Dive Brief:

• China's Reignwood Group will buy a 25% stake in the parent of Vita Coco for about $166 million. 
• The deal gives Vita Coco, already the biggest-selling coconut water in the U.S., access to a well-established distribution system in China. 
• Reignwood is the parent of Red Bull China, which owns the rights to distribute the energy drink in that nation.

Dive Insight:

It's hard to fathom that it has only been 10 years since Vita Coco emerged as a tiny distributor in New York City and the coconut water craze was born. Today Vita Coco is the biggest player -- roughly a 40% market share -- of a $500 million market.

That rapid growth has also created rapid change, making coconut water a highly competitive, and increasingly controversial, industry.