Coca-Cola Co is buying a minority stake in a sports drink brand backed by basketball star Kobe Bryant, the company said on Tuesday, as it seeks to mount a stronger challenge to top energy drink Gatorade.
The investment in BodyArmor comes as Coke's Powerade steadily cedes market share to its more popular PepsiCo-owned rival. Coke has also been rattled by falling demand for its fizzy colas.
The company did not disclose the size of the investment or other financial details, but said it could increase its ownership stake in BodyArmor.
Coca-Cola said that the BodyArmor investment will form part of the company's Coca-Cola North America Venturing and Emerging Brands (VEB) investment portfolio. The BodyArmor brand will continue to operate independently.
'Challenging The Status Quo'
“In a fast-moving and dynamic industry, and during a time of unprecedented change at Coca-Cola, we’re challenging the status quo and bringing innovative, boundary-less thinking to our strategic relationships to ensure we are offering the products consumers want,” said Coca-Cola North America President Jim Dinkins.
“BodyArmor is one of the fastest growing beverage trademarks in America and competes in exciting categories. I have no doubt it will prove to be a strong offering to our system alongside our already powerful hydration portfolio as we accelerate our position as a total beverage company.”
The BodyArmor portfolio of products includes BodyArmor Sports Drink, BodyArmor Lyte Sports Drink and BodyArmor SportWater.
Kobe Bryant is BodyArmor's third biggest shareholder and the firm also has endorsement deals with baseball player Mike Trout and another NBA star, James Harden.
"I am extremely excited about this agreement because the Coca-Cola system has an amazing track record of growing explosive brands that consumers love," commented BodyArmor co-founder Mike Repole, "and allowing entrepreneurial start-ups like BodyArmor to continue to be independent and focused on achieving the aggressive growth goals that we set out to achieve when we launched this amazing brand in 2011."
News by Reuters, edited by ESM. Additional reporting by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
