Rebel Kitchen Bulks Up With Acquisition of Unoco Coconut Water

LONDON, United Kingdom — Dairy-free ‘mylk’ manufacturer Rebel Kitchen has acquired British coconut water brand Unoco, in a bid to broaden market appeal.

In statement regarding the acquisition, Rebel Kitchen said Unoco complemented its existing portfolio of organic coconut mylk perfectly, as well as sharing its ethos of using fewer ingredients direct from nature, with no additives, preservatives or refined sugars.

Since its launch in 2014, Rebel Kitchen has enjoyed global success, making it on to supermarket shelves after just six months of trading, turning over £525,000 in its first year alone.

Projected to turnover a further £1,100,000, for the 2015/16 financial period, the acquisition of Unoco will increase the brand’s figures to a combined turnover of £1,850,000 and inspire a new demographic of consumers to trial their products.

Speaking publicly about the acquisition, Rebel Kitchen Co-Founder Tamara Arbib explained how the addition of the dynamic coconut water brand which is currently stocked by Ocado, Waitrose, Itsu, EAT and other independent outlets, will help push Rebel Kitchen in a new direction.

“We have strong aspirations to affect consumer change towards better health on a mass scale and the addition of Unoco to our portfolio provides us with more opportunity for greater reach. It is an important time in the company’s evolution and we are very excited about the future,” Arbib said.

Unoco, which launched in 2012, has established a name for itself as the first company in Europe to manufacture an unpasteurised version of young green coconut water, but has struggled to expand and scale the business outside the U.K.

Implementing high-pressure processing instead of pasteurization in order to extend the product’s shelf life has given the company a USP against competitors and a customer conversion strategy that Rebel Kitchen have recognised.

In order to ensure the smooth transition of the new company into the business, Unoco will join the Rebel Kitchen staff in their central London offices as the team work to rebrand the raw coconut water as its own, before relaunching it in late Spring 2016.

Commenting further on the deal, Rebel Kitchen Co-Founder and Financial Director Ben Arbib said:

“We’re expecting to see our 100% year on year growth continue with the acquisition of Unoco and through this acquisition we can accelerate the growth of the business even more rapidly.”

Previously opting to grow the brand steadily in order to prove its reliability as well as its ability to scale up easily, Rebel Kitchen, who have now cemented their place in the market have announced they will be launching a range of exciting new products throughout 2016.