Dive Brief:
- Nestle has agreed to sell its Juicy Juice brand to Brynwood Parnters, as the world's biggest food manufacturer continues to shed underperforming assets. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
- Brynwood has been down this road before. The buyout firm has bought a number of brands from Nestle in the past, including Bit-O-Honey, Flipz pretzels and, most recently, Joseph's frozen pasta.
- The deal comes roughly a month after Nestle's CEO said that the world's largest food company was looking to shed units.
Dive Insight:
The entire food industry knew that Nestle was looking for buyers for many of its units. And Juicy Juice, which has seen sales slip in recent years amid concerns over sweet drinks for children, was a prime candidate for a sale.
Still, it is a bit of a surprise that Juicy Juice is no longer a superstar. Juicy Juice was a pioneer in two areas that once seemed unstoppable -- juice boxes and "all natural" juices. It says a lot about how much has changed since Juicy Juice arrived on the scene in the late 1970s. Juice boxes are now ubiquitous rather than revolutionary and "natural" on a label raises concerns rather than alleviates them.