The 15 Largest Soda Companies In The World

The fizzy, sugar-infused taste of soda is a product that builds multi-billion-dollar brands. Although soft-drinks can have adverse effects on the drinker’s health, Americans still consume nearly 40 gallons annually, on average. This provides a huge profit margin for the largest soda companies, both domestically and internationally.

While many people are familiar with their favorite pop brands, they rarely know the companies that are putting out those sodas.

The 15 largest soda companies internationally are:

A Closer Look at the Brands and How They Were Ranked

1. PepsiCo. Headquarters: Harrison, NY

   2021 Annual Company Revenue: $79.47 Billion
   Brands Owned: Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Lay’s, Gatorade, Tropicana, Doritos, Brisk, Tostitos, Aquafina, etc.

   The food and drink producer PepsiCo is the largest soda company in terms of the brands it contains and yearly revenue it brings in. Many consumers associate the company by namesake with its earliest soda brand, Pepsi. In addition to their original soda, PepsiCo also owns 22 other food and drink brands.

   The varying brands that PepsiCo represents extend globally, and each brings in over a billion dollars in revenue every year.

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2. Unilever. Headquarters: London, United Kingdom

   2021 Annual Company Revenue: $52.92 Billion
   Brands Owned: Lipton, Pure Leaf, Hellman’s, Breyer’s, Klondike, Popsicle, etc.

   Unilever Groups is a United Kingdom-based company that overall sees more annual revenue than Coca-Cola. Despite their incredible yearly revenue, they land in third place for the largest soda producers because most of their beverages are juices.

   One of the most popular brands that the company has owned since 1938 is Lipton tea, a product that they own in partnership with PepsiCo. Their ready-to-drink teas are similar to the soda products on the market in terms of their sugar content, revenue production, and company ownership.

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3. The Coca-Cola Company. Headquarters: Atlanta, GA

   2019 Annual Company Revenue: $37.27 Billion
   Brands Owned: Coca-Cola, Sprite, Fanta, Schweppes, Barqs, SmartWater, Powerade, Vitamin Water, Minute Maid, Simply, Honest Tea, etc.

   Although they’re each other’s biggest competitors, The Coca-Cola Company shares many similarities to PepsiCo. It is also associated with the brand name of its first soda created over a hundred years ago, Coca-Cola, but went on to own numerous drink brands.

   Today, the soft drink beverages produced by The Coca-Cola Company provide stiff competition for PepsiCo. Coca-Cola remains the most popular soda brand in the United States and many other countries. However, its parent company lands second on the list because it only owns drink brands, and its annual revenue is lower than its competitor.

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4. Asahi Group Holdings. Headquarters: Tokyo, Japan

   2021 Annual Company Revenue: $19.73 Billion
   Brands Owned: Wilkinson Carbonated Drink, Mitsuya Cider, Calpis, Asahi Dry-Zero, Ko Otsu Mixed Shochu, etc.

   Asahi Group produces the most alcoholic and non-alcoholic soft drinks in Japan. Originally called Osaka Beer Brewing, the company had an initial goal back in 1892 to create the world’s first authentic Japanese beer. They found great success throughout the first half of the twentieth century, and by 1958 they released the first canned beer in Japan.

   While Asahi began as a beer brewing organization and continues to be one of the largest alcohol producers in Japan, they’re also considered a soda company.

   Like PepsiCo, Asahi Group has extended its reach to acquire food and soft drink brands under its title. They even own the largest line of baby food in Japan and Schweppes, Australia.

5. Dr. Pepper Snapple Group. Headquarters: Plano, TX

   2019 Annual Company Revenue: $11.12 Billion
   Brands Owned: Dr. Pepper, 7Up, AW, Canada Dry, Sunkist, Squirt, Stewart’s Fountain Soda, Bai, Snapple, Swiss Miss, Yoohoo, etc.

   While Keurig Dr. Pepper is a fairly new company, it was formed from the merger of two prosperous organizations: Keurig Green Mountain and Dr. Pepper Snapple Group. While most consumers know these brand names individually, they’re usually unaware that they’re all part of the same company.

   Dr. Pepper Snapple Group was a company formed in 2008 from the popular soda and juice brands, which had previously both been entities of Cadbury Schweppes. Alternatively, Keurig Green Mountain was established in 2014 from Green Mountain Coffee Roasters. In 2018, Keurig Green Mountain bought Dr. Pepper Snapple Group for a sum of $18.7 billion, and the two merged to become Keurig Dr. Pepper.

   The reason for the acquisition and merging was to open up access to brands of both hot and cold soft-drinks under one company.

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6. Kofola. Headquarters: Ostrava, Czech

   2021 Annual Company Revenue: $6.99 Billion
   Brands Owned: Kofola, Vinea, Radenska, Studenac, Rajec, Jupik, Semtex, etc.

   The Kofola Group was set into motion in the 1950s by the Czech government to create a soda that could compete with the soft-drinks being made in Western societies, such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi. It was originally a task assigned to the country’s United Pharmaceutical workers.

   After years of tedious tinkering with herbs and syrups, Kofola released its drink to the Czech citizens. It became so popular in the 1960s that the country eventually ran out of the ingredients to make the soft drink and had to outsource them from other places.

   Leading up the twentieth century, Kofola had experienced troubles and almost shut down more than once. The company managed to revive itself each time. Fifty years after its creation, they’re more successful than they’ve ever been by expanding their brands into other flavors and food groups.

7. Monster Beverage. Headquarters: Corona, CA

   2021 Annual Company Revenue: $5.541 Billion
   Brands Owned: Monster Energy Drinks, Monster Energy Ultra, Monster Maxx, Java Monster, Cafe Monster, etc.

   Monster Beverage Company is just about the only competitor to the energy drink Red Bull.

   Ironically enough, the devilish cans of green energy drink known as Monster today was a natural soda brand called Hansen’s Natural Corporation for more than 70 years. The organization found very little success in this beverage niche and even encountered some issues with the law when the United States Food and Drug Administration ruled that drinks containing high-fructose corn syrup couldn’t be labeled “natural.”

   The company initially released a beverage brand called Monster as their version of an energy drink in 2002. After seeing its success over the next ten years, they were renamed Monster Beverage Corporation in 2012. Today, the company still stands on its own, but The Coca-Cola Company controls its non-energy drinks with a 16.7% stake.

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8. Arizona Beverage Company. Headquarters: Woodbury, NY

   2021 Annual Company Revenue: $3 Billion
   Brands Owned: Arizona Iced Teas, Arizona Arnold Palmer, Arizona Ade’s, Arizona Golden Bear Lemonade, AZ Energy, etc.

   Arizona Beverage Company began producing their first line of ready-to-go iced tea in a variety of flavors in 1992, twenty years after Snapple had already been dominating this area of the soft-drink market.

   They actually began producing their iced teas and juices to directly compete with Snapple after twenty years of beer distribution.

   Arizona tea’s success over the past 25 years is primarily due to its stellar marketing. They had a clear vision to produce affordable drinks for working people, and it’s a brand image they’ve maintained throughout the years.

   Arizona is still a well-known product due to its large colorful cans and .99 cents price tag.

9. Cott / Primo Water Corporation. Headquarters: Tampa, FL

   2021 Annual Company Revenue: $2.1 Billion
   Brands Owned: Sam’s Cola, Dr. Thunder, Primo Water North America, Crystal Springs, etc.

   Most people who have been to a large retailer have seen private label carbonated sodas before. This means that their sodas were produced for specific retailers, such as Wal-Mart. In their time, Cott Corporation was the largest producer of these off-brand soft drinks in the world.

   In 2017, the Cott Corporation went under a drastic transformation. They sold their traditional retail soda business to a company called Refresco and rebranded themselves as Primo Water. Cott stated that the change was initiated to move into the water, coffee, and filtration niche.

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10. Britvic. Headquarters: Herefordshire, United Kingdom

    2021 Annual Company Revenue: $1.9 Billion
    Brands Owned: Robinson’s, Tango, J20, Fruit Shoot, Dafruta, and PepsiCo Brands

    Britvic has one of the lengthiest histories as a soft drink producer. Experimentations into their soft drink recipes began before the twentieth century, but it wasn’t until fifty years later that it was developed into a business by James MacPherson Co. Their drinks were put out to the public as a soft drink that could be used as a source of vitamins.

    Throughout the late 1900s, there was a focus on vitamins and nutrients until the company changed its name to Britvic in 1971. Their product base migrated towards mixers, such as soda drinks like Tango and fruit beverages like Robinson’s. In 1987, Britvic received a 20-year bottling contract with Pepsi, which significantly boosted the company revenue.

    Britvic continues to thrive today, with their most recent endeavors being the purchase of Brazilian soft drink companies Ebba and Bela Ischia around 2017.

11. National Beverage. Headquarters: Fort Lauderdale, FL

    2021 Annual Company Revenue: $1.07 Billion
    Brands Owned: LaCroix, Faygo, Shasta, Ritz, Big Shot, Mr. Pure, Home Juice, ClearFruit, Crystal Bay, etc.

    The National Beverage Corporation was created in 1985 with their main products being Shasta and Faygo, two soda brands that they purchased to establish their business base. Their sodas didn’t go public until the early ‘90s, at which time a few more brands like Big Shot were acquired, giving the corporation a well-rounded series of products.

    Today, their most well-known brand is LaCroix, sparkling water that comes in various flavors that they acquired in 1992 under the name Winterbrook. At the time, the beverage brand was valued at $25 million, and it now makes up 97.5% of its billion dollars a year business.

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12. Bisleri. Headquarters: Mumbai, India

    2021 Annual Company Revenue: $219.33 Million
    Brands Owned: Bisleri, Vedica, Fonzo, Spyci, Limonata

    Bisleri is one of the largest producers of bottled water in India. The company was bought by a man named Ramesh Chauhan from Felice Bisleri after being unable to profit. Chauhan seized an opportunity in the need for clean and bottled drinking water by deciding to release sparkling and non-sparkling mineral water with the motto “the safest water to drink.”

    Throughout the late 1900s, the company continued to expand its notoriety through variants of their bottled water. It wasn’t until recently that the corporation expanded its products into club soda and limited fizzy soft drinks.

    While the company is still most well-known for their water, their newer soft drinks contribute to their modern revenue.

13. Red Bull North America. Headquarters: Fuschl, Austria

    2021 Annual Company Revenue: $66 Million
    Brands Owned: Red Bull Energy Drink, Red Bull Sugarfree, Red Bull Zero, Red Bull Yellow Edition, Red Bull Blue Edition, etc.

    Red Bull is a carbonated energy drink marketed to keep you awake through even your most tiring days. Although the drink is very popular in the United States, the Red Bull GbmH company was founded in Austria by a man named Dietrich Mateschitz.

    He discovered the drink while traveling through Thailand in 1982, which was created by Chaleo Yoovidhya. Red Bull, called Krating Daeng in Thai, was commonly used by individuals who worked long hours in blue-collar jobs. After the drink was released in Austria in 1987, the products began flying off the shelves to the tune of a million cans a year.

    It was taken internationally after being marketed to represent extreme sports through the 1990s. Today, the Red Bull GbmH company is still well-known for its effectiveness and unique marketing.

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14. Reed Barton. Headquarters: Norwalk, Connecticut

    2021 Annual Company Revenue: $33.8 Million
    Brands Owned: Reed’s Ginger Brews, Virgil’s Root Beer, Reed’s Cream Soda, Dr. Better, Real Cola, China Cola, Sonoma Sparkler’s, Etc.

    The products of Reed’s, Inc. are mostly ginger brews that are advertised as being the healthier microorganism-based beverage option to other sodas. Founded in Los Angeles by Christopher Reed, the company was born out of his knowledge of herbalism, roots, and spices. In the early 2000s, the business obtained a few more brands, such as Virgil’s Root Beer and China Cola from Crowley Beverage Company.

    Today, Reed’s, Inc. continues to flourish, being sold in 30,000 retail stores across the United States.

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15. Jones Soda Company. Headquarters: Seattle, WA

    2021 Annual Company Revenue: $14.5 Million
    Brands Owned: Jones Pure Cane Soda, Jones Sugar-Free, Jones Cane Sugar fountain Products, Spiked Jones (Alcoholic), Lemoncocco

    Jones Soda Company was born 25 years ago, and its emergence was a unique one. Unlike some of the other soda companies on this list, Jones began with the idea for its bottle before the beverage that would go inside.

    Peter von Stolk and Victor John Penner came up with the idea for Jones as a place for interesting photographs on the bottles. At first, Penner was supposed to be the photographer behind the lens, but then consumers began sending their own photos in, and the company decided it would be the best packaging route.

    They continue to fill those bottles with the customer pictures on the label with all the classic soda flavors people love, like cola and cream soda, except with pure cane sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup.

Author

Sky Ariella

Sky Ariella is a professional freelance writer, originally from New York. She has been featured on websites and online magazines covering topics in career, travel, and lifestyle. She received her BA in psychology from Hunter College.