Alkaline Water Comp Inc (WTER)

[pacrim]

Alkaline88 is on the path to a buyout

A88 has bigger sales and is available in more stores than Aloe Gloe....just a matter of time until one of the bigs desperate to diversify their product line into healthy bevs and away from carbonated soft drinks comes this way.


Coca-Cola has acquired a minority stake in an organic aloe water beverage startup, one of several investments the soda maker has recently made beyond its core business as soda sales soften in the United States.

On Wednesday, Coca-Cola ko said it bought a stake in a California-based startup called L.A. Aloe, which is known for the company’s Aloe Gloe brand. The deal adds to Coke’s Venturing & Emerging Brands unit. That unit – which has already added Honest Tea, Zico coconut water, and Suja juices into the Coke fold – was originally created in 2007 as a way for the beverage maker to identify brands it believes could be worth a billion dollars or more in North America.

Coke has made a handful of sizable bolt-on acquisitions recently, including a $575 million deal for soy-based beverage maker AdeS from Unilever earlier this month and a $400.5 million acquisition of China Culiangwang Beverages.

Some of the deals are meant to bolster growth in markets abroad, while other investments – like this investment for Aloe Gloe – gives Coke an opportunity to get on board with new trends in the beverage aisle, where sales of soda have been weak for years as consumers look for alternatives that they believe are healthier.