Odwalla Brand Acquired by Investment Firm

Investment firm Full Sail IP Partners announced today it has acquired the Odwalla brand from The Coca-Cola Company. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

This is the first acquisition for Connecticut-based Full Sail, which aims to be “an acquirer of leading brands” with a “sector agnostic” approach to building its portfolio, according to CEO Alan Kravetz. Speaking to BevNET today, he said the company intends to relaunch the juice brand, which was discontinued by Coke last year, and will also expand the brand into new beverage categories as well as food and supplement products.

Founded earlier this year, Full Sail is financed by global private equity firm Warburg Pincus and is a partner of brand extension strategy firm LMCA, where Kravetz served as president and COO from 2007 until 2021.

According to Kravetz, LMCA works with high performance brands to connect them with suppliers and license trademarks for use in new products. Among the firm’s past clients are Fruit of the Loom, Compaq, Kodak and Hewlett-Packard. In the case of Hewlett-Packard, LMCA helped expand the company’s global reach through licensing partnerships with mobile projector, shredder and specialty paper media providers. Now, Full Sail intends to acquire its own portfolio of legacy brands from large companies where it can apply the same strategy.

The acquisition only includes the Odwalla brand and trademark with no additional assets, Kravetz said. The deal also extends Warburg Pincus’ investments in the CPG space. The legacy firm has typically focused on a number of sectors including energy, real estate, technology and healthcare, but has rarely entered into food and beverage.

“Our genesis was that we want to be the brand owner and have that revenue stream for ourselves,” Kravetz said. “Our mission is to go buy brands and Odwalla is the first brand which we’ve acquired and which we intend to find great partners for to build out independent businesses … that would be well-served by the Odwalla brand image.”

While juice is certainly on the table for Odwalla’s relaunch, Kravetz said the company aims to extend into other categories that fit the brand’s image of better-for-the-planet general wellness but has not yet finalized plans. “Once the products that were initially offered under the brand are reestablished, it would make sense to extend the brand into these other opportunities,” Kravetz said, suggesting potential categories include water, energy bars and vitamins and supplements. He noted that new products will also prioritize low sugar and other health trends due to longstanding challenges in the juice category as consumers move away from high sugar products.

“We think we’ve got a brand that has had a reputation since its founding in 1980 that’s very consistent with what everyone is looking for today,” he said. “It’s a brand to nourish people, respect the planet, protect the soil, and create products that are good for the soul.”

Founded in 1980 by a trio of entrepreneurs that included the late Greg Steltenpohl, who served as its CEO throughout the company’s early years, Odwalla was a trailblazing brand in the development of the premium refrigerated juice category. The company was acquired by Coke in 2001 in a $181 million deal, but was discontinued last year after an extended period of declining sales.

The brand had unveiled multiple innovations aimed at expanding its category position over the past few years, including kombucha-based smoothies and zero-sugar added drinks, but at the time of its divestment Odwalla had seen sales of its refrigerated orange juices and smoothies slide double digits year-over-year.

The shuttering of Odwalla was just one of several cases of beverage strategics and portfolio companies exiting juice category plays in recent years. Last fall, Hain Celestial closed the doors on HPP juice brand BluePrint and Green Point Brands shut down production of Daily Greens. Most recently, in August, PepsiCo divested its North American juice portfolio, including Tropicana and Naked (the latter a longtime Odwalla rival), selling the brands to Paris-based private equity firm PAI Partners for $3.3 billion, although Pepsi retained a 39% stake.

However, as major beverage companies have passed on the category, private equity firms have frequently swept in to pick up the assets. In 2019, Campbell Soup Company sold Bolthouse Farms to Butterfly Equity in a $510 million deal — about $1 billion less than what it paid to acquire the company in 2012. In July, Suja Life was acquired by investment group Paine Schwartz Partners after Coke reportedly passed on the opportunity to acquire the HPP juice maker following a 2015 investment.