Harvest Hill Beverage to Acquire American Beverage Corp.

March 20, 2015
55-year-old beverage firm makes Little Hugs and Daily's cocktail mixers.

Harvest Hill Beverage Co. in early March signed an agreement to acquire American Beverage Corp. from Netherlands-based Wessanen for approximately $55 million. Based in Stamford, Conn., Harvest Hill was formed in June 2014 to acquire the Juicy Juice brand from Nestle USA; Brynwood Partners VII L.P. is its majority owner.

ABC makes fruit drinks, ready-to-drink alcoholic drinks and non-alcoholic cocktail mixers. The company's brands include Little Hug Fruit Barrels, Big Hug and Guzzler, in addition to Daily's alcoholic cocktail drinks and mixers. It was founded 55 years ago in Verona, Pa., as Daily Orange Juice Co., and still manufactures there and from a leased facility in Phoenix. Headquarters are in Rye Brook, N.Y.

Wessanen 20 years ago had substantial holdings in the U.S. food industry, but this divestment completes the Dutch company's exit from the U.S. and its "transformation into a pure player in healthy and sustainable food," the company says. "Our strategy is to further build our own brands such as Bjorg, Allos, Alter Eco, Bonneterre, Clipper and Zonnatura in the healthy and sustainable food market in Europe."

Sponsored Recommendations

Revolutionizing Healthcare: The Impact of Digitalization in Biopharma Innovation

Biopharma enables an entirely new level of innovation that’s simply not possible in conventional drug development. It’s an approach that can fundamentally change the way healthcare...

Navigating the Automotive Industry's Electric Future

The automotive industry is at a turning point. Bloomberg estimates that by 2040, 54% of new vehicle sales will be electric. And by 2030, we’re looking at 100% of passenger vehicles...

Unified Process Control Brings Operational Clarity

Inland Empire Utilities Agency replaces its SCADA enterprise system with the PlantPAx Distributed Control System and reduces complexity for operators

PlantPAx DCS Improves Operational Reliability

KC Water calls on R.E. Pedrotti to replace obsolete wastewater SCADA solution with a unified Modern Distributed Control System (DCS).