Unsold Fruit
When Parkwood approached World Waters the following year, however, the teams found they shared similar values.
“I really felt excited by the prospect of Beyonce being an investor and part of that curated group of aligned humans that believe in the bigger power of what we’re doing,” Levy said in an interview.
What they’re doing is capitalizing on the hundreds of millions of pounds of watermelons that go unsold in the U.S. -- often because they are unsightly or sunburned -- by turning them into a beverage. Juice that undergoes the high-pressure process, instead of heat pasteurization, is gaining popularity as increasingly health-conscious consumers move away from sodas and other sugary drinks.
Coca-Cola Co., the world’s biggest soft-drink maker, purchased just under 50 percent of juice maker Suja Life LLC for $150 million in August.