Coca-Cola to phase out Honest tea products amid supply chain backlogs, dwindling sales
FILE - Honest Tea on display at Goya Foods Grand Tasting Village Featuring MasterCard Grand Tasting Tents & KitchenAid® Culinary Demonstrations during 2016 Food Network & Cooking Channel South Beach Wine & Food Festival in Miami Beach, Fl (Aaron Davidson/Getty Images for SOBEWFF)
Coca-Cola has announced it will start phasing out Honest tea products by the end of this year, according to a company news release.
The global drink manufacturer announced that its Gold Peak and Peace Teas will anchor the company’s ready-to-drink tea products.
Coca-Cola will continue to produce the Honest Kids line of organic juice drinks. The company emphasized that it is not getting rid of the Honest Tea brand altogether and will continue to explore licensing ventures and innovation opportunities for the brand.
"Shifting from a three-brand tea portfolio to a prioritized two-brand tea lineup will free up investment resources and supply chain capacity to better meet consumer needs and capture share in the category," said Sabrina Tandon, group director, RTD Tea, Coca-Cola North America Operating Unit. "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."
Tandon also emphasized that supply chain backlogs have impacted the production of Honest products and consumption has dwindled.
"This, among other factors, helped drive this very difficult decision," Tandon added.
The Honest tea brand was founded in 1998 by Seth Goldman and Barry Nalebuff and was fully bought by Coca-Cola in 2011.
This story was reported out of Los Angeles.