Alkaline Water Comp Inc (WTER)

[Roland Rick Perry]

How Big Beverage Companies Meet Small Beverage Companies.

There are actually dozens of ways. Incubation (like from Coke's VEB), distribution partnerships, outright acquisitions..

The most fascinating thing is how and when they strike. If the start-up is too small, there is a chance the start-up hasn't truly reached the proof of concept stage and peaked. If on the other hand, they wait too long past the proof of concept stage, some 'other' other large beverage could snap the start-up up, and then it's gone forever.

In the case of Core Nutrition and Dr. Pepper, it started with a 'test' in which DPSG distributed Core in Northern California, parts of Nevada and western Pennsylvania beginning in September 2015. It was a trial, “to see how the two companies interacted” (Core's Joe Nadel) and evaluate the potential for a larger partnership. Nadel later commented, “We kind of blew the doors off, especially in Northern California, so then it was just a conversation of ‘where do we go next?"

Well "next, next" was Dr. Pepper acquiring Core a few years later for $525 million. A pretty penny for a Company launched (and never close to profitable) in 2014.

You can read the partnership story here.

http://beveragestartupnews.com/core-hydration-joins-dr-pepper-snapples-allied-brands-portfolio/

More on the Core Acquisition here.

http://beveragestartupnews.com/core-nutrition-acquired-for-525-million-foodnavigator/

How Core Funded Its Growth Without Profitability.

http://beveragestartupnews.com/core-nutrition-raises-39-million-privately-bevnet/