Monster Beverage
| File:Hansen's-Logo-2.png | |
| Company type | Public (Nasdaq: HANS) |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1935 in Southern California |
| Headquarters | Corona, California |
| Products | Soft drinks, natural juices, energy drinks |
Number of employees | 2,157 average in 2009 |
| Subsidiaries | Blue Sky Beverage Company |
| Website | hansens.com |
Hansen Natural Corporation (Nasdaq: HANS) manufactures natural soft drinks, energy drinks, and fruit drinks including Monster Energy, Hansen's Natural Soda, Hansen's Energy, Hansen's Junior Juice, and Blue Sky.
Hansen’s Natural Sodas® have been a leading natural soda brand in Southern California for the past 30 years. [1] According to Hansen's official website, "In the 1930’s, Hubert Hansen and his three sons began selling fresh, non-pasteurized juices to film studios and retailers in Southern California under the Hansen’s® name. In the 1970’s, Tim Hansen, the grandson of Hubert, developed and marketed a variety of Natural sodas and pasteurized shelf stable, 100% juices also under the Hansen’s® label." [1]
According to Answers.com, "Hollywood film studios provided [Hubert Hansen's] first clients. That company became Hansen's Juices, later known as The Fresh Juice Company of California, Inc. The plant it opened in Los Angeles in 1946 was used until operations were moved to a new plant in Azusa, California, in 1993." The company filed for bankruptcy in 1988 and was acquired by the California CoPackers Corporation. This company did business under the name "Hansen Beverage Company." In 1998, the company moved from Anaheim, California to Corona, California. In the new millennium, a combination of acquisitions and new product launches landed the company near the top of the Forbes list of the 200 Best Small Companies in the United States. [1]
Products
The company offers the following sodas under the Hansen’s® brand name: Hansen’s Natural Sodas®, Hansen’s® Calorie Free Sodas, and Hansen’s® Natural Soda Mixers. Hansen's sodas are packaged in 12-ounce and/or 16-ounce aluminum cans.
Natural Soda
Hansen Natural Corporation manufactures its Natural Soda in eleven different flavors - Ginger Ale, Key Lime Twist, Cherry Vanilla Creme, Grapefruit, Kiwi Strawberry, Vanilla Cola, Mandarin Lime, Creamy Root Beer, Raspberry, Mango Orange, and Pomegranate [1]. All of Hansen's natural cane soda products are made with real cane sugar. The natural sodas have no high-fructose corn syrup, no artificial flavors, no preservatives, and no sodium. All natural sodas are OU Kosher certified.
Diet Soda
Their Diet Soda is available in nine flavors - Cola, Black Cherry, Peach, Kiwi Strawberry, Tangerine Lime, Ginger Ale, Root Beer, Grapefruit, and Pomegranate. Hansen's diet soda is sweetened with acesulfame potassium and sucralose. The natural diet sodas have no aspartame, no artificial flavors, no preservatives, and no sodium. All natural diet sodas are OU Kosher certified.[1]
Drink Mixers
Hansen Natural Corporation also manufactures three flavors of 8oz soda mixers - Tonic, Ginger Ale, and Club Soda.
Fruit Juices
In addition the company has a line of 9 different fruit juices, several of the juice blends are available in small bottles for kids. Hansen's fruit juice product line includes Hansen's® Natural Apple Juice, which is packaged in 64-ounce PET plastic bottles and 128-ounce High Density Polyethylene bottles and Hansen's® Natural Grape Juice, White Grape Juice, Pineapple Juice, Apple Grape Juice, Apple Strawberry Juice, Orange Juice, Cranberry-Apple Juice, Ruby Red Grapefruit Juice, Pomegranate Juice Cocktail, Organic Apple White Grape Juice, Organic Apple Wild Berry Juice, and Organic Apple Juice in 64-ounce PET plastic bottles. These Hansen's® juice products contain 100% juice as well as 120% of the United States Recommended Daily Allowances (the “USRDA”) for Vitamin C (except Pomegranate which contains 27% juice and 100% of the USRDA for Vitamin C).
In 2009, Hansen's® introduced Hansen's® Natural Lo-Cal juice cocktails, a new line of all natural, low calorie 64oz juice cocktails in four flavors. The Lo-Cal Juice Cocktails are sweetened with Truvia™ brand stevia extract, an all natural sweetener.
Hansen’s® fruit juice smoothies contain approximately 25% juice and provide 100% of the recommended daily intake for adults of Vitamins A, C & E and represented Hansen's entry into what is commonly referred to as the “functional” beverage category. Hansen’s® fruit juice smoothies are packaged in 11.5-ounce aluminum cans.
Juices for Children
Hansen's Juice Blast® line of children's multi-vitamin juice drinks is a dual-branded 100% juice line which was launched in conjunction with Costco Wholesale Corporation (“Costco”) and is sold through Costco stores. Hansen's Juice Slam™ line of children's multi-vitamin juice drinks is a 100% juice line which we market to grocery store chain customers, the health food trade, and other customers. Both Juice Blast® and Juice Slam™ lines of children's multi-vitamin juice drinks contain eleven essential vitamins and six essential minerals. Both the Juice Blast® and Juice Slam™ lines are marketed in 6.75-ounce aseptic boxes.
In May 2001, Hansen's acquired the Junior Juice® beverage business. Hansen’s® Junior Juice® product line is a 100% juice line offered in 4.23-ounce aseptic packages and is targeted at toddlers and preschoolers. Certain flavors of the Junior Juice® line have calcium added and all flavors contain 100% of the daily recommended allowance of Vitamin C. In 2006, Hansen’s extended the Junior Juice® line by adding organic juice products in 4.23-ounce aseptic boxes. Each of Hansen’s® organic Junior Juice® products have 100% juice and contain 100% of the daily recommended allowance of Vitamin C.
In July 2008, Hansen's introduced a Hansen’s® Organic Junior Water™ line in 4.23-ounce aseptic packages created specially for children ages two to six years old. The Hansen’s® Organic Junior Water™ line of flavored water contains 100% of the daily recommended allowance of Vitamin C per serving, contains no preservatives, no artificial colors, no artificial flavors, no artificial sweeteners, no high fructose corn syrup and contains only thirty calories per serving.
Other Beverage Products
Smoothies, Rumba Energy Juice, Energade, and Energy Formula, are other minor product lines. They also own Blue Sky Beverage Company, that manufactures several soft drinks. Hansen also produces the Monster, Lost, and Rumba energy drinks, which are distributed in the United States by Anheuser Busch.[2] On November 10, 2008, distribution of the Monster Energy and Monster Java products was turned over to Coca-Cola Enterprises.
Hansen’s® energy drinks contain vitamins, minerals, nutrients, herbs and supplements (collectively “supplements”). The Hansen’s® energy drink product line includes Hansen’s® Energy Pro and Hansen’s® Energy Diet Red. The energy drinks are packaged in 8.3-ounce aluminum cans.
In August 2009, Hansen’s® introduced our SELF Beauty Elixir line, a low-calorie, functional, ready-to-drink beauty beverage infused with an essential blend of vitamins, minerals, natural fruit & botanical extracts with antioxidants that promote and support healthy skin & overall wellness. SELF Beauty Elixir by Hansen’s® contains 30% fruit juice, all natural flavors, and many antioxidant rich vitamins such as 500% Vitamin E, 150% Vitamin C, and 100% Vitamin A per serving. In addition to having only 35 calories per can, the product is very low in sodium, gluten-free, and preservative-free with no artificial colors. SELF Beauty Elixir by Hansen’s® is packaged in 8-ounce slim aluminum cans.
Retired Products
Signature Soda
Hansen’s® Signature Soda line included Black Cherry, Vanilla Cream, Orange Cream, Ginger Beer, and Sarsparilla flavors. The signature sodas had no high-fructose corn syrup, no artificial flavors, no preservatives, and no sodium.[1]
Natural and Diet Tea Sodas
Retired 12oz Hansen’s Natural and Diet Soda flavors include Black Cherry, Tangerine, Tropical, Orange Mango, Peach Mango, Peach, Cherry, Cranberry, Clear Root Beer, Vanilla Coffee, Low Cal Wildberry, Low Cal Cola, and Low Cal Creamy Cola.
In 2006, Hansen’s® introduced a new line of iced teas in sleek 16-ounce wide mouth PET plastic bottles. The company offered varieties sweetened with cane sugar as well as sugar free and unsweetened varieties. Hansen's had four flavors of natural green tea soda (Lemon Mint, Pomegranate, Ginger, and Tangerine). There were also three flavors of diet green tea soda - Lemon Mint, Ginger, and Tangerine. Each bottle of tea contained 75 mg of Epigallocatechin Gallate (EGCG), a natural and powerful antioxidant. Additionally, Hansen Natural Corporation made tea bags.
Marketing
In January 2010, Hansen's launched a word-of-mouth marketing program in Seattle, LA, and San Francisco to promote their natural soda lines. Each brand representative drives a classic, bright VW "Thing" around his or her respective city and starts conversations with people who enjoy Hansen's Natural Soda. The representatives also place coolers in local establishments like salons and spas and supports local farmer's market events.
In March 2010, Hansen's updated the packaging on the natural and diet soda lines. The company also introduced fridge packs with the updating packaging.
Notable events
Hansen's Natural Soda won the American Tasting Institute's Gold Medal Taste Award for 1999-2000.[3]
In April, 2008, the FDA announced that products containing high fructose corn syrup could not be labeled as "natural".[4] Shortly after, Hansen's Natural Corporation announced they had already removed high fructose corn syrup from their recipes, due to consumer demand.[5]
In September 2009, Hansen brand Monster Energy sent a 'cease and desist' letter to Rock Art Brewery about its Vermonster series of microbrew beers. This has resulted in a boycott of all Hansen products by several Vermont retailers. [6] Incidentally, Brooklyn Brewery had been using the name Monster since the late 90's, prior to the creation of Monster Energy drinks. [7]
References
- ^ a b c d e f Hansen's Official Web Site Cite error: The named reference "hansens" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- ^ Hansen's Official Web Site: News & Events
- ^ [1]
- ^ Mueller, Sue. FDA: High fructose corn syrup not natural, April 22, 2008
- ^ Natural Soda
- ^ [2]
- ^ [3]