This is What Coca Cola is Doing to Stay on Top Including Discontinuing Its Energy Drink

In an effort to stay as one of the top beverage companies in the world, giant Coca-Cola is turning to hard seltzer and sports drinks.

As U.S. soda consumption is on the decline, the beverage company has been forced to look at other options to stay successful.

Coke recently launched Topo Chico Hard Seltzer. This was the company’s first move into alcoholic beverages after being out the arena for decades. The company has also recently invested in the sports performance drink category with BodyArmor and it purchased U.K. coffee maker Costa back in 2019.

“We were very focused over the last 12 months on really improving our marketing, we cut the portfolio of brands in half, we got really focused on our innovation pipeline, we worked with our bottlers to really support the customers in new and different ways where they’re open,” said Coca-Cola CEO James Quincey.

The company said this past Friday that it would discontinue its energy drink Coca-Cola Energy in North America, a product it launched last year.

In 2019 Coca Cola had said, “Taste is a strong driver when people are deciding what beverages to enjoy, especially in a market where there are so many options. We know Coca-Cola fans love the taste of Coke… and, with Coca-Cola Energy, we found there was an opportunity to extend Coca-Cola to a category many people haven’t tried.”

So why eliminate the drink now?

“Our strategy is focused on scaling big bets across a streamlined portfolio … As we scale our best innovations quickly and effectively like AHA and Coca-Cola with Coffee, we need to be disciplined with those that don’t get the traction required for further investment,” a company spokeswoman explained.

Disclaimer: We have no position in any of the companies mentioned and have not been compensated for this article.