1. Investment Snapshot
2. Thesis
3. Valuation & Price Target
4. Business & Product Moat
5. People & Governance
6. Market & Macro
7. Financial Quality
8. Risk Register
9. Prediction Market
10. 𝕏 Posts
Discussion
1. Investment Snapshot
2. Thesis
3. Valuation & Price Target
4. Business & Product Moat
5. People & Governance
6. Market & Macro
7. Financial Quality
8. Risk Register
9. Prediction Market
10. 𝕏 Posts
Discussion
1. Investment Snapshot
2. Valuation
Discussion
Symbol
COCO
Event Date
2021-10-21
IPO Date (Actual)
2021-10-20
Sector
Consumer
Subsector
Beverages
Offer Range
$18.00-$21.00
Shares Offered
11.5M
61.76M
$1.1B
18.6%
Implied Upside vs Midpoint
Description
The Leader of a Healthy Beverage Revolution Through the Power of Plants The Vita Coco Company is a leading fast-growing, plant-based functional hydration platform, which pioneered packaged coconut water in 2004, and recently began extending into other healthy hydration categories. We are on a mission to reimagine what is possible when brands deliver great tasting, natural, and nutritious products that are better for consumers and better for the world. At the Vita Coco Company, we strongly believe that we have a nearly two-decade head start on building a modern, healthy beverage company providing products that consumers demand. We observed early on the shift toward healthier and more functional beverage and food products led by the next generation of consumers. As a result, we believe our platform is tethered to the future and not anchored to the past. Our portfolio is led by Vita Coco, which is the leader in the global coconut water category with additional coconut oil and coconut milk offerings, and includes Runa, a leading plant-based energy drink inspired from a plant native to Ecuador, Ever & Ever, a sustainably packaged water, and the recently launched PWR LIFT, a flavored protein-infused water. Since our inception, we have been boldly re-defining healthy hydration to truly be good for your body rather than “less bad for you” as defined by the old guards of the beverage industry. We have embraced the power of plants from around the globe by turning them into conveniently packaged beverages that our consumers can enjoy across need-states and beverage occasions throughout the day—as a replacement to orange juice in the morning, as a natural sports drink invented by Mother Nature, as a refreshing alternative to both regular or plant-based milk in a smoothie, or simply on its own as a great-tasting functional hydrator. Together, our brands help our consumers satiate their large and growing thirst for healthy and functional hydration, which fuels well-being from the inside out. This enables us to serve a U.S. beverage market of over $119 billion, providing a long runway for growth, and within which the $13 billion natural segment is currently growing at twice the pace of the conventional brands, according to SPINS. We do all of this as a responsible global citizen with a consistent appreciation of our impact on the environment and social wellbeing of the communities in which we operate. We are a Public Benefit Corporation focused on harnessing, while protecting, nature’s resources for the betterment of the world and its habitants by creating ethical, sustainable, better-for-you beverages and consumer products that not only uplift our communities, but that do right by our planet. That is why we bring our products to market through a responsibly designed supply chain, and provide our farmers and producers the partnership, investment, and training they need to not only reduce waste and environmental impact, but bring income and opportunity to local communities. Ultimately, we believe it is our unique, inclusive, and entrepreneurial culture rooted in being kind to our bodies, our environment, and to each other, that enables us to win in the marketplace and ride the healthy hydration wave of the future. Our journey is still young, and we believe that we are well-positioned to continue to deliver exceptional growth and profitability as we continue to grow our consumer reach in existing and new markets around the globe. We are laser focused on owning as many healthy hydration occasions as possible. We have undertaken numerous initiatives to turn our ideals into action. In 2014, we created the Vita Coco Project to support and empower our coconut farming communities through innovative farming practices, improving education resources, and scaling our business to promote economic prosperity—through all of which we hope to positively impact the lives of over one million people. Additionally, we seek to partner with other third party organizations that share and advance our ideals including fair trade, accessible nutrition and wellness, and environmental responsibility. Vita Coco: The Global Leader in Coconut Water We pioneered the North American and European packaged coconut water market and made coconut water a mainstream beverage loved by consumers who were seeking healthier alternatives. Today we are the largest brand globally in the coconut and other plant waters category, according to Euromonitor. Our visionary co-founder,co-CEO and Chairman, Mike Kirban, discovered coconut water on an adventure in Brazil with his best friend. In many tropical countries, coconut water is viewed as a gift from Mother Nature and has been consumed for centuries as a substitute for water given its hydrating and functional properties from electrolytes. Since the beginning, our goal has been to bring high quality yet affordably priced and sustainably sourced coconut water to the masses. When Vita Coco launched in New York City in 2004, we established the coconut water category as a premium lifestyle drink, and we have been on the forefront of natural and functional beverages ever since. We believe the ongoing adoption of Vita Coco is largely attributable to its taste qualities and nutrients, and the fact that it is an alternative to sugar-packed sports drinks and other less healthy hydration alternatives. Vita Coco has evolved from a single pure coconut water SKU, to a full portfolio of coconut water flavors and enhanced coconut waters, as well as other plant based offerings such as coconut oil and coconut milk, all of which have been commercially successful and loved by consumers, such as Vita Coco Boosted, Vita Coco Super Sparkling and Vita Coco Farmers Organic. With market share leadership, the Vita Coco brand is synonymous with coconut water and healthy hydration. Vita Coco is truly the brand that helps you “drink a little better, eat a little better, and live a little better.” We have leveraged the strength of our category leading Vita Coco brand and our innovation capabilities to broaden our portfolio. Vita Coco is the coconut water category leader with 46% market share in the United States, a 36% relative market share advantage over the next leading competitor, according to IRI Custom Research. Vita Coco is driving growth in the overall category as well as growing its share. The brand competes in the $2 billion global coconut and plant waters category, according to Euromonitor, and is only being sold in 24 countries, with low household penetration in most of them. We believe that Vita Coco has had the biggest influence in making coconut water a mainstream beverage choice in the United States, and driving the category to its 15% year-over-year growth, which is in line with enhanced waters and outpacing sparkling waters, with 15% and 4% year-over-year growth, respectively, for the 26 weeks ended, September 5, 2021, according to IRI Custom Research. The category and the brand are sought after by consumers of all ages, but according to Numerator, does skew to younger and more multicultural shoppers, supporting the exciting growth prospects we have. Internationally, our business is anchored by Vita Coco’s footprint in the United Kingdom, where it is the coconut water category leader with over 70% market share, according to IRI U.K. Our U.K. footprint and operational base in Asia, has allowed us to start selling into other European and Asian countries, where our brand while still nascent, has been well received. In collaboration with our key retail partners in the United Kingdom, we have innovated beyond our current portfolio by extending the brand into natural personal care products and CBD-infused beverages that have been well received by our loyal consumer base. We have established solid foundations in key markets such as China, France, Spain, the Nordic Region and the Middle East from which to build our brand. Available Where Our Consumer Wants Us to Be As we build and expand our business, we strive to democratize health and wellness by making our high-quality products accessible to mainstream consumers through broad distribution and price points. Our products are distributed through club, food, drug, mass, convenience, e-commerce, and foodservice channels across North America, Europe, and Asia. In the United States, we are available from up and down the street in bodegas where we got our start to natural food and big box stores all over the country. We can also be found in a variety of on-premise locations such as yoga studios, corporate offices and even music festivals and other large events. We go to market in North America through a versatile and tailored approach that varies depending on a given product’s lifecycle stage, and the needs of our retail partners as brands evolve and mature. This practice will continue as we expand our platform through innovation and acquisitions, and we utilize our insights and experience across various distribution channels, including direct-store-delivery, or DSD, direct-to-retailer warehousing, or DTW, and broadline distribution partners (e.g., UNFI, KeHE). We are in the advantageous situation where without owning any of the assets needed for distribution, we can match the right retailer needs with the right route to market. For example, where club and e-commerce retailers prefer to receive full truckloads of our products directly delivered to the limited number of warehouses they deploy, in most instances the convenience retailers, with over 100,000 doors in the channel, prefer to have smaller deliveries directly to their stores through our distributor network that provides national coverage. In addition to the strength of our brand, we believe our strong relationships across retailers is further aided by our highly-engaged sales and marketing teams who continually raise the bar for retail execution in the industry. Their proven track record of creating consumer excitement at the point of purchase has helped ensure that our products continue to fly off the shelves, while getting continuously restocked. We believe our marketing team has written the playbook on authentic grassroots brand building and influencer marketing, which draws highly coveted consumers into our retail partners in search of our products. Our in-the-field marketing efforts couple well with our superstar investors to tout the quality of our products and authenticity of the brand to further support ongoing purchasing. --- Unique Global Supply Chain Anchored in Upcycling and Supporting Growth Prospects We have set up an asset-lite business model. We believe we have unique expertise sourcing and overseeing the packaging of coconut water from the tropical belt, and delivering our high quality, branded packaged coconut water to consumers worldwide. Through our direct access to coconut farmers globally and our relationships with processors in many countries, including the Philippines, Indonesia, and Brazil, we have built up a unique body of knowledge and relationships which we believe creates a competitive advantage unrivaled in the industry. We believe this is an important differentiator for our business and difficult to replicate. As the pioneer of branded coconut water in the United States, we sourced our first coconut water in the early 2000s in Brazil, and helped local producers set up the infrastructure needed to supply and grow a high quality coconut water business. Over time, we took this capability to other parts of the world and also started giving back to the local communities in which we operate. We have carefully cultivated a coconut water supply chain of scale, which enables coconut processing facilities to monetize their coconut water. Prior to our involvement, many facilities had solely focused on desiccated coconut, coconut cream, and other coconut products, and were discarding the coconut water as an un-needed byproduct of their coconut processing. Thus, we saw an opportunity for upcycling the coconut water. Unlike other packaged beverages that can be produced or co-packed anywhere, coconut water needs to be transferred from the coconut into an aseptic package within hours of the coconut being cut from the tree. This means that we had to set up our production process as close to the coconut farms as possible to keep quality at the highest level. This was often in remote, less developed tropical areas with unsophisticated infrastructure and antiquated farming practices. In the areas we source from, we have established model farms to emulate, and we work closely with our manufacturing partners to assist the local farmers with best practices on how to grow and process coconuts in a sustainable and efficient manner. We believe the work we are doing with our manufacturing partners has set the gold standard for coconut water processing. --- In exchange for sharing the technical resources and expert know-how that we developed over time, we receive long-term contracts, typically with exclusivity provisions. We helped in creating an invaluable, loyal farming community around our manufacturing partners through our agricultural education programs and investments in schooling. This has strengthened our long-term manufacturing relationships and enables the scale and capacity needed for future growth. Today, our supply chain reaches far beyond Brazil, and includes tropical countries around the world including the Philippines, Thailand and Sri Lanka. Our thousands of farming partners presently organize the cracking of approximately 2.5 million coconuts each day at the highest quality standards to meet our demand for just that, and we believe we are the largest purchaser of coconut water in the world. We source approximately two-thirds of our coconut water from Asia, and one-third from Latin America. Our well-diversified global network spans across 10 countries, 15 coconut water factories and five co-packing facilities, which together are able to seamlessly service our commercial markets with delicious coconut water. We believe this network, and the relationships within it, are truly valuable, unique, and hard to replicate at scale. Our business model is asset-lite as we do not own any of the coconut water factories that we work with, and we use co-packers for local production when needed in our major markets. This provides us with enormous flexibility as we can move production from one facility or country to another quickly. We are able to rapidly adjust our sourcing and production on a global scale, which not only de-risks our exposure to political, weather and macro-economic risks, but also ensures a constant, reliable and high quality supply of coconut water while keeping operations nimble and capital efficient. Additionally, all of our manufacturing partners operate under the highest quality standards, and collectively provide a range of Tetra, PET and canning capabilities. This not only supports our existing offerings, but also allows us to be more expansive with our approach to innovation and product releases, such that we are not constrained due to any one packaging type. Our supply chain scale, diversification, and flexibility also create leverage with manufacturers, warehouses, and logistics providers to reduce waste and operating and transportation costs, and help us reduce our total costs while maintaining reliable supply. This scale also supports our position as one of the largest and highest quality coconut water producers in the world and should allow us to continue to manage our supply and growth prospects for many years to come. Leveraging Our Success and Scale into a Multi-Brand Platform Over the past nearly two decades, we have built the scale to service our retailers and consumers around the globe. While we have grown into a larger organization with a strong back office team, our entrepreneurial spirit stays central to everything we do. Our sales team seeks to set the bar for retail execution in the industry, and has a proven track record of creating consumer excitement at the point of purchase. They are complemented by our marketing team who effectively employs authentic grassroots brand building and influencer marketing campaigns to aid brand awareness. We have leveraged our scale and entrepreneurial spirit to expand into other categories both organically and through acquisitions. We are constantly looking to expand our demographic reach and the beverage occasions that our products serve. We remain very focused on growing our share of the beverage market that sits at the intersection of functional and natural through a wide variety of clean, responsible, good for you products. We expanded into private label coconut water in 2016 as a way to develop stronger ties with select, strategic retail partners and improve our operating scale. This strategic move has enabled us to grow our branded share in the category as well as improve our gross margins across the total portfolio. We leverage private label as a way to manage the overall coconut water category at retail, enabling us to be better stewards of the category and influence the look and feel at retail shelves and more of the overall consumer experience with coconut water. Our private label offering strategically increases the scale and efficiency of our coconut water supply chain, and also proactively provides us with improved revenue management. Through this offering, we are able to better manage our products and capture the value segment without diluting our own brand, while concurrently supporting more family farms in the regions that we operate in. While our private label business has aided our growth historically, we expect our brands to be the primary drivers of top-line growth going forward. After building the scale and infrastructure to support our beloved Vita Coco brand, we realized that we were well positioned to support our platform with other innovations and brands that could leverage our strong capabilities in sales, marketing, and distribution. Not only have we added Vita Coco Coconut Milk as a shelf stable dairy alternative in the club channel, and introduced in summer 2021 the Vita Coco Hydration Drink Mix, a powdered form of flavored coconut water to test in limited online markets, but we have also added other complementary brands. Since 2018, we have expanded our portfolio with three brands that align with our values and allow us to expand our reach and consumer base, and increase the number of occasions where we can play a role in our consumers’ lives: Runa, Ever & Ever, and PWR LIFT. Runa: As part of our ongoing evaluation of the broader beverage industry, we saw an opportunity to leverage our success and learning in building Vita Coco and apply it to a clean, plant-based energy drink, with an aim to disrupt the very large and fast growing energy drinks category with a plant-based and fully natural alternative for consumers. This led us to acquire Runa in 2018 given its distinct plant-based and natural energy positioning, and our proven ability to source products from emerging markets. Runa’s clean energy drinks provide consumers a refreshing energy boost without the jolts and jitters, and with less sugar than traditional energy beverages. Runa’s clean taste and smooth energy lift comes from Guayusa, an Amazonian jungle super-leaf containing theobromine and L-theanine, which has been shown to boost energy levels, alertness, and improve consumers’ moods and concentration. Ever & Ever: Launched in 2019, Ever & Ever is a purified water brand packaged solely in aluminum bottles with a pH balance of 7.4. We saw an opportunity to quickly create a brand that responded to the need for a sustainably packaged water product given the reusable nature of the bottles and its infinite recyclability, and transformed our concept into reality in under three months. Ever & Ever was launched with a focus on the foodservice and office channels, as top Fortune 500 companies and large corporations continue to make a conscious effort to participate in the sustainability movement with a focus on reducing plastic waste. PWR LIFT: In 2021, we released a functional beverage targeted at the post-workout and recovery usage occasions in PWR LIFT. We believe the fitness market had been lacking drinks that not only deliver thirst-quenching refreshment but also nutritional benefits. These protein-infused flavored waters can do just that – they provide another option for our more fitness-minded consumers to have a great tasting and hydrating beverage while also ensuring they consume their protein following increased levels of exertion. PWR LIFT is currently exclusively available through Amazon. --- We were incorporated on January 17, 2007 as All Market Inc., a Delaware corporation, and become a public benefit corporation in Delaware in April 2021. On September 9, 2021, we changed our name to The Vita Coco Company, Inc. Our principal executive offices are located at 250 Park Avenue South, Floor 7, New York, New York 10003, and our telephone number is (212) 206-0763. Our website address is www.thevitacococompany.com.
Vita Coco Company, Inc. annual income statement and balance sheet, FY 2022 to FY 2025, as reported in SEC filings.
| Metric | FY 2022 | FY 2023 | FY 2024 | FY 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $428M | $494M | $516M | $610M |
| Gross profit | $103M | $181M | $199M | $223M |
| Operating income | $3.1M | $56.5M | $73.8M | $82.5M |
| Net income | $7.8M | $46.6M | $56.0M | $71.3M |
| Metric | FY 2022 | FY 2023 | FY 2024 | FY 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total assets | $198M | $286M | $362M | $461M |
| Total liabilities | $56.7M | — | $104M | $130M |
| Total equity | $141M | — | $259M | $332M |
| Cash & equivalents | $19.6M | $133M | $165M | $197M |