Keurig Dr Pepper Inc. and Nutrabolt today announced a strategic partnership, including a definitive agreement for a long-term sales and distribution arrangement that leverages KDP’s powerful go-to-market capabilities and a significant equity investment that enables KDP to participate in the value creation upside expected to be created through the strategic partnership. The equity investment is expected to close by year-end.
Nutrabolt is a rapidly growing, global active health and wellness company with a portfolio of brands, including C4® Energy, one of the fastest-growing performance energy drink brands in the U.S.; C4® Pre-Workout, the leading pre-workout brand globally; and XTEND®, the #1 post-workout recovery brand in the U.S.
Under the long-term sales and distribution agreement, KDP will sell and distribute C4® Energy in the vast majority of KDP’s company-owned direct store distribution territories, which is expected to meaningfully increase retail availability and household penetration for the brand. Nutrabolt will continue to distribute C4® Energy directly or through its existing distribution network to the specialty, health club and fitness channels and will continue to work with some of its existing beverage distributors in certain markets.
Commenting on the announcement, Chairman and CEO Bob Gamgort stated, “This partnership represents a win-win transaction between our two companies. KDP gains significant presence in the rapidly growing performance energy drink market and Nutrabolt gains access to a strategic investor with extensive sales and distribution capabilities to further accelerate its growth. We believe that bringing together the resources, talent and expertise of both companies will accelerate innovation and growth and drive significant value creation over time.”
“Over the past 20 years, Nutrabolt has grown from a bootstrap startup to become one of the fastest growing global active health and wellness companies in the world,” Cunningham continued. “This is an amazing moment for our company, and it is because of the incredible contributions of our team members, commercial partners and those who have financially backed us over the years, namely MidOcean Partners, and CPG veterans and equity investors Brian Goldberg and Clayton Christopher.”
The transition of C4® Energy distribution to KDP will occur during 2023, which is expected to be a transition and investment year, with limited impact on KDP financial results until 2024, when KDP expects the strategic partnership to become accretive to its financial results.
