Who Owns VitaminWater?- Full History

Who Owns Vitamin Water?
Photo credit: Coca-Cola company, Written by: Ruth Bisieri

After a long day in the gym or a long day walking in the scorching sun, what is the first thing that comes to mind? You guessed right, ‘Water.’ Many companies are in the water business because they know how lucrative it is. After all, “Water is life!” Today’s article is all about VitaminWater and Who Owns VitaminWater?

After the early 90’s many consumers would think of more than just water. They would look for flavored or enhanced water on the supermarket shelves. This is where vitamin water comes in.

Vitamin water was initially known as smart water. The founder of smart water was J. Darius Bikoff. As a health enthusiast, Bikoff had a dream. He wanted his new line of enhanced water in many stores around New York. So he transported smart water to health stores and grocery stores around New York. The brand immediately started doing well, and soon it was known as fruit water, and finally, in 2000, it became Vitaminwater.

Contents of VitaminWater

Photo credit: Coca Cola Enterprises

Vitaminwater comes in many flavors and contains added vitamins and minerals. However, if consumed in excess, like every other sugary drink, it could lead to health issues.

Vitaminwater flavors include:

  • Mega C (vitamin C) dragonfruit
  • Xxx (triple antioxidants) acai blueberry pomegranate
  • Essential (calcium) orange
  • Energy (caffeine) tropical citrus
  • Multi-v (a+ zinc) lemonade
  • Restore (electrolytes) fruit punch
  • Focus (vitamin a) kiwi strawberry
  • Gut-c (fiber + apple cider vinegar) watermelon peach
  • Recover-e (electrolytes from sea salt) blueberry strawberry
  • Serenity-e (I-theanine + chamomile extract + selenium) melon hibiscus

Zero sugar Vitaminwater flavors

  • Rise (calcium) orange
  • Xoxox (triple antioxidants) acai blueberry pomegranate
  • Squeezed (a + zinc) lemonade

Vitamin water grew rapidly because it was on-demand, having customers from all over the States. The company now worked with national distributors.

In 2002 vitamin water started operating with the name Glaceau. By now, it was doing so well in the U.S. that it was the best-selling sweetened water. Soon it was taking over the global market. This massive growth is largely due to Coca- Cola Company taking over in 2007. Coca-Cola purchased the company for $4.1 billion, although the company was estimated to be worth $2million. The news caused the media to go wild. 

Coca-Cola paid a higher price because it saw huge potential in the future of beverages. Tremendous growth was seen by 2011 as the revenue of vitamin water increased from $300 million to over $1 billion after the Coca-Cola takeover. Coca-Cola could see the future because this was a huge rise in their profits.

Who made Vitaminwater succeed while it was Glaceau’s?

His name is Rohan Oza, the marketing genius famously known as the Brand father in Hollywood. He also refers to himself as the Marketing Messiah. He is known for his exceptional brand-building skills. 

Oza got through to many people, and they started drinking the water. He also linked the greatest A-listers globally with brands that are interested in boosting the celebrity’s brand and at the same time creating a very beneficial partnership with the parties involved. His main goal was to boost the brand of the celebrities that he worked with.

As the head of marketing at Vitaminwater, he worked with the best in sports to market the water. They include Brian Urlacher, who played with the Chicago Bears, and David Ortiz, who played with Boston Red Sox on a “vitamin water, Try it!”

It was the first time that the company was marketing on television. Oza thought working with celebrities would make a greater impact. In return, he offered them to be equity players in the company.

Later on, he added Kelly Clarkson, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, and the famous 50 cents. Oza’s strategy was making the drink alluring to every age group and demography rather than focusing on a specific age group and demography.

Coca cola’s Lawsuit

Everything was going on well for Vitaminwater, but in 2009 a health lawsuit was raised. The Centre of Science in Public Interest had concerns on some health claims that vitamin water could reduce the risk of eye infections, promote healthy joints and support optimal immune function. Coca-Cola responded and altered the original ingredients in vitamin water from sugarcane and fructose crystalline, which was full of added sugar to Stevia (plant-derived) and cane sugar. Unfortunately, their consumers did not like the new taste of Vitaminwater even though it made the product healthier. 

In 2014, Coca-cola decided to go back to the original ingredients that their consumers fell in love with from the beginning. They also added a Vitaminwater zero line for consumers on a low sugar diet that used Stevia instead of added sugar.

More people eventually joined the CSPI lawsuit, and eventually, the majority of the lawsuits were amalgamated. They came to a final settlement with Coca-Cola paying $2.7 million and a final settlement requiring a total change in how they advertised the product and labeled it. 

50 Cent Entrance And Exit in Vitaminwater

50 cent, whose real name is Curtis Jackson III, came into the picture in 2004. He was a huge fan of Vitaminwater way before he did the deal with Glaceau. He had grown up with alcoholics around him, so he chose not to drink, but instead, he lived a healthy lifestyle and worked out. So instead of drinking plain old water after every workout, 50 cents loved the taste and satisfaction from drinking Vitaminwater! That’s how he became a fan.

He became a 10% minority stakeholder at Glaceau with the help of his manager known as Chris Lighty, who knew Oza as a business colleague. He approached Lighty and expressed his interest in working with Vitaminwater. He not only wanted to work with Vitaminwater, but he wanted to make Vitaminwater huge. He was thinking big; he wanted his client to invest in the company instead of 50 cents just doing an endorsement with Glaceau

The deal made him become one of the greatest and super successful hip-hop artists of his time. This deal proved how huge hip-hop had grown. Lighty was a young self-made businessman who was initially a street kid. He had managed other hip-hop artists before, such as Nas, Ja Rule, Diddy, LL Cool J, Missy Elliott, and many more.

50 was now featured in advertisements and campaigns of vitamin water. He also got invited to national TV interviews. But, even more interesting, he worked with the team to create his water that he called Formula 50.

The new flavor would be made of grapes. Carol Dollard was the mastermind behind the beverage. As the head of product development, Oza had requested her to create a product with more nutrients and vitamins in the drink. She was successful, and she came back with a flavor that contained 50% of 7 different minerals and flavors. Oza and his team then came up with a perfect name for the new beverage: “Formula 50”. 

He was no longer just a fan. Instead, he was fully involved in developing the products, unlike many celebrities who are not involved in the creative process but prefer being associated with the product.

After the deal was made public in October 2004, formulae 50 was received so well, and it was sold in every store around the corner. This can be greatly credited to 50 cents being a brand ambassador for Vitaminwater. His music career was doing well, and his fans already adored him, having sold millions of records. His management saw it as an opportunity to make millions of sales from a product that 50 personally created and had a real love for. 

Despite all things going on great, there was occasional friction between Lighty and Bikoff behind the scenes. But once they came to an understanding, they built a strong partnership that everybody was talking about.

The hand over to Coca-Cola 

In May 2007, Coca-Cola bought Vitaminwater at 4.1 billion dollars from Glacéau. 50 cent was a 10% minority stakeholder. He walked away with approximately $60 to $100 million. Initially, it had been rumored that 50 Cent’d acquired over $400 million. Still, the media hadn’t factored out the Tata group, an Indian manufacturing company that invests internationally. They were to be paid off a bigger share since they had invested over $650 million in Glacéau, making them own 30% of the company. The Tata brothers walked away with 1.2 billion dollars.

 50 cent’s net worth drastically rose to $ 0.5 billion. The CEO, J. Darius Bikoff, who worked tirelessly to build his company Glacéau also made millions of dollars from Coca Cola Company. These were success stories. 

Conclusion

Overall, Vitaminwater has continued to grow as a brand. It continuously creates new flavors to quench its customers’ taste buds. As much as it may offer nutritional value and it has the best marketing team, we all want something that tastes way better than plain old water once in a while. Vitaminwater has ensured that when we do, we can comfortably choose from a variety of flavors.

Who Owns VitaminWater?- Full History

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