rights agreements bundled everything together. One supplier, one contract, one equipment set. That model worked when “beverage” meant carbonated soft drink (CSD) and maybe iced tea. It doesn’t work when your program spans crafted sodas, energy, functional refreshers, gut-health drinks, and premium NA options.

No single supplier owns the best product in every one of those categories anymore. Coke dominates fountain CSD. But energy? Gut health? Hydration? Protein? Functional refreshers? The portfolio has fragmented far beyond what any one company can cover.

What This Means for Your Beverage Strategy

The takeaway isn’t “blow up your exclusive deal.” Bundled deals still deliver real value: better rebates, marketing dollars, equipment packages, and operational simplicity. Unbundling has a cost.

But if the world’s largest restaurant chain is carving out energy from its Coke agreement, every multi-unit operator should be asking the same question: “Does our current deal give us enough flexibility to bring in the best product in each category?”

Three things worth evaluating right now:

• Audit your categories, not just your supplier. Map your beverage program across CSD, energy, functional, hydration, and indulgence. Where are you covered? Where are you leaving margin or differentiation on the table because of contract structure?

• Model the economics of flexibility. Carving out a category means a second DSD relationship, possibly new equipment and added POS complexity. But it also means access to brands that drive traffic and command premium pricing. Run the numbers both ways.

• Negotiate with the next deal in mind. Beverage agreements typically run 5 to 10 years. The beverage category will look very different at the end of your current term than it did at the beginning. Build in flexibility now, or pay for rigidity later.

Where This Goes Next

McDonald’s move puts downstream pressure on the entire industry. If they can carve out energy, other large operators will start asking for the same flexibility. That shifts negotiation dynamics and forces the major suppliers to respond, either by acquiring category leaders or by loosening exclusivity to protect their core CSD business. (We’re already seeing this play out. Pepsi acquired Poppi for $1.95B, Coke launched Simply Pop, and both are racing to own the functional space before someone else fills the gap.)

The operators who win in this environment won’t be the ones with the biggest rebate check. They’ll be the ones who designed their beverage program as a platform, with the right partners in each lane and contracts built for where the category is going.

At Enliven, we work with multi-unit operators to structure beverage agreements that balance supplier economics with portfolio flexibility. If your next deal is coming up, this is the conversation to have before you sign.