Poppi kept its voice

A year after agreeing to sell Poppi to PepsiCo, founder Allison Ellsworth said Pepsi is letting the soda brand keep its own style instead of folding it into a generic corporate playbook. (finance.yahoo.com) PepsiCo announced the deal on March 17, 2025, at $1.95 billion, including $300 million in anticipated cash tax benefits, and closed it on May 19, 2025. PepsiCo said the net purchase price was $1.65 billion, with an additional earnout tied to performance targets. (pepsico.com 1) (pepsico.com 2) Ellsworth told Fortune that since the sale, Pepsi has been “really big on ‘let Poppi be Poppi,’” while trying to learn from the brand’s fast, loose marketing style. She said Poppi still leans on tactics like mailing free cans to people who ask, including roughly 500 wedding requests a month. (finance.yahoo.com) That approach sits at the center of why Poppi was attractive to Pepsi in the first place. In its acquisition announcement, PepsiCo said Poppi brought “strong consumer engagement,” “cultural cache,” and a “differentiated functional positioning” to a beverage portfolio it has been reshaping around health-and-wellness products. (pepsico.com 1) (pepsico.com 2) Poppi sells a low-calorie soda made with prebiotics, fruit juice, and apple cider vinegar, with no more than 5 grams of sugar per serving, according to PepsiCo. Pepsi bought it as traditional soda consumption in the United States had been falling for years while prebiotic sodas from Poppi and Olipop gained health-conscious shoppers. (pepsico.com) (cnbc.com) The brand started with Allison and Stephen Ellsworth, who launched the business in 2018 after developing the drink in their kitchen. CNBC said the beverage was rebranded as Poppi in 2020 and, by 2023, annual sales had reportedly crossed $100 million. (cnbc.com 1) (cnbc.com 2) Poppi grew with bright packaging, heavy social media use, influencer campaigns, and national advertising, including back-to-back Super Bowl appearances, CNBC reported. Ellsworth told Fortune that even its television ads were designed to look different, including putting Poppi’s pink-and-purple cans into National Football League game broadcasts to break from standard beer-and-snacks imagery. (cnbc.com) (finance.yahoo.com) The company’s rise also brought scrutiny. CNBC reported in March 2025 that Poppi and a plaintiff had moved to settle a class action lawsuit over health claims for $8.9 million, even as Pepsi pressed ahead with the acquisition. (cnbc.com) Ellsworth is still advising on Poppi’s vision and long-term strategy inside PepsiCo, according to CNBC’s 2026 Changemakers profile. For now, the test is whether a brand built on sounding informal and acting fast can keep that voice after a $1.95 billion sale. (cnbc.com)