Sunny D parent buys juice firm
The makers of Sunny D, long known as a children’s drink, are looking to reach a more mature and health-minded consumer -- and they’re going to use a West Los Angeles drink maker to do it.
Beverages Holdings purchased Bossa Nova Beverage Group Inc. Wednesday for an undisclosed amount, said Lloyd Greif, chief executive of Greif & Co., the Los Angeles investment-banking firm that represented Bossa Nova in the transaction. Bossa Nova is best known for its acai juice drink.
“You won’t find Sunny D selling in a Whole Foods or a Trader Joe’s,” Greif said. “But this acquisition gets a Sunny D product into those stores. And this will get Bossa Nova even more into the mainstream supermarkets and the mass channel.”
Bossa Nova will be run as an autonomous company but fold into the portfolio of Beverages Holdings, based in Cincinnati, said Alton Johnson, Bossa Nova’s founder and CEO. A key part of the sale for Johnson: Bossa Nova will remain in Los Angeles with the same staff of about 15 people.
Johnson will also take on a role in his new parent company as vice president of its natural beverages division.
“I wanted to ensure the brand received the resources it needs above all else, and I’m very excited about the opportunity we’ve got here,” he said.
The purchase gives the Sunny D maker credibility in the natural beverage market, Johnson said, while giving Bossa Nova wider distribution and marketing resources.
Johnson said his company did more than $10 million in sales last year. Sunny D’s sales topped $575 million in 2008, said Sydney McHugh, a Beverages Holdings spokeswoman.
Johnson started Bossa Nova in 2000 as an MBA student at USC, with drinks first hitting store shelves in 2005.
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