Dive Brief:
- Zevia, a better-for-you soda brand, is under activist investor pressure to sell. Kanen Wealth Management claims the company has “failed to capitalize on the largest shift the soda aisle has seen in a generation.”
- Kanen, which owns about 4% of Zevia’s outstanding shares, is asking the soda brand to review strategic alternatives including a “good-faith process” to find credible buyers.
- Zevia said its board regularly reviews strategic priorities, and plans to “continue to constructively engage with its shareholders” and review issues raised by Kanen.
Dive Insight:
Founded in 2007, Zevia is a lower-sugar alternative to traditional soda and was one of the initial pioneers in a category now dominated by prebiotic players Olipop and Poppi. Despite being a “first-mover,” Kanen says Zevia isn’t keeping up with competitors and missing out on “the category it helped create.”
The modern soda sector grew by 83% between 2023 and 2024, according to Circana data cited by Kanen. Zevia’s sales, however, declined 6.8% during fiscal 2024, roughly the same time period, according to Kanen. From 2022 to 2025, Kanen said Zeviva spent $225 million on selling and marketing, warehousing, freight and distribution, but net sales still decreased and volume per store fell significantly.
“The modern soda category delivered extraordinary growth and Zevia did not participate in it,” Kanen said. “After four years and hundreds of millions of dollars spent, the result is a smaller business.”
Kanen suggests a new buyer could absorb Zevia’s warehousing and freight costs, as well as save the company money by eliminating its status as a public company. The California-based company went public in 2021 at $14 per share — today it trades for $1.32 per share.
PepsiCo acquired Poppi last year for $1.95 billion, and Olipop is valued around $1.85 billion. Kanen pointed to these deals as reasons Zevia could be attractive to a buyer and proposed a purchase price of $2.75 to $3.75 per share.
Zevia reported net sales of $45 million in the second quarter, up 1.1% over last year. The company attributed the slight increase to pricing changes, though the results were offset by declines in volume.
Earlier this year, Zevia named Red Bull executive Alexandre Ruberti, who joined the company’s board of directors in 2024, as CEO. Kanen took issue with the lack of external selection process for a top executive, saying it made a consequential decision without a proper process.
