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Will Amazon Buy La Croix?

June 10, 2019

Will Amazon Buy La Croix?

In each of the past 13 years, sales of sugary drinks and soda have decreased substantially, which reflects America's movement towards a more healthy lifestyle. La Croix, a natural flavored seltzer, has been the face of this movement - as its' popularity among the millennial generation continues to grow. Although La Croix captured a share of the health beverage market early, its parent company, National Beverage, has done little to innovate and differentiate their seltzer products, which could impair their ability to sustain a competitive advantage.

Coca-Cola, Nestle, and Pepsi have exposed La Croix's complacent development team by offering new-fashioned nutritious beverages. In the past 12 weeks, La Croix sales have plummeted nearly 10%, and in the past 8 months, their market share contracted by 5 percent. As a result, National Beverage's stock price fell by more than 64 percent from its 52-week high, which shows that La Croix declining sales exacerbates a firm-wide inability to meet consumer demands. Considering America's looming economic slowdown, National Beverage needs to relinquish control of La Croix to another company.

Amazon's rapid and effective expansion into the grocery and food industry positions them as a potential candidate for this type of acquisition. Following Amazon's acquisition of Whole Foods in 2017, the company has implemented a revolutionary grocery delivery service that offers discounts to its growing community of Amazon Prime members. The company has also opened 11 grocery stores across the country. Amazon has become one of the world's most exceptional shopping experiences due to its' convenient and user-friendly services.

Amazon has the potential to change La Croix's brand from a dying fad into a consumer staple. Amazon could help La Croix recapture a competitive share of the health beverage market because of Amazon's innovative marketing strategies, as well as its ability to cater to consumer preferences, could connect a more significant number of customers with La Croix products. Amazon's 11 brick and mortar stores would have exclusive rights to La Croix, thus bringing new flavors to their Go stores and appealing to health-focused customers. Although successfully implementing an acquisition is inherently risky, Amazon's size and history of exceptional customer relations will mitigate initial turbulence present in a brand-overhaul of such a product.

Written by Alexander Versfeld, Edited by James Mueller & Alexander Fleiss

Source:

https://www.businessinsider.com/la-croix-sales-decline-free-fall-2019-5