Who Owns the Juice Market

PepsiCo owned Tropicana for 23 years. Then in 2021 it sold a 61% stake to private equity for $3.3 billion, the same amount it paid to buy the brand in 1998. That is not a success story. It is a signal that juice is in structural decline and the big beverage companies know it.

Juice consumption in the United States has been falling for over a decade as consumers shift toward water, sparkling beverages, and functional drinks. Despite that, the brands in the juice aisle are still controlled by a small number of companies. Coca-Cola owns Minute Maid and Simply Orange. The newly independent Tropicana Brands Group holds Tropicana and Naked Juice. Cooperative-owned brands like Welch's and Ocean Spray fill in the remaining shelf space.

This post maps who owns which juice brands globally, explains the major ownership changes since 2020, and covers the growing independent segment. For a complementary read on beverage brand concentration, see our post on who owns the bottled water industry.

Coca-Cola: The Juice Portfolio

Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) is the world's largest non-alcoholic beverage company. Juice is one of its four major revenue categories alongside sparkling beverages, water, and sports drinks. Within juice, Coca-Cola's strategy has been to maintain two distinct tiers: a mainstream brand and a premium not-from-concentrate brand.

[Minute Maid](/brands/minute-maid) is Coca-Cola's flagship juice brand and one of the oldest packaged juice brands in the United States. The Minute Maid Company was founded in 1945 in Boston, Massachusetts, and developed the first commercially successful frozen concentrated orange juice. Coca-Cola acquired Minute Maid in 1960 for approximately $36 million. That acquisition gave Coca-Cola a foothold in a category beyond carbonated beverages that it has built on ever since. Minute Maid is now distributed in approximately 100 countries across shelf-stable and refrigerated formats.

[Simply Orange](/brands/simply-orange) is Coca-Cola's premium not-from-concentrate orange juice brand, launched in 2001. Simply Juice is positioned as a higher-quality, fresher-tasting alternative to Minute Maid's standard product, using fruit grown in Florida. Simply has expanded beyond orange juice into Simply Lemonade, Simply Apple, Simply Tropical, and several other variants, becoming one of the top-selling refrigerated juice brands in the United States by dollar sales.

[Honest Kids](/brands/honest-tea) -- Coca-Cola acquired Honest Tea in 2011 and subsequently launched Honest Kids, a lower-sugar juice pouch product for children. The Honest brand also covers Honest Lemonade and other organic beverages.

Odwalla (discontinued): Coca-Cola acquired Odwalla, a premium cold-pressed juice brand from Half Moon Bay, California, in 2001 for approximately $181 million. Odwalla competed in the premium fresh juice segment with cold-pressed juices and smoothies. Coca-Cola discontinued the Odwalla brand in 2020 during COVID-related portfolio rationalization.

Del Valle is Coca-Cola's major juice brand in Latin America, particularly dominant in Mexico and Brazil where it holds market leadership in juice and nectars.

Ades is Coca-Cola's soy-based juice drink brand in Latin America, acquired from Unilever in 2017 for approximately $575 million.

The Tropicana Spinoff: PAI Partners and PAI-backed Tropicana Brands Group

[Tropicana](/brands/tropicana) has had the most complex recent ownership history of any major juice brand. Tropicana was founded in Bradenton, Florida in 1947 by Anthony Rossi as a fresh juice packager. PepsiCo acquired Tropicana in 1998 for approximately $3.3 billion, one of the most expensive food brand acquisitions of the decade.

In August 2021, PepsiCo sold a 61% stake in Tropicana, Naked Juice, KeVita, and other juice brands to private equity firm PAI Partners for approximately $3.3 billion, creating a new standalone company called Tropicana Brands Group (TBG). PepsiCo retained a 39% minority stake. TBG operates the brands at scale as an independent company.

The sale price being identical to the 1998 purchase price is not a coincidence. PepsiCo's own investor communications at the time of the 2021 transaction described juice as a structurally declining category that required significant capital investment, while its core snacks (Frito-Lay) and sports drinks (Gatorade) offered stronger growth economics. According to a 2021 PepsiCo press release, the transaction allowed PepsiCo to retain exposure to the juice category through its minority stake while freeing capital for higher-priority businesses.

Tropicana Brands Group (TBG) key brands:

[Tropicana](/brands/tropicana) is the flagship, covering standard not-from-concentrate and from-concentrate orange juice sold in multiple container formats. Tropicana Pure Premium is the most premium tier.

[Naked Juice](/brands/naked-juice) is TBG's premium cold-pressed smoothie and juice brand, founded in Santa Monica, California in 1983. PepsiCo acquired Naked Juice in 2007 for approximately $450 million. Naked competes in the premium refrigerated smoothie segment alongside Odwalla (now discontinued) and independent cold-press brands.

[KeVita](/brands/kevita) is TBG's sparkling probiotic drink brand, acquired by PepsiCo in 2016 for an undisclosed sum. KeVita bridges the juice and wellness beverage categories.

PepsiCo Remaining Juice Assets

After the TBG transaction, PepsiCo retained several juice-adjacent brands:

[Lipton Brisk](/brands/lipton) and ready-to-drink tea beverages are managed through PepsiCo's Lipton partnership with Unilever.

Dole Juice (licensing): Dole is a brand that licenses its name for juice products to various manufacturers. PepsiCo, Tropicana, and others have held Dole juice licenses in various markets.

Other Major Players

Campbell's/Pacific Foods (juice): Campbell Soup Company owns V8 vegetable juice, one of the most recognized US vegetable juice brands, dating to 1933. V8 remains a significant category player in the US and Canada.

Welch's (National Grape Cooperative): Welch's is the juice brand of the National Grape Cooperative Association, a farmer-owned cooperative based in Concord, Massachusetts. Welch's grape juice is the most recognized Concord grape product in the United States. Welch's licenses its brand to Promotion in Motion for fruit snacks and other products.

Ocean Spray (cooperative): Ocean Spray is a cooperative owned by cranberry and grapefruit growers. Ocean Spray cranberry juice cocktail is the dominant US cranberry juice brand, and the cooperative also produces premium 100% cranberry and blended juices. PepsiCo signed a distribution partnership with Ocean Spray in 2020.

Keurig Dr Pepper (Snapple, Clamato, Mott's): Keurig Dr Pepper (NASDAQ: KDP) owns Mott's apple juice and applesauce, Clamato tomato-clam juice, and Snapple juice-based drinks. KDP was formed from the 2018 merger of Keurig Green Mountain and Dr Pepper Snapple Group.

Florida's Natural (Citrus World): Florida's Natural is a cooperative brand owned by Citrus World, a Florida grower-owned cooperative. It is the largest single-source Florida orange juice brand and is one of the last major not-from-concentrate orange juice brands sourcing exclusively from Florida growers.

The Cold-Pressed Juice Segment

The premium cold-pressed juice segment remains more fragmented than mainstream juice. Key independent brands include:

Suja Organic: A San Diego-based cold-pressed juice company backed by Coca-Cola (which invested approximately $90 million for a minority stake in 2015, then later acquired full ownership). Suja competes at the premium organic end of the juice market.

Evolution Fresh (Starbucks): Evolution Fresh is Starbucks's cold-pressed juice brand, acquired in 2011 for approximately $30 million. It is sold through Starbucks locations and some retail channels.

Pressed Juicery: An independent cold-pressed juice cafe chain and packaged juice brand that has grown through franchise and direct retail channels.

Market Share Overview

Category Challenges

Juice consumption in the United States and Western Europe has been declining for more than a decade. Three forces are driving this:

Sugar awareness. Juice contains significant naturally occurring sugar and little fiber compared to whole fruit. As consumers have become more aware of sugar intake, beverage choices have shifted toward water, sparkling water, and lower-sugar alternatives.

Competition from smoothies and functional beverages. Cold-pressed juices, protein smoothies, and kombucha have taken premium beverage occasions that previously went to carton juice.

Price pressure. Mainstream carton juice is commodity-adjacent with thin margins. Private label competition has grown, particularly in mainstream orange juice.

In response, major brands have introduced lower-sugar variants such as Tropicana Trop50 and Simply with Less Sugar. Both Tropicana and Coca-Cola have also repositioned some products around functional benefits like immunity and hydration rather than purely as a way to hit a daily fruit serving.

FAQ

Who owns Tropicana orange juice now? Tropicana is owned by Tropicana Brands Group (TBG), a standalone company formed in 2021 when PAI Partners acquired a 61% stake for approximately $3.3 billion. PepsiCo retained a 39% minority stake. TBG operates Tropicana, Naked Juice, and KeVita as an independent company.

Is Simply Orange the same company as Minute Maid? Both Simply Orange and Minute Maid are owned by Coca-Cola. They operate at different price tiers. Simply Orange uses not-from-concentrate juice at a premium price point. Minute Maid covers both from-concentrate and not-from-concentrate variants at more accessible prices. Same parent, different market positions.

Is Welch's a cooperative? Yes. Welch's is owned by the National Grape Cooperative Association, a farmer-owned cooperative. The brand licenses its name to other companies for fruit snacks and jams, generating royalty income for the cooperative's grape grower members.

Conclusion

The juice market is shrinking, and the ownership map reflects that. PepsiCo sold Tropicana at the same price it bought it 23 years earlier. Coca-Cola discontinued Odwalla entirely. The smart money in beverages has moved to sports drinks, energy drinks, and functional beverages.

Despite the category decline, the remaining brands are still controlled by a small number of companies. If you want to trace exactly who owns what in juices or in adjacent beverage categories, browse our food and beverage brand database for complete ownership profiles.

Explore Related Brands

• Tropicana - Now owned by Tropicana Brands Group (PAI Partners/PepsiCo JV)
• Minute Maid - Coca-Cola's juice brand, acquired 1960 for $36 million
• Simply Orange - Coca-Cola's premium NFC orange juice, launched 2001
• Naked Juice - TBG's premium cold-pressed smoothie brand

Browse all food and beverage brands

Sources

1. Coca-Cola Annual Report 2024 -- https://investors.coca-colacompany.com/ 2. PepsiCo: Tropicana Brands Group Transaction, 2021 -- https://www.pepsico.com/news/press-release 3. Tropicana Brands Group Company Overview -- https://tropicanabrands.com 4. Campbell Soup Company Annual Report FY2025 -- https://investor.campbellsoupcompany.com/ 5. Keurig Dr Pepper Annual Report 2024 -- https://ir.keurigdrpepper.com/ 6. Euromonitor International: Juice Market Share 2024 -- https://www.euromonitor.com 7. Ocean Spray: Cooperative Overview -- https://www.oceanspray.com/about-us

All brand ownership data verified through WhoBrands.com research methodology. Last updated: March 2026.