Coca-Cola to discontinue another drink

Less than three months after Coca-Cola announced it would discontinue its Odwalla brand drinks, the beverage giant announced it will discontinue production of its ZICO coconut water products.

“This decision was not made lightly and comes at a time when we are focused on delivering on our consumers' wants and needs while driving scaled growth across a total beverage portfolio,” the company said in a statement.

Coca-Cola first invested in ZICO in 2009 and finalized a larger acquisition of the brand in 2013.

“When we made our investment in ZICO, we did so because we saw it as a burgeoning premium brand with the potential to be a significant leader in a high growth category,” Deryck van Rensburg, Coke North America’s president and general manager of venturing and emerging brands, said in a 2013 press release.

Coke helped ZICO expand from six markets to nationwide sales in big retailers including Kroger, Target and Walmart.

While the coconut water industry nearly doubled in sales growth every year between 2004 and 2013, the industry has since seen a slump. According to Euromonitor International, by 2019, in-store sales of coconut water had dropped 22% since 2015.

Vita Coco has led the industry as the No. 1 choice for consumers for over a decade.

ZICO products will be discontinued by the end of the year, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Other Coke products that might kick the can soon are Diet Coke Feisty Cherry, Coke Life, Northern Neck Ginger Ale and Delaware Punch, all of which are “under review,” a spokesperson said, according to CNN.

The company also announced this year that it plans to expand sales of its Topo Chico Hard Seltzer drink in the U.S. in the first half of 2021.

“I think these innovations that we’ve seen, including hard seltzer, are a trend of the consumer looking for new things, and if we want to be consumer-centric … then that’s what’s taking us to this opportunity,” CEO James Quincey told CNBC. “We’re going to follow the consumer.”

Cox Media Group