Report: Vita Coco Plots IPO

Vita Coco parent company All Market Inc. (AMI) is planning to go public later this year with a potential valuation of $2 billion, according to media reports.

According to Bloomberg, AMI — which owns the Vita Coco, Runa and Ever & Ever brands — could list shares by the third quarter, however plans are not finalized and are subject to change.

Founded in 2004 by friends Mike Kirban and Ira Liran, Vita Coco is backed by a number of high profile investment firms including Verlinvest, Strand Equity and Reignwood Group, the latter of which purchased a 25% stake of the company in 2014 with plans to increase the brand’s distribution in China (however, while still active, the status of the brand’s Asian business is unclear). CAVU Ventures co-founder Rohan Oza was another early investor in the brand. Celebrities Madonna, Matthew McConaughey and Demi Moore also have equity stakes in the company.

This isn’t the first time Vita Coco’s investors faced an exit opportunity. In 2017, Reuters reported that AMI had hired JP Morgan to negotiate a potential sale to PepsiCo. PepsiCo allegedly offered less than $1 billion for the acquisition and the deal never materialized.

In 2018, AMI moved to expand its brand portfolio by acquiring plant-based energy drink Runa for an undisclosed sum and launched a refreshed product line last year. In 2019, the company debuted aluminum-packaged bottled water brand Ever & Ever.

According to IRI, sales of Vita Coco’s core coconut water line were down 2.1% to $148.3 million in the 52-week period ending March 21. Sales of Vita Coco Pressed rose 26.3% to $20.4 million in the same period. An additional Vita Coco product line categorized as fruit juices by IRI were up 97.5% to $25.1 million and flavored Pressed products increased 71.6% to $4.8 million. The company also recently launched a product that features the cannabinoid CBD.

Vita Coco is the leading player in the U.S. coconut water market and is credited as one of the creators of the category alongside Zico and O.N.E. Zico was acquired by The Coca-Cola Company in 2013, but was discontinued in October 2020 after it reported months of double digit declines across all product lines — a move that solidified Vita Coco’s role as the leader of the category with no clear number two player. Zico has since relaunched.

Speaking to BevNET in October, AMI founder and CEO Mike Kirban said Vita Coco had been eating into Zico’s shelf space for several years. The coconut water category declined in MULO by 1.54% between 2015 and 2019, he said, largely dragged by Zico. In September, Kirban told BevNET that the brand weathered an 8% sales decline in 2019, but had bounced back amid the pandemic with low double-digit growth in MULO and convenience.

The company has also put an increased focus on ecommerce in the past year, with platforms such as Instacart and Amazon becoming increasingly significant components of Vita Coco’s overall business. In September, Kirban said the brands Amazon sales were up about 100% year-over-year and volume sales in Walmart’s online store were on the rise.