
27 Jan 2021 Founder of Zico beverage brand buys it back from Coca-Cola
Zico Beverages Mark Rampolla is bringing his beverage baby back home after seven years apart.
PowerPlant Ventures, a venture-capital firm co-founded by Rampolla that backs emerging plant-based products and brands, acquired coconut water-based beverage brand Zico from the Coca-Cola Co and will rename it Zico Rising.
The deal reunites him with a beverage brand he created in 2004 after discovering the benefits of coconut water while serving in Central America with the Peace Corps.
He ultimately sold the brand to Coca-Cola in 2013, several years after the beverage giant’s corporate venturing arm invested in Zico.
But last year, when Coca-Cola announced it would scrap nearly 200 brands, including Zico, Rampolla saw an opportunity to rebuild the brand he had created.
“2021 is going to be about making sure we’ve got the right foundation,” Rampolla said, adding that he plans to re-establish partnerships with retailers and ensure Zico’s supply chain is ready to scale.
Although he said he believes Coca-Cola is an amazing organisation, he added that he thought the beverage giant’s skill set is probably better suited to supporting large, core brands rather than smaller emerging ones.
In the years since he sold Zico, Rampolla and his firm PowerPlant have gotten plenty of experience nurturing up-and-coming new brands in the plant-based food sector.
“I’ve had the good fortune over the last seven years to personally invest in [over 40 companies],” Rampolla said. “We look at about 600 deals a year. What has helped is my pattern recognition…Staying ahead of trends, not only just with products but ways to communicate with consumers.”
PowerPlant has numerous start up brands, including at least four that have grown into companies valued at more than $1-billion: plant-based alternative meat brand Beyond Meat, online food retailer Thrive Market and Eat JUST, which produces plant-based egg substitute brand JUST.
Source: Wall Street Journal, just-drinks.com; foodbev.com