Arnie Greenberg, Leonard Marsh, and Hyman Golden had been friends since high school. In 1972, they went into business selling all-natural apple juice to health food stores in Greenwich Village under the brand name Snapple. By the late 1980s, their brand had achieved near-cult status on both coasts of the United States, with its iced teas particularly in demand. It had taken 15 years, they said, to become an overnight success.
In 1994 Quaker bought Snapple for $1.7 billion. The vision had been to combine Snapple with Gatorade, an earlier and very successful acquisition, to form a powerful beverage business unit. Snapple, however, did not thrive: sales fell in each of the next four years, and in 1997 Quaker despaired and sold the brand to Triarc Beverages for $300 million. In the fallout that followed, both Quaker’s chairman of 16 years and its president resigned.
Mike Weinstein, CEO of Triarc Beverage Group, reflected on the acquisition. “At $300 million, Snapple is not a steal by any means. It’s in decline, and when that happens to a brand it’s seldom that it comes back. We’re in a fashion business here, and when your imagery isn’t fashionable, often that’s the end. But we’ve talked to a lot of consumers and we did a lot of qualitative research, and we’ve decided that in this case the brand still has inherent strength. People feel good about it. It will respond to the right marketing stuff.”
1972–1986: The Origins of the Brand
Arnie Greenberg’s family ran a sardine and pickle store in Ridge wood in Queens, New York. His friends Leonard Marsh and Hyman Golden helped him in the store, and in turn he helped them to manage their window-washing business. In the climate of the 1960s, Arnie encouraged the family to stock health foods. The three saw the popularity of natural no-preservative fruit juices in the store, and teamed up with a California-based juice