Sonoma Sparkler sold to LA soda company

Sonoma Sparkler, a small sparkling juice brand based in Healdsburg, has been sold to Reed’s Inc., a Los Angeles company that makes soft drinks sold in natural food stores.

The deal follows the sale earlier this year of Sonoma Sparkler’s bottling plant in Healdsburg to Langer Juice Co., said Chris Reed, founder and CEO of Reed’s.

Since June, Reed’s has been bottling the Sonoma Sparkler brands at its Los Angeles plant, including Sonoma Sparkler organic lemonade and apple juice, along with its pear, peach and raspberry juices.

Reed and Sonoma Sparkler owner David Cordtz now are teaming up to produce “private label” beverages for supermarkets and other retailers, Reed said.

“For both of us it’s a huge leap into the next phase,” said Reed, who described Cordtz and himself as “kind of kindred souls.”

The deal was valued at $252,000, according to a statement issued by Reed’s. Cordtz did not return calls Monday.

A former winemaker and hard cider maker, Cordtz and his wife, Ari Smith Cordtz, opened their sparkling juice business, the Sonoma Cider Mill, in Healdsburg in 1999. They quickly won acclaim for their sparkling fruit juices, first at the Sonoma County Harvest Fair and later at trade shows for gourmet food retailers.

Reed’s, which went public three years ago, reported sales last year of $15 million, a statistical drop in the ocean of the $110 billion U.S. beverage market.

Nonetheless, the company maintains that it produces the four top-selling soft drinks in the natural food store segment. Its products include the best-selling natural foods root beer and cola, Virgil’s Root Beer and China Cola.

Premium sodas are suffering in the current economy, Reed said. But he maintained that his company’s 5 percent sales decline represents much less of a hit than the rest of the market segment.

Moreover, Reed said, the long-term outlook for natural beverages remains strong. When he founded the company 20 years ago, he said, the total natural foods industry amounted to $2 billion and since has grown to $70 billion annually.

“Definitely the world has gotten a little bit more foodie,” said Reed.

In a press release, Reed’s touted the sparkling juice market’s potential by citing recent IRI data that two privately held companies, S. Martinelli & Co. of Watsonville and R.W. Knudsen Family of Chico, have generated annual juice sales of $45 million and $5 million respectively.

The purchase of Sonoma Sparkler will be paid in cash from gross profits generated from the brand’s sales over the next 24 months, according to the press release.