Squeezed But Not Surrendering: Juice Brands Face Down Growing Challenges

It’s hard to characterize juice as any one thing, and that goes beyond its source fruit or vegetable. It can take the form of a childhood breakfast table staple, a buzzy health trend, a recovery drink, or a next-gen category-redefining innovation platform. But however you cut it, one thing is consistent – juice is in a slump (again).

According to Circana, in the 52-weeks ending July 14, 2024, dollar sales of aseptic juices in U.S. MULO and c-store were down -1% to around $1.9 billion. Shelf stable bottled juices – an $8.8 billion segment – also dropped -1% and refrigerated juices fell -0.9% to $7.9 billion. Only shelf-stable canned juices, the smallest segment at a relatively puny $1.4 billion, saw growth in that time span, up 4.2%.

Four years removed from the immunity-driven pandemic bump, and with supply chain woes and crop disease still impacting fruit supply, juice is again experiencing a market slowdown.

But at all levels of the category, from the entrepreneurial startup to the old guard giants, brands aren’t just sitting down and taking the punches. We spoke to several juice manufacturers to learn how they’re working not only to stay afloat as the tide recedes, but drive growth via innovation, marketing and a shored up supply of fresh fruit.

Watered Down, High Concept

Loom is a brand new juice drink that launched over the summer, so it might seem a little audacious that when it first hit the streets it did so on trucks that announced “Juice is Dead.”

But that announcement actually plays into the reconfiguring of the juice category that founder Bill Butrymowicz believes has taken place.

“When was the last time you went out and bought a 16 oz. Tropicana,” Butrymowicz said. “People’s palates aren’t like that anymore. With how big water has gotten, how big seltzer has gotten, it’s just, 100% natural juice is almost offensive to the palate when you take that first sip. People are managing their sugar content in the way they manage their calories.”

Butrymowicz should know – Loom might be his first brand launch as an owner, but his family owns Seaview Beverage, an independent distributor in Ocean and Monmouth counties in coastal New Jersey, between New York City and Atlantic City. As part of the NIDA organization, Seaview has handled a lot of the breakout New Age brands – from Snapple to Essentia to Bai. He’s seen sugar fall from grace, but he knows taste is still king, and that it helps bring turns and volume.

So Butrymowicz is triangulating Loom’s positioning as a low-sugar juice drink roughly between vertices represented by Honest Kids, Liquid Death and Tropicana. At up to 20% juice, with their sugars boosted by erythritol and stevia, Loom stays largely true to full-flavored apple, orange, grape, and fruit punch, but it’s higher on the style scale to get it in the hands of young teenagers – and those a little bit older. Loom’s got cool, independent designers behind its swag clothing (and Butrymowicz made sure it was available throughout the counties he serves before back-to-school), has a music link through playlists and a strong presence at rock shows (he sold or handed it out all over the recent Phish Mondegreen festival, in nearby Delaware) and a luminous, semi-opaque bottle.

“It’s juice from the future,” he said. “It’s a little funky, a little weird. We can talk about music and technology and robots and outer space.”

So what happens in the future? Calories are lower, sugar lower, juices are watered down. According to the market, though, that future is now – that “water juice” Butrymowicz is selling is something that is also seen in products like Plezi, or Honest Kids; there was even a “juice water” brand called “Waddajuice” a few years ago. But he’s hoping that the bigger, cooler package, the fuller flavor, the way he’s rolling it out to kids slightly older than his target group, will make it appeal to his real targets, the 10- to 15-year-olds who have their own money, who can make some decisions rather than have their parents make them all for them.

“You saw it with Prime,” he said. “The kids wanted it. I want the kids to want it, but the parents to know it’s ok to give to them.”

Suja Life’s New Threads

When Suja Life was founded in 2012, it debuted as one of a vanguard of highly-touted, HPP cold-pressed juice brands. In the ensuing 12 years, much of its cohort struggled to survive the trend’s slowdown as the category crested and former powerhouse growth brands like Blueprint and Daily Greens moved on to the great grocery store in the sky.

For a moment, Suja itself faced an existential crisis when The Coca-Cola Company passed on an opportunity to acquire the business in 2020.

Then came its 2021 sale to private equity firm Paine Schwartz, providing it with a new owner interested in growing sustainable CPG brands. And then came Suja’s 2022 acquisition of Vive Organic, immediately cementing its position as the leading player in juice shots.

Flash forward to today, and Suja Life is feeling like a Real Housewife hot off a juice cleanse – with a fresh look and an upcoming extension into functional soda under the Slice brand to boot.

In an email interview, Suja Life CEO Maria Stipp – who joined the company in February after four years as chief executive of Stone Brewing – said the brand is aiming to reach consumers who are “becoming more educated about ingredients, demanding higher-quality ingredients and understanding their benefits for the body.”

That means more transparency and clarity in its messaging and packaging. In September, the company announced a brand refresh across its Suja Organic line, updating packaging to showcase “flavors and ingredients front and center,” Stipp wrote, hoping to make the brand “easier for consumers to navigate.” For its green juices, this includes the addition of a “greens meter” that offers guidance on taste from “earthy” to “sweet,” while wellness shots have been updated to “highlight function and flavor clearly.”

The rebrand news also comes with new innovation, emphasizing functionality. Stipp said the company will also introduce its Suja Organic Boosted Juice line, which takes a focused approach to function with varieties specializing in immunity, gut health, hydration and energy.

Circana reported that U.S. retail dollar sales of Suja branded refrigerated fruit drinks were up 11% to over $72.6 million in MULO and c-store for the 52-weeks ending July 14, 2024, outpacing the segment which grew 7.9% in the same period, and other Suja product lines have maintained solid growth. Vive Organic’s fruit drinks were up 16.6% and refrigerated vegetable juices grew 33.3% in the same period.

“The natural healthy beverage (NHB) sector is expanding rapidly, presenting both challenges and opportunities,” Stipp wrote. “While competition is increasing, our position as the category leader in Cold Pressed Juice allows us to continue experiencing growth and lead the category.”

“To stay at the forefront of this expansion, we are collaborating with retailers to envision and shape the ‘next generation’ of the NHB category,” she added. “Our goal is to partner closely with retailers to lead this growth with our comprehensive portfolio of products, ensuring we remain at the cutting edge of the industry’s evolution.”

Riding the Rough Waves

Dole has seen the juice tides turn on trends more times than it can track over the course of its nearly 90-year lifespan, said AJ Bernstein, marketing director at Dole Packaged Foods, while emphasizing the tropical juice producer tries to be “pretty stable” about how it thinks about fads.

But squeezing more juice – both literally and figuratively – out of its supply chain has become a key part of Dole’s strategy for the future as the impact of climate change threatens crops and consumers increasingly seek out sustainability-minded brands.

As environmental challenges and changing weather patterns threaten pineapple harvests, the company is working with its agricultural partners to assess ways it can maximize the juice output from the fruit it gets during low yielding harvests. But with pineapples, which take upwards of 18 months to reach maturity, that leaves plenty of room for changing weather patterns to upend the crop cycle.

Maximizing that output is also a key piece of Dole’s strategy to meet current consumer expectations around sustainability. At Expo West earlier this year, the company showcased its latest innovation – a limited edition handbag made from pineapple leaf-based leather. The launch was a major proof of concept for Dole, even if it was a fashion item: Bernstein explained that there are many more products that can be made to help Dole put the whole fruit to use.

She said the juice consumer has made it clear that they want products that not only reduce food waste, but also packaging waste as well.

“People ask me all the time, ‘why are you guys still in a can?’ Bernstein said. “We’re still in a can because steel is recyclable and plastic is not, and that’s becoming more and more of a concern for consumers.”

Waste in the juice category has also become a focal point for retailers. Dole sees prioritizing food and packaging waste reductions as a core pillar for its continued, long term success; Bernstein said it brings a “double benefit” to the company by executing both on its sustainability goals and by aligning with consumer preferences.

Consumers are equally concerned about the product claims and functions, she added, This year the company has rolled out lines that offer digestive as well as energy support in addition to a low sugar “Lite” version of its flagship pineapple juice. As it looks to the future, Bernstein emphasized that the company is beginning to shift its mindset away from the COVID-era approach of innovating within supply chain constraints to a more traditional, retailer and consumer driven approach.

Post-pandemic behaviors are also seeing consumers broadly shift away from the COVID-era’s scratch-made and at-home consumption, which prized simple ingredient lists and bulk formats. They are, she said, heading back to an era where convenience is king.

“That has been a big eye opener for us,” Bernstein said. “A lot of people in the industry thought that some of these home consumption trends, this amount of time we spend at home wouldn’t bounce back. It’s taken a while, and it’s still emerging, but we’re spending more and more time away from home as everybody goes back to office and back to school and we’re having to respond by making sure that our products are packaged in a way that meet that lifestyle.”

Maintaining Relevance

The demonization of fruit juice and natural sugar has been a major part of juice’s recent struggles, but the category is also facing an even more existential threat, to the environmental and biological security of the fruit itself.

For Florida-based Uncle Matt’s Organic, orange juice remains the brand’s best-selling item, but according to the brand’s founder and CEO Matt McLean the company – and the industry as a whole – is being threatened by citrus greening disease. The disease is currently wreaking havoc on Florida and also has a presence in Brazil and parts of Mexico. McLean said that Uncle Matt’s is funding research to find a cure organically, “but there is no breakthrough to date.”

Due to record-high orange juice prices resulting from the disease, retailers are cutting back on the number of conventional orange juice brands and slower-selling items to focus on higher-growth options. Additionally, consumers are increasingly seeking out more functional beverages that feature attributes like lower sugar or added probiotics.

Despite the ongoing crop crisis, Uncle Matt’s has “continued to push the boundaries in the traditional refrigerated juice set,” said McLean, highlighting the fact that the brand was the first to add probiotics to orange juice, along with functional ingredients like turmeric, ginger and elderberry.

At $28.6 million, Uncle Matt’s Organic orange juice sales were up 15.5% in the 52-week period ending July 14, according to Circana data covering MULO and c-store. In the lemonade category, the brand was up 7.2% to $2.7 million, compared to category leader Simply, which was down -1.7% to $669 million.

Meanwhile, Uncle Matt’s continues to consider new innovations, packages, and approaches. Like other juice brands, McLean remains in the battle to keep the category viable, even as consumer preferences shift in their perception of healthy eating and drinking.

“I’ve been in the industry for 25 years, and I believe all things go in cycles. Juice will continue to be relevant; it just may not be as evident in the traditional flavors or fruits that built the category,” said McLean.