MILAN – Coca-Cola is phasing out its Honest Tea product line at the end of the year, as part of a repositioning of its ready-to-drink tea portfolio that will also help it meet packaging supply challenges. Even as the teas get discontinued, Coca-Cola said it will hang onto the Honest logo and brand, so it may opt to license other Honest products in the future. The company also said that it plans to continue manufacturing the “quickly growing” Honest Kids juice offerings.
The beverage giant said in a press release eliminating Honest Tea is part of a larger strategy to “reflect consumer choice” and an effort to prioritize “fewer, bigger brands.”
In 2020, the company announced that it would cut its product line in half, reducing it to 200 products. By ditching poorly performing brands, Coca-Cola can invest more in its most successful products and get creative with marketing its core offering, Coke.
“In the end, it’s a Darwinian struggle for space in the supermarket or in the convenience store,” Coca-Cola CEO James Quincey told CNN Business last year.
Coca-Cola took a 40% stake in Honest in 2008, and Coke acquired the brand outright in 2011.The company also sells Gold Peak and Peace Tea, and intends to focus on these brands as it says goodbye to Honest.
“We believe Gold Peak and Peace Tea are best positioned to meet consumer preferences for high-quality brewed teas with different levels of sweetness and flavor,” Sabrina Tandon, group director and general manager of Coca-Cola’s North America tea portfolio, said in a statement.
“Today’s announcement by The Coca-Cola Company that they will be discontinuing Honest Tea is a gut punch to all the sweat, tears, and incredible passion that went into building our beloved brand,” Honest Tea cofounder Seth Goldman wrote on LinkedIn following the news.
“My thoughts are with our longtime partners and friends, the organic and fair trade farmers who helped develop their communities and protect their ecosystems with the tens of millions of pounds of tea, sugar, and spice they sold us,” he wrote.
He expressed gratitude for the “tens of millions of consumers who bought our drinks and who benefited from having a less sweet, less caloric, authentic drink as part of their diet” and thanked the “retailers, restaurants, and distributors who believed in us. Your partnership helped democratize organic and healthier drinks in a way that had never been done before.
“I am somewhat consoled by the fact that Honest Kids will continue to grow and thrive. It has helped remove billions of empty calories from the American diet. I hope that work will continue to scale.”
