The recent acquisition of Bossa Nova Beverage Group by Beverage Holdings LLC will mean more Bossa Nova products in the near future, and more Bossa Nova-influenced beverages further down the line, according to Bossa Nova founder Alton Johnson.
Johnson said he will play dual roles at Beverage Holdings. He will remain the head of Bossa Nova – which, he said, will continue to operate independently – and will also play a creative role at the acquirer, which also owns Very Fine, Elations and Sunny Delight.
Beverage Holdings, he said, recently invested in infrastructure to allow it to better create, produce and market beverage products using more wholesome ingredients. Johnson said Beverage Holdings will use his expertise in creating new products to put those investments to good use.
In the immediate future, Beverage Holdings will deploy its new investment in the form of a new Bossa Nova product line. Johnson told Beverage Spectrum last year that he has a backlog of product ideas. Now, he said, some of those ideas will be fast-tracked.
The list he gave at the time included smoothies. Sunny D, notably, recently rolled out a smoothie line. Johnson wouldn’t say if Bossa Nova smoothies would be next.
“This [product line] will be a little bit more outside of that scope,” he said, “[but] in synch with the Bossa Nova mission.”