Beverage giant Snapple may be on the road to recovery under its new owners.
In the first sign of expansion the company has seen in some time, Snapple candy – Fruits, Whirls, Beans and Snapplets – will be available in grocery, drug and general merchandise stores this spring.
The company lost its direction after being passed around from owner to owner, with each trying to figure out what Snapple’s next step would be. And while all this passing was going on, the company’s sales growth slowed in the highly competitive beverage arena.
First, founders and original owners Hyman Golden, Arnold Greenberg and Leonard Marsh sold Snapple to Thomas H. Lee, an investment firm that took the company public in 1992. Then Quaker Oats bought Snapple in 1994 for $1.7 billion, which proved to be a disastrous move for the brand and its chairman, William Smithberg. He lost his job.
Two years later, Nelson Peltz’s Triarc investment group bought the brand for a bargain $300 million. After unsuccessfully trying twice to take Snapple public again, Triarc sold the hot potato to Cadbury Schweppes PLC – led by CEO John Sunderland – for $1.45 billion, making a tidy profit in the process.
Triarc is also partially responsible for seeing the growth potential that Snapple-flavored candy brings to the brand. Scott Semel, president of Cody-Kramer Imports, the manufacturer of Snapple candy, said that when he approached Triarc, the reception was warm. “They were enamored of the idea,” he said – and negotiations for the deal moved swiftly.
Snapple candy will be marketed with Snapple’s roots in mind. Cody-Kramer is concentrating its marketing efforts in the New York area, with Madison Square Garden serving as the centerpiece of the campaign.
“We’re advertising during the Knicks games, and we have signage in Madison Square Garden,” Cody-Kramer’s Semel said. “Over 30 percent of Snapple business is done in the tri-state area,” Semel said.
In its heyday, Snapple’s identity was closely aligned with its quirky marketing campaigns and celebrity affiliations. Radio shock-jock Howard Stern, conservative pundit Rush Limbaugh and Wendy Kaufman, “Wendy the Snapple Lady,” provided every consumer segment with someone with whom to identify. The trio was fired by Quaker Oats and was subsequently rehired by Triarc.