US prebiotic soda brand Poppi looks set to be launched in the UK early next year.
Carlsberg Britvic, the UK arm of the brewing giant and PepsiCo’s partner in the country, has signed an exclusive deal with an undisclosed retailer and received interest from potential on-trade customers.
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Speaking at The Beverage Forum 2025 conference in London yesterday (7 October), Nick Hunter, head of new business at Carlsberg Britvic, said Poppi would be launched in the UK “probably in the next four months”.
“We’ve got an exclusive deal in the off-trade that’s going to be announced fairly soon,” Hunter said, though he declined to name the retailer.
“We’ve had four or five major on-trade businesses approach us already. It’s a very nice situation to be in where we’re not having to go out and push it,” he said. “We’re having brands – and a lot of American brands because they know it already – come to us and say we want to launch [Poppi] in the UK.”
PepsiCo struck a deal to buy Poppi in March for $1.95bn.
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By GlobalDataPoppi, formerly known as Mother Beverage, was set up in 2015 and, after receiving funding on US business reality TV show Shark Tank three years later, relaunched under its current brand in 2020.
Since then, the business, co-founded by Allison Ellsworth and her husband Stephen, has built what has become one of the more recognisable names in the growing market for ‘better-for-you’ sodas in the US.
Poppi’s low-calorie, low-sugar sodas come in 15 flavours and are sold in retailers across the US including Kroger, Walmart, Costco, Target and Whole Foods Market. In 2024, the company generated annual sales of more than $500m.
When PepsiCo finalised the acquisition of Poppi in May, Ram Krishnan, the CEO of PepsiCo’s US drinks business, said the drinks giant was “excited to scale Poppi’s momentum and unlock new growth through our capabilities”.
Homegrown ‘gut-friendly’ soda brands including Hip Pop and Living Things have secured retail listings in the UK as consumer interest in the products has grown.
Hunter was speaking on a panel at The Beverage Forum centred on M&A in the drinks sector. Asked where the “white space” might be in Carlsberg Britvic’s portfolio in the UK, he suggested Mexican-style beer and “functional” soft drinks.
“Mexican-inspired food in the UK is really big,” Hunter said. “That’s on a great growth trajectory at the moment and there’s more and more outlets popping up with that kind of food. In my mind, we don’t have a perfect fit for that. Something that’s like a Corona or a Sol, I feel that’s a missing aspect at the moment. We need you try and find a way of doing that. I think that’s probably going to be through an acquisition, rather than a brand that we can create ourselves.”
He added: “On the soft drinks side of it, I mean, there’s quite a few brands here today I’d love to have in the portfolio, the likes of Trip, Neutonic. It’s functional but it’s not just, you know, taurine, caffeine. There’s got to be something else in there. I think the consumer is a bit sick of that.”
