Small Company Sell Out

Today while opening up my home page to The Guardian, I noticed a link about my favorite little juice company in Ireland and the UK. Innocent Juice was bought up by Coca-cola! Read more here.

This is something that has become much of the "norm" in the natural food industry and now word on the street is many new companies are starting up with the intention of being bought up. The reason this is happening? People don't buy organic Oreos, they buy Country Choice Sandwich Cremes. Major brand like Kraft Foods and Coca-Cola have seen how profitable the organic and natural food industry is, but many of their own organic version of their famous products have failed after spending millions on creating and marketing them. It is easier to spend those millions on buying up little independent companies, who already have a name for themselves. The thing that I hate most is how hush hush they are about it. They keep the same business location and many of the same staff, but it is managed differently, but push there new products through the bigger distribution channels to get them into more stores across the globe. This why you'll find Dagoba bars in a Texas airport on the same rack with Hersey's, because they are now owned by them. The other thing that bothers me is it is really hard to find information on their website or in the media about it the sell out, but there is a really good piece of work done by Phil Howard of MSU, which you can read here. He maps out who owns what in the "natural" foods world, like Burt's Bees is owned by Clorox, Tom's of Maine sold to Crest or Colgate (I'll have to look into that more), and now Innocent has sold out to Coca-Cola. Cliff bar was at the selling table, but one of the owners decided he didn't want to sell out and had to pay off his co-owner for their share of the company. I am proud of him for sticking with it and I think people should buy Cliff Bars, as a way to raise a glass and cheer him on.

What does one do? I do not like supporting large corporations, instead I try and choose little independent companies and coops you feel good about spending money on. I usually stop spending money on sellout companies after I hear about the switch over, but what toothpaste or lip balm am I suppose to use now? Knowing where to spend your money is a tough decision to make, but in time like these, please try and support the little guy!