Coca-Cola to Discontinue Juice Brand Odwalla

Coca-Cola is closing its juice and fruit smoothie model Odwalla, citing transforming purchaser tastes.

In a statement to CNN Enterprise, the president of Coca-Cola’s Minute Maid business enterprise unit, John Hackett, stated “every effort” was created to support continued output. “This conclusion was not created flippantly,” he stated.

The closure will be done by the end of the month. It will also entail three hundred task cuts.

A spokesperson for the business stated the move was not specifically linked to the COVID-19 disaster but that health-aware individuals have been fewer intrigued in smoothies than they utilised to be.

Coca-Cola “couldn’t make it do the job, we couldn’t figure out the expense-effectiveness of it,” the spokesperson stated. “It truly is the result of individuals transforming what they want so fast. By freeing up people assets, we can reinvest people fees in what individuals want now.”

Coca-Cola is also discontinuing its fleet of 230 refrigerated shipping vans utilised by Odwalla as very well as its Fairlife and Basically brands, whose distribution will be redirected.

Coca-Cola acquired Odwalla in Oct 2001 for $181 million as portion of a press into the non-carbonated top quality drink market place. Even so, gross sales of juice drinks have fallen amid to worries their sugar content material is linked to coronary heart ailment and weight problems.

In 2015, Coca-Cola introduced new fifteen.two-ounce bottles created from distinct PET as the acceptance of cold-pressed drinks was rising. It also available kombucha blend and zero sugar strains to update the model.

U.S. individuals drank 5.two gallons of fruit juice for every capita in 2017, the most affordable stage considering that the USDA began recordkeeping in 1970.

“We’re targeted on maximizing system effectiveness by ruthlessly prioritizing to supply on core [goods] and critical brands,” main executive officer James Quincey stated in an earnings simply call in April. “The fewer complexity there is in [the supply chain], the larger the likelihood for achievements.”

Coca-Cola, James Quincey, Odwalla