‘Sparkling’ LaCroix sales drive acquisition talk
It’s good to be Nick Caporella these days.
The 79-year-old founder, chairman and chief executive of National Beverage Corp. not only owns the hottest brand in the fastest-growing sector of the US soft drink business but has seen his company’s stock soar 80 percent this year as it has stolen market share from its peers.
Caporella’s LaCroix sparkling water is so hot that many on Wall Street have started fingering it as a likely acquisition target, The Post has learned.
“LaCroix would enhance the portfolio for any of the big beverage companies,” a banker in the beverage space said Thursday.
Part of Caporella’s good fortune is having the right product at the right time.
As Americans continue to turn away from diet sodas for health reasons, many are turning to flavored sparkling water — and LaCroix is the big fish in that pond.
While National Beverage also owns the Shasta, Faygo, Everfresh and Rip It beverage brands, it is LaCroix that is tearing it up.
In a US sparkling water sector that has posted huge volume growth of 26 percent in the 52 weeks ended Nov. 7, to hit $682 million in sales, LaCroix, the No. 1 seller, is up 50 percent, according to research firm IRI. Perrier is up just 9 percent.
LaCroix has a 30 percent market share; Perrier, owned by Nestlé, has 15 percent; and Nestlé’s San Pellegrino just 12 percent, Nielsen says.
Despite LaCroix’s rise, the two beverage giants, Coke and Pepsi, neither of which has a viable entry in the sector, are not interested in buying LaCroix, sources said.
Coca-Cola’s Dasani sparkling water has a 6 percent market share, according to Nielsen.
PepsiCo exclusively bottles and distributes Schweppes seltzer, which would make buying a sparkling water competitor complicated, a well-placed source said.
Coke bottles and distributes Seagram’s. Both Coke and Pepsi are about to launch a sparkling water rival to LaCroix — Coke under its Smartwater brand and Pepsi with its Aquafina name.
Brand extension won’t be easy, experts noted.
“The issue is identity,” one said. Will consumers accept a sparkling smartwater, for example, when they connect the brand to still water?
Smaller rivals, like Cott Corp., for example, which last month closed a $1.25 billion acquisition of DS Waters, and would likely be unable now to do another sizeable deal, would appear blocked from buying LaCroix.
Making a possible sale easier for Caporella is that he recently settled a pesky lawsuit over an aborted sale of the company in 2011.
Caporella, who owns 74 percent of National Beverage, on July 21 won a years-long suit brought by his former lawyer David Mursten.
Mursten claimed he was promised $4 million for his work if the 2011 sale was not completed.
Neither National Beverage nor Coke returned calls. PepsiCo declined comment.
National Beverage shares closed Thursday at $40.85, down 32 cents.