History
The company was formed in 1985 by Nick A. Caporella to fend off an unwanted acquision by Victor Posner of Burnup & Sims Inc., an installer of cable television and telecommunications systems, through trading stock between the two companies to reduce Posner's ownership level. Caporella, now having an additional company, needed to have a business to go with it and acquired Shasta Beverages from Sara Lee Corporation in 1985 for $40 million USD in cash and Burnup & Sims shares. In order to make National a major player Caporella purchased Faygo, a Midwest regional soft drink manufacturer, from Tree Sweet Products Corp. With its twelve bottling plants, National subsidiaries branch out into bottling store brands.
In 1991, National Beverage went public to sell Burnup & Sims's shares in National Beverage which was partially successful. A Burnup & Sims stock holder sued due to Caporella's salary from Burnup and percentage of revenue from National Beverage, forcing Caporella to spend less time managing the company. In the early 1990s, Spree, an all-natural, carbonated soft drink, and Big Shot, a regional, multiflavored soft drink line, were acquired. In 1992, the US Navy contracted for the manufacture of "Sea", their ship store's brand. In the mid-1990s, juice producer, Everfresh Beverages Inc. and WinterBrook Corp., a carbonated and still water producer, became subsidiaries of National. WinterBrook brought three brands to the National Beverage group of companies: Cascadia, WinterBrook Clear, and LaCROIX. National acquired Home Juice Company, home of the Home Juice and Mr. Pure brands, at the end of the 1990s.
Early 2000s, National purchased Beverage Canners International Inc., Ritz and Crystal Bay soft drinks and sparkling waters brands owner. In 2002, the Company changed its strategy by focusing on bottling their own brands and end private label bottling. National move to create new products for specific markets starting in 2003 with Shasta Shortz, a kid focused soda. Also that year, Fruitika, a fruit nectars line, went out to the stores. For 2004, diet Shasta started using Splenda No Calorie Sweetener.
National also launched new energy drink lines starting with Rip It, a general energy drink line. A women focused line, Chic, and Freek for teenagers and young adults followed. National even tried a coffee based energy drink, Double Hit.
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