Naked Juice
Encyclopedia
Naked Juice is an American
brand of natural fruit juice drinks produced by the Naked Juice Company of Monrovia
, California
; operating as a wholly owned subsidiary of PepsiCo
. The first of these drinks were produced in 1983 and sold in California
under the name "Naked Juice", referring to their composition of no artificial flavors, added sugar
, or preservatives. Distribution has since expanded, and Naked Juice products are distributed nationwide within the United States
, as well as in Canada
and the U.K.
As of 2011, the Naked Juice product line consisted of more than 20 variants, including fruit juices, juice smoothies, and protein smoothies, among other beverages. A line of coconut water
is also produced under the Naked Juice brand. The drinks are represented as containing high concentrations of antioxidant
s. Its primary competition within the super premium juice category is Odwalla
, which is owned by The Coca-Cola Company
.
, California
in 1983 by Jimmy Rosenberg. He began on a small scale, producing the fruit drinks at his home and selling them under the "Naked Juice" name in-person on the beaches in Santa Monica. As a result of this initial popularity, the juice drinks were first made available commercially via a local grocery store which agreed to carry the products. Distribution soon expanded to a wider range of stores in the Los Angeles
metropolitan area, followed shortly thereafter by growth into the San Diego region.
Distribution remained within the state of California until 2000, when the brand was purchased by North Castle Partners, a private-equity firm based in Greenwich
, Connecticut
. Naked Juice became a division of its then-owner's "Ultimate Juice Company" for a short time; however as a result of the pace at which Naked Juice sales and distribution increased, its name was changed back to "Naked Juice Company" in 2001.
The packaging
design changed with a re-branding across the Naked Juice line in 2005, which was credited in part for helping Naked Juice surpass the former industry leader in terms of annual retail sales, Odwalla
. As demand for its products increased, so did the complexity of distribution. Due to the composition of its juices - namely the purposeful lack of preservatives
- Naked Juice beverages are highly perishable, must be kept below 38° F, and have a shorter shelf life than some competing products. In order to alleviate potential supply limitations in early 2006, the company opened two new direct delivery centers in Sacramento
, California
and Seattle, Washington.
In November 2006, PepsiCo announced plans to acquire Naked Juice from its prior owners, North Castle Partners, for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition, which was completed in 2007, was recognized as marking PepsiCo's more recent shift towards ownership of food and beverage brands with a health and wellness aspect. At this time, Naked Juice had recorded annual sales of $150 million within the U.S. According to financial industry analysts, this acquisition was initiated in part to compete with The Coca-Cola Company
's 2001 purchase of Naked Juice rival Odwalla
.
Since 2007, the Naked Juice brand has operated as a wholly owned subsidiary of PepsiCo, under the parent company's PepsiCo Americas Beverages division. Naked Juice continued to conduct business in its original Azusa, California headquarters until February, 2010, when its offices were relocated to the neighboring city of Monrovia, California. Due in part to PepsiCo's scale of existing distributors, Naked Juice has since expanded to be sold in all 50 states within the U.S., as well as in Canada and the U.K.
and vegetable
juices. Some of the products are produced in a smoothie
consistency, while others remain in juice
form. The juices are a combination of flash pasteurized
fruits, vegetable juices and purees. Among the primary flavors of Naked Juice are strawberry
banana
, blue machine (blueberry
, blackberry
and banana
blend), orange
mango
and berry veggie which contains purple carrots, red beets, sweet potatoes, sweet corn, chick peas, sweet cherries, strawberries, plum, apple, and a hint of lemon.
In addition to juice flavor variants, since 2006 additional Naked Juice versions have been produced with a focus on specific health aspects such as digestion
, protein
and reduced-caloric content. In 2007, Naked Juice Probiotic was introduced, having been represented as the first 100-percent juice smoothie to contain probiotic
s for the aid in digestion
. A protein-focused line of Naked Juice smoothies (marketed as protein zone) was first introduced in the early 2000s, with the addition of mango and double berry flavors in 2009. Two reduced-calorie
Naked Juice smoothies were introduced in 2010: tropical and peach guava. Both of these products contain coconut juice, which is naturally lower in caloric content in comparison to other fruits.
Also in 2010, The Naked Juice Company added a 100-percent coconut water
product, marketed under the name Naked Coconut Water, and sold within the U.S. in Whole Foods
stores.
Naked Juice drinks are produced in 10, 15.2, 32, 64, and 128-US fluid ounce
sizes; though not all flavors are packaged in all size formats. In 2009, Naked Juice changed the packaging used for its 32-ounce bottles to a variant consisting of 100-percent post-consumer recycled plastic PET (polyethylene terephthalate
), the first beverage with national distribution in the United States to implement this packaging type. The new bottle design, referred to as "reNEWabottle" by the company, was extended to the 10, 15.2 and 64-ounce sizes in 2010, resulting in the reduction in new plastic consumption by a rate of 7000000 pounds (3,175,147 kg) per year.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
brand of natural fruit juice drinks produced by the Naked Juice Company of Monrovia
Monrovia, California
Monrovia is a city located in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains in the San Gabriel Valley of Los Angeles County, California, United States. The population was 36,590 at the 2010 census, down from 36,929 at the 2000 census...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
; operating as a wholly owned subsidiary of PepsiCo
PepsiCo
PepsiCo Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Purchase, New York, United States, with interests in the manufacturing, marketing and distribution of grain-based snack foods, beverages, and other products. PepsiCo was formed in 1965 with the merger of the Pepsi-Cola Company...
. The first of these drinks were produced in 1983 and sold in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
under the name "Naked Juice", referring to their composition of no artificial flavors, added sugar
Sugar
Sugar is a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose, characterized by a sweet flavor.Sucrose in its refined form primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet...
, or preservatives. Distribution has since expanded, and Naked Juice products are distributed nationwide within the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, as well as in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and the U.K.
As of 2011, the Naked Juice product line consisted of more than 20 variants, including fruit juices, juice smoothies, and protein smoothies, among other beverages. A line of coconut water
Coconut water
Coconut water is the clear liquid inside young coconuts . As the fruit matures, the coconut water is gradually replaced by the coconut meat and air. A very young coconut has very little meat; the meat that it has is very tender, almost a gel...
is also produced under the Naked Juice brand. The drinks are represented as containing high concentrations of antioxidant
Antioxidant
An antioxidant is a molecule capable of inhibiting the oxidation of other molecules. Oxidation is a chemical reaction that transfers electrons or hydrogen from a substance to an oxidizing agent. Oxidation reactions can produce free radicals. In turn, these radicals can start chain reactions. When...
s. Its primary competition within the super premium juice category is Odwalla
Odwalla
Odwalla Inc. is an American food product company that sells fruit juice, smoothies and food bars. It was founded in Santa Cruz, California in 1980 and is headquartered in Half Moon Bay, California....
, which is owned by The Coca-Cola Company
The Coca-Cola Company
The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational beverage corporation and manufacturer, retailer and marketer of non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups. The company is best known for its flagship product Coca-Cola, invented in 1886 by pharmacist John Stith Pemberton in Columbus, Georgia...
.
History
The Naked Juice Company was created in Santa MonicaSanta Mônica
Santa Mônica is a town and municipality in the state of Paraná in the Southern Region of Brazil.-References:...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
in 1983 by Jimmy Rosenberg. He began on a small scale, producing the fruit drinks at his home and selling them under the "Naked Juice" name in-person on the beaches in Santa Monica. As a result of this initial popularity, the juice drinks were first made available commercially via a local grocery store which agreed to carry the products. Distribution soon expanded to a wider range of stores in the Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
metropolitan area, followed shortly thereafter by growth into the San Diego region.
Distribution remained within the state of California until 2000, when the brand was purchased by North Castle Partners, a private-equity firm based in Greenwich
Greenwich
Greenwich is a district of south London, England, located in the London Borough of Greenwich.Greenwich is best known for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich Meridian and Greenwich Mean Time...
, Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
. Naked Juice became a division of its then-owner's "Ultimate Juice Company" for a short time; however as a result of the pace at which Naked Juice sales and distribution increased, its name was changed back to "Naked Juice Company" in 2001.
The packaging
Food packaging
Food packaging is packaging for food. It requires protection, tampering resistance, and special physical, chemical, or biological needs. It also shows the product that is labeled to show any nutrition information on the food being consumed....
design changed with a re-branding across the Naked Juice line in 2005, which was credited in part for helping Naked Juice surpass the former industry leader in terms of annual retail sales, Odwalla
Odwalla
Odwalla Inc. is an American food product company that sells fruit juice, smoothies and food bars. It was founded in Santa Cruz, California in 1980 and is headquartered in Half Moon Bay, California....
. As demand for its products increased, so did the complexity of distribution. Due to the composition of its juices - namely the purposeful lack of preservatives
Preservative
A preservative is a naturally occurring or synthetically produced substance that is added to products such as foods, pharmaceuticals, paints, biological samples, wood, etc. to prevent decomposition by microbial growth or by undesirable chemical changes....
- Naked Juice beverages are highly perishable, must be kept below 38° F, and have a shorter shelf life than some competing products. In order to alleviate potential supply limitations in early 2006, the company opened two new direct delivery centers in Sacramento
Sacramento
Sacramento is the capital of the state of California, in the United States of America.Sacramento may also refer to:- United States :*Sacramento County, California*Sacramento, Kentucky*Sacramento – San Joaquin River Delta...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
and Seattle, Washington.
In November 2006, PepsiCo announced plans to acquire Naked Juice from its prior owners, North Castle Partners, for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition, which was completed in 2007, was recognized as marking PepsiCo's more recent shift towards ownership of food and beverage brands with a health and wellness aspect. At this time, Naked Juice had recorded annual sales of $150 million within the U.S. According to financial industry analysts, this acquisition was initiated in part to compete with The Coca-Cola Company
The Coca-Cola Company
The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational beverage corporation and manufacturer, retailer and marketer of non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups. The company is best known for its flagship product Coca-Cola, invented in 1886 by pharmacist John Stith Pemberton in Columbus, Georgia...
's 2001 purchase of Naked Juice rival Odwalla
Odwalla
Odwalla Inc. is an American food product company that sells fruit juice, smoothies and food bars. It was founded in Santa Cruz, California in 1980 and is headquartered in Half Moon Bay, California....
.
Since 2007, the Naked Juice brand has operated as a wholly owned subsidiary of PepsiCo, under the parent company's PepsiCo Americas Beverages division. Naked Juice continued to conduct business in its original Azusa, California headquarters until February, 2010, when its offices were relocated to the neighboring city of Monrovia, California. Due in part to PepsiCo's scale of existing distributors, Naked Juice has since expanded to be sold in all 50 states within the U.S., as well as in Canada and the U.K.
Products
The Naked Juice product line consists of more than 20 variants of straight and blended 100-percent fruitFruit
In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...
and vegetable
Vegetable
The noun vegetable usually means an edible plant or part of a plant other than a sweet fruit or seed. This typically means the leaf, stem, or root of a plant....
juices. Some of the products are produced in a smoothie
Smoothie
A smoothie is a blended and sometimes sweetened beverage made from fresh fruit and in special cases can contain chocolate or peanut butter. In addition to fruit, many smoothies include crushed ice, frozen fruit, honey or contain syrup and ice ingredients...
consistency, while others remain in juice
Juice
Juice is the liquid that is naturally contained in fruit or vegetable tissue.Juice is prepared by mechanically squeezing or macerating fruit or vegetable flesh without the application of heat or solvents. For example, orange juice is the liquid extract of the fruit of the orange tree...
form. The juices are a combination of flash pasteurized
Flash pasteurization
Flash pasteurization, also called "High Temperature Short Time" processing, is a method of heat pasteurization of perishable beverages like fruit and vegetable juices, beer, and some dairy products...
fruits, vegetable juices and purees. Among the primary flavors of Naked Juice are strawberry
Strawberry
Fragaria is a genus of flowering plants in the rose family, Rosaceae, commonly known as strawberries for their edible fruits. Although it is commonly thought that strawberries get their name from straw being used as a mulch in cultivating the plants, the etymology of the word is uncertain. There...
banana
Banana
Banana is the common name for herbaceous plants of the genus Musa and for the fruit they produce. Bananas come in a variety of sizes and colors when ripe, including yellow, purple, and red....
, blue machine (blueberry
Blueberry
Blueberries are flowering plants of the genus Vaccinium with dark-blue berries and are perennial...
, blackberry
Blackberry
The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by any of several species in the Rubus genus of the Rosaceae family. The fruit is not a true berry; botanically it is termed an aggregate fruit, composed of small drupelets. The plants typically have biennial canes and perennial roots. Blackberries and...
and banana
Banana
Banana is the common name for herbaceous plants of the genus Musa and for the fruit they produce. Bananas come in a variety of sizes and colors when ripe, including yellow, purple, and red....
blend), orange
Orange (fruit)
An orange—specifically, the sweet orange—is the citrus Citrus × sinensis and its fruit. It is the most commonly grown tree fruit in the world....
mango
Mango
The mango is a fleshy stone fruit belonging to the genus Mangifera, consisting of numerous tropical fruiting trees in the flowering plant family Anacardiaceae. The mango is native to India from where it spread all over the world. It is also the most cultivated fruit of the tropical world. While...
and berry veggie which contains purple carrots, red beets, sweet potatoes, sweet corn, chick peas, sweet cherries, strawberries, plum, apple, and a hint of lemon.
In addition to juice flavor variants, since 2006 additional Naked Juice versions have been produced with a focus on specific health aspects such as digestion
Digestion
Digestion is the mechanical and chemical breakdown of food into smaller components that are more easily absorbed into a blood stream, for instance. Digestion is a form of catabolism: a breakdown of large food molecules to smaller ones....
, protein
Protein
Proteins are biochemical compounds consisting of one or more polypeptides typically folded into a globular or fibrous form, facilitating a biological function. A polypeptide is a single linear polymer chain of amino acids bonded together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of...
and reduced-caloric content. In 2007, Naked Juice Probiotic was introduced, having been represented as the first 100-percent juice smoothie to contain probiotic
Probiotic
Probiotics are live microorganisms thought to be beneficial to the host organism. According to the currently adopted definition by FAO/WHO, probiotics are: "Live microorganisms which when administered in adequate amounts confer a health benefit on the host"...
s for the aid in digestion
Digestion
Digestion is the mechanical and chemical breakdown of food into smaller components that are more easily absorbed into a blood stream, for instance. Digestion is a form of catabolism: a breakdown of large food molecules to smaller ones....
. A protein-focused line of Naked Juice smoothies (marketed as protein zone) was first introduced in the early 2000s, with the addition of mango and double berry flavors in 2009. Two reduced-calorie
Calorie
The calorie is a pre-SI metric unit of energy. It was first defined by Nicolas Clément in 1824 as a unit of heat, entering French and English dictionaries between 1841 and 1867. In most fields its use is archaic, having been replaced by the SI unit of energy, the joule...
Naked Juice smoothies were introduced in 2010: tropical and peach guava. Both of these products contain coconut juice, which is naturally lower in caloric content in comparison to other fruits.
Also in 2010, The Naked Juice Company added a 100-percent coconut water
Coconut water
Coconut water is the clear liquid inside young coconuts . As the fruit matures, the coconut water is gradually replaced by the coconut meat and air. A very young coconut has very little meat; the meat that it has is very tender, almost a gel...
product, marketed under the name Naked Coconut Water, and sold within the U.S. in Whole Foods
Whole foods
Whole foods are foods that are unprocessed and unrefined, or processed and refined as little as possible, before being consumed. Whole foods typically do not contain added ingredients, such as salt, carbohydrates, or fat. Examples of whole foods include unpolished grains, beans, fruits, vegetables...
stores.
Naked Juice drinks are produced in 10, 15.2, 32, 64, and 128-US fluid ounce
Fluid ounce
A fluid ounce is a unit of volume equal to about 28.4 mL in the imperial system or about 29.6 mL in the US system. The fluid ounce is distinct from the ounce, which measures mass...
sizes; though not all flavors are packaged in all size formats. In 2009, Naked Juice changed the packaging used for its 32-ounce bottles to a variant consisting of 100-percent post-consumer recycled plastic PET (polyethylene terephthalate
Polyethylene terephthalate
Polyethylene terephthalate , commonly abbreviated PET, PETE, or the obsolete PETP or PET-P, is a thermoplastic polymer resin of the polyester family and is used in synthetic fibers; beverage, food and other liquid containers; thermoforming applications; and engineering resins often in combination...
), the first beverage with national distribution in the United States to implement this packaging type. The new bottle design, referred to as "reNEWabottle" by the company, was extended to the 10, 15.2 and 64-ounce sizes in 2010, resulting in the reduction in new plastic consumption by a rate of 7000000 pounds (3,175,147 kg) per year.