Got Juice? Don’t sleep on the beverages industry. What may seem like apples, oranges and tea bags to us, equals major profits for those who make the juices that quench our thirst. While orange juice is at the top as leading juice flavor, and iced drinks are a favorite, the fastest growing flavors have been mixed combinations of two or three or more fruits. Also on the come up? Superfruits like pomegranate and acai are being added to juices, driven by the continuing health trend. Here, we have a list of a few family-owned or buddy-started beverage companies that made it to the big time. Drink up!
APPLE & EVE
In the beginning, Apple & Eve was a small, family-owned-and-operated company that introduced the first premium all-natural apple juice to supermarkets. Today, after more than 35 years in the business, the Apple & Eve “family” has grown to dozens of employees and more than one hundred different juice products in various packages and sizes. Go to any supermarket and you’ll see Apple & Eve bottles all down the juice aisle.
Based: Port Washington, NY
Worth: Apple & Eve is one of the largest privately held juice companies in the U.S. with total annual sales topping 200 million.
FIJI WATER
Love MadameNoire? Get more! Join the MadameNoire Newsletter
We care about your data. See our privacy policy.
Fiji Water was formed in Fiji in 1996. The water is derived, bottled, and shipped from the Fiji Islands, and began shipping to the United States 1997. In 2007, Fiji Water became the number-one selling premium bottled water.
Based: Los Angeles, CA
Worth: After a tax increase in 2010, the company shut down its Fiji Island offices on November 29, 2010. The next step for the brand was thought to be a move to New Zealand. However, the next day the company announced its intent to resume operations on Fiji and accept the new tax levy.
HONEST TEA
People had always told Seth Goldman, co-founder of Honest Tea, that he drank a lot of liquids. But he found all the options out there to be too sweet or just tasteless. What’s a guy to do? Create his own beverage, of course. In 1997, Seth joined forces with a friend, Barry Nalebuff, who had just returned from India where he was studying the tea industry and Honest Tea was born. The guys started brewing batches of barely sweetened tea in Seth’s kitchen and developed an all-natural brand which strives to create healthy and honest relationships with its customers, suppliers and the environment. Today, Honest Tea can be found in glass and plastic bottles in tens of thousands of stores across the United States.
Based: Bethesda, MD
Worth: In 1998, Honest Tea finished their first year with sales of $250,000. In 2009, the company sales hit $47 million.
LANGERS JUICE
Originally a specialty producer of health juices, Langer Juice Company, Inc., has emerged as a major force in the very competitive juice industry.
Since the formation of the company in 1960, the Langer family has remained actively involved in every aspect of making juice, from production and marketing to quality assurance. Recently they have expanded their Langers Plus product line to include nine varieties of enhanced 100% juices, which contain added nutrients, essential antioxidants, minerals and herbs. The newest additions include a vitamin enhanced water and No Worries brand cocktail mixers.
Based: The Southern California company features a state of the art, 140,000 square foot facility headquartered in the City of Industry.
Worth: A private company, current estimates show this company has an annual sales of $500,000 to $1 million.
ODWALLA
With a used $200 hand-juicer and a few boxes of oranges, three friends, Greg Steltenpohl, Gerry Percy, and Bonnie Bassett squeezed fresh juice in a shed behind their house and delivered it to local restaurants in their Volkswagen vans. The first day of business they juiced just one box of oranges. With the profits from that day’s sales, they were able to buy two boxes of oranges the next day, and so Odwalla began. Odwalla was founded in Santa Cruz, CA, in 1990. They began selling juice in 1994.
Based: Santa Cruz, CA
Worth: In 2001, Coca-Cola Co. bought Odwalla Inc. for $181 million.
NAKED JUICE
Naked Juice was born near the beaches of Santa Monica, CA in 1983 where it was first sold towel-to-towel. Today, Naked Juice can be found in produce aisles or in grocers’ refrigerated section across the country. Naked Juice is a line of delicious, all-natural 100% juices, 100% juice smoothies and protein smoothies. Naked Juice never adds sugar, preservatives, artificial colors or flavors. In 2009, Naked Juice announced that they were the first national beverage company to use 100% post consumer recycled plastic, or RPet.
Based: Santa Monica, CA
Worth: In 2006, Naked Juice Company was acquired by PepsiCo., some say, to keep up with Coca Cola Co.’s new juice company purchase. While the terms of the agreement were not disclosed, it’s worth noting that PepsiCo. is one of the world’s largest food and beverage companies with annual revenues of more than $32 billion. Its principal businesses include Frito-Lay snacks, Pepsi-Cola beverages, Gatorade sports drinks, Tropicana juices and Quaker foods. Its portfolio includes 17 brands that generate $1 billion or more each in annual retail sales.
POM
The company’s flagship product is pomegranate juice packaged into a trademark “double-bulb” bottle. It also markets blended juice beverages such as pomegranate juice mixed with juices of blueberry, cherry, mango, or tangerine and markets bottled tea and coffee based beverages of various flavors distributed in more conventional containers. The brand name “POM Wonderful” refers to the “wonderful” variety of pomegranate, which is grown in the central and southern San Joaquin Valley of Central California. It is the leading commercial variety in California being well suited for juicing with its soft seeds, high water content, and wine-like flavor.
Based: Los Angeles, CA
Worth: POM Wonderful, LLC is a privately owned company founded in 2002 by the billionaire industrial agriculture couple Stewart and Lynda Rae Resnick. According to her memoir, Rubies in the Orchard, Rae Resnick acquired a pistachio orchard that also contained some pomegranate trees in California’s San Joaquin Valley. In 1996, intrigued by folklore,she began to sponsor medical research regarding the pomegranate’s health effects. Lynda Resnick came up with the POM Wonderful logo and her in-house design team developed an hourglass-shape bottle. The Resnick’s are also affiliated with the companies Teleflora, FIJI Water, pesticide manufacturer Suterra, and Paramount Agribusiness.Although POM Wonderful does not disclose its profits, Newsweek magazine reported annual sales of its juice rose from $12 million in 2003 to $91 million in 2006.
