Coca-Cola buys £30m stake in smoothie maker
Tuesday April 07 2009
Coca-Cola bought a minority stake in Innocent Drinks, a UK-based maker of fruit smoothies and vegetable dishes.
Innocent, which sells about 2 million smoothies a week, plans to use the £30m (€33 million) investment to expand its European sales, the London-based company said today in a statement on its Web site. The company currently sells its products in about 13 countries.
Coca-Cola’s stake in Innocent comes after its $2.3 billion bid for China’s largest juice maker was rejected last month by the Ministry of Commerce over competition concerns. The Atlanta- based company was looking to almost double its juice market share by buying China Huiyuan Juice Group Ltd. as it competes with PepsiCo Inc.
Coca-Cola fell 37 cents to $44.97 on April 3 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.
Coca-Cola’s press office didn’t immediately return calls for comment made before business hours. (Bloomberg)
- Courtney Dentch
