hello all, i'm doing a paper on fruitopia for college and a beverage class and was hoping someone could help me out. what is the history of the company? how was is started? what year? i heard two kids did it? who sold it to coke? for how much? what was the structure?! anything you could provide would be great. can't find a thing online anywhere!?!
does anybody know the story!!????

thanks so much!!!! [img]smile.gif[/img]

Fruitopia was introduced in 1997. it could have been slated to go either to what at the time was a growing adult trend towards heathler drinks (fruitopia had 10% juice in it) or towards the younger demographic. They went with the younger and got themselves into a mess with the schools becuase it did still have a lot of sugar in it. It was a creation of The Coca-Cola Company the rest is a rumor

Fruitopia was introduced in 1994, according to what I read.

Originally it was in 16oz glass bottles. There were fruit drinks as well as teas. All of the drinks had 60's hippie type names.

When Coke partnered with Nestle to bring out RTD tea, the Fruitopia tea line was dropped.

In the beginning of 1998, they switched to 20oz bottles. There were also 4 packs of 16.9oz bottles in some areas at some point in time. 12 ounce 6 packs cans and bottles as well in some areas.

When they transitioned from glass to plastic, the packaging process changed. The glass was hot filled, the plastic was cold filled, which meant that they had to reformulate the drinks.

The flavors kept changing. There were a core number that they kept the whole time, but they would add and drop flavors constantly. Towards the end, the flavors really went downhill. Beachside Blast and Cherry Vanilla Grove were just horrible, imho.

Fruitopia is under the control of Minute Maid, though it was bottled and distributed by the Coke bottling system. Four flavors were selected and transitioned to the Minute Maid line, the rest were killed off. They were looking to change the demographic to an older one.

Kiwiberry Ruckus = Berry Kiwi
Strawberry Passion Awareness = Strawberry Passion
Raspberry Psychic Lemonade = Raspberry Lemonade
Citrus Excursion = Tropical Citrus (I think)

Fruit Integration was also killed off, in favor of Minute Maid Fruit Punch.

Coke still sells Fruitopia in other countries, notably Canada and Australia, where it is more successful. They also kept it in the glass bottle, which was transitioned into a rocket type bottle (like you see with the Nestea and Lipton teas here).

I guess somebody should mention Snapple.

Snapple, then owned by its founders (who were very liberal democrats) was the original major sponsor on the Rush Limbaugh show. Rush worked the product into the show, not just commercials, but multiple mentions during the body of the program.

The product rolled out, and whether he had anything to do with it or not, was super-successful. The owners sold it (it has lost market share by the buckets full since, and has been re-sold multiple times, each time at a loss). The new corporate owners dropped Limbabugh.

KO, in its typical marketing pattern, launched Fruitopia. The idea was to imply liberal themes, or at least an Atlanta-based mega-corporation's idea of liberal themes. Hense the "Fruit Intergration" and "Psychic Awareness" flavor names, and the original ad scheme, which can only be described as "faux-hippie".

Fruitopia failed, in the US, as outlined above. The irony of KO's marketing plan, must be considered as part of the story.

Interesting post Sam.. I never knew that!

On a side note, I'd have to say my favorite flavor was Grape Beyond.

No one here has mentioned the original fruitopia. when i first started drinking it long ago it was not the kool-aid type junk it became. The original fruitopia had whole fruit in it. It was full of pulp and no added sugar. Heck, it was actually good for you. I remember when coke bought them out and it was gone. I was in elementary school when I started drinking it, and in middle school it became kool-aid sugary nastiness. I really, really, really wish someone would bring back the original un-tained version. It was soooooooooo good.

Have you already checked in Wikipedia? Fruitopia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Here in Mexico Fruitopia was released only at selected markets and in a very short time... I have an empty bottle

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Fruitopia is back!... in Argentina... as a fruit juice concentrate...



Llega Fruitopía, la nueva bebida con jugo de frutas para diluir de Cepita - GENTE-BA

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The Coca-Cola Company said it was dropping six flavors of its Fruitopia beverages and adding two in a drive to remake the brand.

The company said the flavors being dropped were not selling well. Coke also plans marketing changes including easier-to-read labels, a new slogan and promotions.

Fruitopia no longer comes in Lemonade Love & Hope, Cranberry Lemonade Vision, Apple Raspberry Embrace, Tropical Consideration, Curious Mango Tea and Lemon Berry Intuition Tea.

The new flavors are Banana Vanilla Inclination, which will be sold in the central and Northwestern United States, and Mind Over Mango, to be sold in the South and Southwest, a spokesman, Scott Jacobson, said.

Fruitopia was introduced in 1994 as Coca-Cola's attempt to muscle in on the success of teas and juice drinks made by Snapple, which later was bought by the Quaker Oats Company. Fruitopia, along with Coca-Cola's Powerade sports drinks and Nestea teas, failed to lift Coca-Cola higher than third place behind Snapple and Perrier in the alternative beverage category last year, according to Beverage Digest.

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woot woot

banana vanilla - gross

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woot woot