Small Ready-to-Drink Tea Company Bought Out

As mentioned in the post yesterday, it seems small tea companies are being bought out by larger companies. In today’s case, it is the small company Sweet Leaf Tea which, like Honest Tea, provides ready-to-drink non-carbonated teas and lemonade.

This time the small tea company was bought by a private equity firm called Catterton Partners. This, like the sale of a chunk of Honest Tea to Coca-Cola, is being driven by the slump in soda sales and the upswing in non-carbonated drink sales. The Beverage Digest, which is a trade publication, said that sales of ready-to-drink teas rose 20.5 per cent last year in retail stores.

Guess that’s a pretty good reason for the companies and firms with money to spend to buy into these small tea companies.

Source: http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200804011758DOWJONESDJONLINE000746_FORTUNE5.htm