Coca-Cola to discontinue Honest tea line

The Coca-Cola Company has announced that it will phase out its Honest teas product line, with plans to continue producing the “quickly growing” Honest Kids juice products.

Coca-Cola will discontinue its Honest teas portfolio at the end of 2022.

The Honest brand was founded in 1998 by Seth Goldman and Barry Nalebuff. Coca-Cola took a 40% investment stake in 2008, before fully acquiring the brand in 2011.

Today’s announcement by Coca-Cola that they will be discontinuing @HonestTea is a gut punch to all the sweat, tears, and incredible passion that went into building our beloved brand. (1/11)

— Seth Goldman (@HonestSeth) May 23, 2022

The soft drinks giant said: “The Coca-Cola Company is challenging itself to think differently about how its brands help accelerate business transformation, reflect consumer choice and promote growth as a company. This means rationalising its lineup of drinks and prioritising fewer, bigger brands with the greatest potential for scale and profitable growth.”

Sabrina Tandon, group director, RTD Tea, Coca-Cola North America Operating Unit, added: “We are phasing out the Honest teas product line, but are not selling the Honest brand”.

Meanwhile, the Honest Kids juice offerings, along with the national Gold Peak and regional Peace Tea brands will remain part of the company.

“Shifting from a three-brand tea portfolio to a prioritised 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 Tandon. “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 flavour.”

She continued: “Ongoing supply chain challenges mean we are having to prioritise production and distribution of certain product SKUs, and that we’ve been unable to meet consumer demand for Gold Peak. This, among other factors, helped drive this very difficult decision”.