
LaCroix parent company National Beverage at multiyear low following lawsuit - howard941
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/11/lacroix-parent-company-national-beverage-falls-to-multiyear-low-following-lawsuit.html
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nugget
Most common bisphenol A replacements are reproductive toxicants. BPA has
gained enough awareness that consumers are looking for “BPA-free” products and
so companies have to abandon it for marketing purposes. The replacements
aren't healthier they are just less well-known, for now.

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deogeo
Came here to post this. Instead let me give this choice quote from
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BPA_controversy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BPA_controversy):

"For example, in 2010, General Mills announced it had found a "BPA-free
alternative" can liner that works with tomatoes. It said it would begin using
the BPA-free alternative in tomato products sold by its organic foods
subsidiary Muir Glen with that year's tomato harvest. As of 2014, General
Mills has refused to state which alternative chemical it uses, and whether it
uses it on any of its other canned products."

It boggles the mind that a company is allowed to keep secret which chemicals
it uses in food/food packaging.

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e40
Yes, that is insane. Is this allowed in the EU? I'm guessing not. What does GM
use there? Anyone know?

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itsaidpens
It's not allowed in the EU. Our regulatory system is broken.

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Sohcahtoa82
We don't need regulations! The Free Market(tm) will solve everything! (/s)

Snark aside, it's simply a problem of money in politics. It costs corporations
less to lobby against regulations than it does to follow said regulations.

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legitster
So there is reference to a previous lawsuit where someone sued them for
claiming to be "all-natural". Which is not really a legal definition, so I
don't know what merit it actually has. Similarly, for this lawsuit, BPA
doesn't really seem to be harmful, and it doesn't seem they use it anyway!

There is something about marketing yourself as a "pure" product - you will
never meet everyone's purity standard. But you set yourself up for a very
discerning (aka fickle) customer base.

At the end of the day though, the CEO seems to take "the brand" too seriously.
It's a very crowded marketspace now and I don't think there is any room to
grow. If they want to get bigger as a business, they need to diversify.

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azinman2
Diversify on water? Or go into colas and kombuchas?

I don’t think the market potential is anywhere close to saturated. I can’t get
lacroix at most (fast food) restaurants, for example. There is a large macro
trend towards healthier eating, and lacroix is a prime target to eat away at
colas. They need distribution and marketing prowess, not new products IMHO.

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legitster
Getting fast food distribution I would consider diversification. Fountain
drinks are enough of their own beast to warrant calling it a new product. But
then again, their brand is around purity, and being on a fountain requires
using whatever the local water source is. They can't just throw carbonation
into generic CO2 carbonation and call it good.

The problem with increasing distribution and marketing is that it's way easier
said than done, and there is no guarantee you can keep up with the other
players. Bubly is eating their lunch right now in distribution. They would
have to dump enormous resources go keep up.

If they want to keep growing, they need to either leverage the distribution
they do have now and add additional products. Or they need to find ways to get
their existing brand loyalists to consume more. Or they can be happy with
their current market share.

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jamesviggy
Was #LaCroix the literal bubble of Silicon Valley?

Trading appropriately under the name $FIZZ, it's a simple beverage company
that relies heavily on marketing to position it's brand for active and health
conscious consumers (natural fit for SF). Worth about $6bn at the highs.

[https://twitter.com/jamesviggy/status/1139338102764273664?s=...](https://twitter.com/jamesviggy/status/1139338102764273664?s=20)

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rootsudo
They were the only ones in the market for decades, and now have stiff
competition from Nestle, Pepsico and Coke.

Wonder how they'll fare.... they still have a brand but for how long?

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pzone
Here in the Northeast I'm lucky enough to have the regional Polar Seltzer, but
even nationwide Poland Spring produces a far more compelling product than La
Croix these days.

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dickeytk
Polar isn't regional

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bdamm
Also I've never seen Poland Spring in California.

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ralph84
Growth is inherently limited for any hipster brand because once it becomes
mainstream it's no longer hip.

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Sohcahtoa82
$CURRENT_YEAR and people are still making fun of hipsters?

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cannonedhamster
I mean the parent comment isn't wrong. Any trend based around exclusivity is
bound to lose when the exclusivity inevitably spreads. Companies have to go
way upscale to be able to afford to go super exclusive and you can only really
do this with privately held companies. Hipsters are just one form of trend
setters,I wonder if there's a chart somewhere that tracks different types of
influencers and the markets that they influence. It seems like something
someone would have spent money on making because of its inherent usefulness in
sales and marketing.

