Hoping to tap into a ‘modern soda’ renaissance, Slice is once again in the market as Suja Life has reintroduced the classic CSD as a healthy, gut health boosting functional beverage.
Billed as “Real Soda with Benefits,” the new Slice is made with fruit juice, pre-, pro- and postbiotics and 5 grams of sugar per 12 oz. can. The line comes in Orange, Lemon Lime, Classic Cola, Ginger Ale and Grapefruit Spritz flavors and is available now at Target, Costco, Albertson’s and select H-E-B stores and online.
It’s the third attempt in seven years to relaunch Slice, but it’s the first to come from an established beverage business with a pre-existing distribution network and retailer relations to capitalize on.
“Our mission at Suja Life is to revolutionize America’s health through what we drink,” said Suja Life CEO Maria Stipp in a release. “While we know not everyone is reaching for a wellness shot, soda is a staple in nearly every American’s refrigerator. By transforming this everyday beverage into a leveled-up version with benefits, we’re making a significant impact on the health and well-being of our consumers.”
Originally created by PepsiCo in 1984, Slice was first brought to market as a full sugar, zero caffeine soda made with 10% real fruit juice, but was discontinued in the 2000s. Since then, the trademark has changed hands several times with two prior attempts at a relaunch mounted by different owners: first in 2018 by VC group Spiral Sun Ventures, re-envisioning the drink as a sparkling water brand, and then again in 2021 by New Slice Ventures, which sought a back-to-basics approach that was closer to the original, sugary drink.
Suja Life, which also owns Vive Organic, purchased the Slice brand last year, announcing in the Spring that it would again recast the brand in a new role: as a functional, better-for-you CSD that would compete in line with brands like Poppi and Olipop.
Marisa Hirtzel, head of sparkling at Suja Life, told BevNET that Slice presents an opportunity for Suja Life to expand its presence in the mainstream and reach a new set of consumers that its HPP juices and wellness shots don’t appeal to.
“We can reach more people than we can with wellness shots,” she said. “We love wellness shots, they’re growing really rapidly, but they’re a very new format to the general population, whereas soda is something that’s really familiar, and we can give healthy beverages to a wider audience that way.”
A Second Shot at Sparkling
While Suja will seek to play on nostalgia for the original Slice, Hirtzel said that “a little less than half of consumers” remember the brand, meaning there’s also plenty of room to introduce it to younger shoppers as a new product. Still, she said the “heritage of the Slice brand is integral to our strategy” and the company will aim to leverage that history to its full advantage.
“We’re trying to be as soda-like as possible,” she added.
Suja has previously made attempts at sparkling innovation with a discontinued sparkling cold-pressed juice line, but while that product blurred category lines and presented a big education hurdle for consumers, Slice is being presented as an intuitive, pure soda play.
And they’re hardly the first juice maker to look to grow their platform this way. Just look at Evolution Fresh’s recent Real Fruit Soda line or Coke’s decision to enter the functional CSD space via its Simply juice brand.
But by plugging Slice into Suja’s network, which includes Dora’s Naturals in New York, and quickly seeding a nationwide retail footprint, Hirtzel said the company believes it can compete in the fast-growing functional CSD category with a product that is more than a “me too” brand.
“We have a really strong story to retailers on why this is different,” she said. “The trademark and the existing brand awareness being one of those things, but also we did a lot of research before going into this, trying to figure out what do consumers really want from this category? What are the unmet needs?”
She said that being low sugar and beneficial for gut health are “table stakes” for the category, but that Slice can provide a “soda-like experience” that hews more closely to traditional CSDs in terms of flavor and brand identity. It’s a strategy that has so far benefitted one of the new leaders in functional CSDs, Poppi, which has moved away from health and wellness in its messaging with slogans like “Soda is not a dirty word” in order to emphasize it as first and foremost a fun and tasty soda brand.
Suja follows a long line of established brands looking to make a play for this set: just look at Health-Ade, Humm, Cove, Bear’s Fruit and Better Booch.
However, the launch comes as Suja is seeing sales grow across many of its existing product lines. According to Circana, U.S. MULO and c-store sales of its refrigerated juices were up 27.1% to over $117 million in the 52-week period ending December 29, 2024, while vegetable juices rose 3.5% to $61.7 million. Its Vive Organic shots also have been growing double-digits in the same period.
Looking ahead, Hirtzel said that Suja Life will continue to lean deep into building out its sparkling portfolio, but Slice is the spearhead of that strategy and will be the focus for the immediate future. Future innovations for the brand will be tailored around flavor, largely leaning into classic soda taste profiles, she said.