Fuze Beverage - Company History

Company History

Fuze Beverage was founded by Lance Collins and creative director Paula Grant in the basement of Collins' Englewood Cliffs, NJ home in 2000. The brand was first launched in the Northern California market in 2001 with three flavors packaged in fruit-themed bottles: mixed berry, banana colada and cranberry raspberry. In 2002 the brand launched two additional flavors, peach mango and tropical punch; the same year, the company grew to 30 employees and moved out of Collins' basement.

The company continued to expand rapidly, launching new flavors throughout 2004 and 2005. Since 2005, Fuze products may be found in most major retailers, with sales exceeding 11 million cases by 2006.

The company's growth attracted the attention of The Coca-Cola Company, which purchased Fuze Beverage in February 2007 for an estimated $250 million. Coke also gained the rights to NOS Energy Drinks and WaterPlus as part of the purchase. It was one of Coke's largest acquisitions since it bought Odwalla Inc. for $186 million in 2001. The move was seen as a strategic effort to expand the company's portfolio of non-carbonated beverages, and specifically to compete with PepsiCo's SoBe line of fruit juice blends and enhanced waters. It also confirmed a strategy shift from Coke's long-time practice of developing new products in house in favor of buying innovative beverage companies. Fuze launched over 40 new products and line extensions since its inception. Coke named Carl Sweat, previously senior vice president of sales and marketing of its retail division, as president and general manager to lead Fuze as a separate entity. Company founder Lance Collins was named head of innovation and strategy.

Leveraging Coke's distribution system and relationships, sales more than doubled from 2007 to 2008. In 2009, Fuze entered into an agreement to sell its products fountain-style in over 22,000 Subway sandwich shops. Sweat departed the company in 2009 for a post in the global beverage unit at Starbucks.