US – American Beverage Corporation (ABC), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Harvest Hill Beverage Company, has expanded its juice portfolio by the acquisition of Chicago-based kids’ lemonade brand Poppilu.
Founded by Melanie Kahn, a food industry veteran-turned-“momtrepreneur,” Poppilu is an antioxidant lemonade with no preservatives, no artificial flavors, and less sugar than other top lemonade brands.
Sold in pouches, Poppilu is crafted to give kids an eye-catching, full-flavored organic beverage that is made using Aronia berries, which are locally grown super-fruits.
The company said its brand has no added refined sugar and only 7g of sugar per serving (66% less sugar than the leading juice brand) from the fruit juice itself.
Born out of a pregnancy craving — Kahn explained that she decided to make her low-sugar lemonade when she couldn’t find any on the market — the company’s product line includes blueberry lavender, passionfruit, and original lemonade.
The company first targeted its better-for-you lemonades to adults and sold them in regional retailers throughout Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, including Jewel-Osco.
Then Poppilu shifted focus to kid-friendly pouches in 2020 and expanded its distribution to Walmart as well as other national retailers.
Khan said: “Although other kids’ lemonade SKUs exist, we’ve been the first kids’ brand doing ready-to-drink lemonade exclusively. There’s a great opportunity there, and for those who think lemonade is too narrow, I’d suggest looking at Calypso with its dozens of lemonade SKUs.
“It’s a flavor profile that crosses all age groups but has been sorely lacking in the kids’ space unless you consider the artificial powdered stuff, we all mixed in our kitchens with wooden spoons as kids — but no doubt I envy their margins!”
Approaching six years on the market, Khan underscored that the company purposely stayed relatively small, being careful to manage cash and not outstrip what it can afford by going too big too fast.
For Harvest Hill Beverage Company, the acquisition of Poppilu is an expansion to its current juice portfolio which includes nostalgic brands such as Juicy Juice, SUNNYD, Little Hug Fruit Barrels, Veryfine, Guzzler, and Big Burst.
Ilene Bergenfeld, chief marketing officer of Harvest Hill Beverage, commented that Poppilu makes a great addition to ABC’s existing portfolio and helps expand its strong foundation of kids’ beverages.
Children have become a special target group for food marketers as they tend to influence their parents’ buying decisions while grocery shopping.
Mintel research shows that in the US, 94 percent of six- to eleven-year-olds drink juice while in the UK, eight in ten kids consume fruit juices and smoothies.
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