Coca-Cola re-enters the fight against LaCroix with a flavored, caffeinated seltzer
When your mouth just wants to relax... but you have 10,000 things to do. There's a sparkling water for that. Coca-Cola just announced AHA (actual name), a flavored sparkling water with almost as much caffeine as a soda. It hits shelves in March bursting with flavor combos like citrus+green tea or black cherry+coffee. But Coke's tried (and failed) with seltzer before:
- Take I (2014): Coca-Cola launches "Dasani Sparkling Water." It goes nowhere because the brand isn't fresh and it's too similar to every other seltzer option.
- Take II (2017): Coca-Cola acquires Topo Chico to get in on the pseudo-hipster craft mineral water trend (is it just us or does Topo Chico not make that easy to discover on its website or bottles).
- Take III (2019): Coca-Cola shuts down Dasani's version and starts from scratch with AHA — the brand is new and the differentiator is caffeine.
Coca-Cola drowned in the sparkling water industry... 5 years later, it's only earned 2.5% of the US flavored sparkling water market. Here's who really owns it:
- Polar = 7.7%
- Pepsi (Bubly) = 8.5%
- Nestlé (San Pellegrino, Poland Spring) = 11.3%
- LaCroix = 18%. It's the leader, but owner National Beverage Corp's stock is down 60% in the last year facing all that above competition (it fell another 11% Thursday on this AHA moment).
Sparkling Water became so big, it’s got niches now... While soda sales fell, sparkling water sales surged epically from 100M gallons in 2013 to almost 400M last year. That's created a demand for different types of sparkling water for niche needs: Bud Light Seltzer and Corona Hard Seltzer want to replace your evening cocktail, while Coke's AHA goes after your morning espresso.