J. Darius Bikoff | |
---|---|
Born | John Darius Bikoff September 21, 1961 |
Alma mater | Colgate University |
Occupation(s) | Founder and CEO, Energy Brands |
Spouse | Jill Bikoff |
Children | 2 |
Parent(s) | William Bikoff Suzie Bikoff |
John Darius Bikoff (born September 21, 1961) [1] is an American entrepreneur, founder and CEO of Energy Brands.
He was born to an American father from Brooklyn and an Iranian Jewish mother. [2] His father, William, was the owner of a real estate management company and was also a metals importer. [3]
In 2007, Bikoff sold Energy Brands to The Coca-Cola Company for $4.1 billion. [4] This deal earned Bikoff personally $325 million. [5] The brand is known mostly for the product VitaminWater. [6]
J. Darius and Jill Bikoff were married in 2003 and have two children. [7] He owns a four-bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment condo in New York City. [8]
Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink with a cola flavor manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. In 2013, Coke products were sold in over 200 countries worldwide, with consumers drinking more than 1.8 billion company beverage servings each day. Coca-Cola ranked No. 94 in the 2024 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue. Based on Interbrand's "best global brand" study of 2023, Coca-Cola was the world's sixth most valuable brand.
Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink with a cola flavor, manufactured by PepsiCo. As of 2023, Pepsi is the second most valuable soft drink brand worldwide behind Coca-Cola; the two share a long-standing rivalry in what has been called the "cola wars".
The Coca-Cola Company's formula for Coca-Cola syrup, which bottlers combine with carbonated water to create the company's flagship cola soft drink, is a closely guarded trade secret. Company founder Asa Candler initiated the veil of secrecy that surrounds the formula in 1891 as a publicity, marketing, and intellectual property protection strategy. While several recipes, each purporting to be the authentic formula, have been published, the company maintains that the actual formula remains a secret, known only to a very few select employees.
Fanta is an American-owned brand of fruit-flavored carbonated soft drink created by Coca-Cola Deutschland under the leadership of German businessman Max Keith. There are more than 200 flavors worldwide. Fanta originated in Germany as a Coca-Cola alternative in 1941 due to the American trade embargo of Nazi Germany, which affected the availability of Coca-Cola ingredients. Fanta soon dominated the German market with three million cases sold in 1943. The current formulation of Fanta, with orange flavor, was developed in Italy in 1955.
Tab was a diet cola soft drink produced and distributed by The Coca-Cola Company, introduced in 1963 and discontinued in 2020. The company's first diet drink, Tab was popular among some people throughout the 1960s and 1970s as an alternative to Coca-Cola. Several variations were made, including a number of fruit-flavored, root beer, and ginger ale versions. Caffeine-free and clear variations were released in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Charles William Duncan Jr. was an American businessman, administrator, and politician best known for serving as U.S. Secretary of Energy in the Cabinet of President Jimmy Carter from 1979 to 1981. He had previously served as Carter's United States Deputy Secretary of Defense during the Iranian Revolution. Earlier, Duncan had run the family business, Duncan Coffee Company of Houston, Texas, for seven years, until the Coca-Cola Company acquired it in 1964. After seven years on the Coke board, Duncan became the corporation's president.
A.G. Barr plc, commonly known as Barr's, is a British soft drink and energy drink manufacturer based in Cumbernauld, North Lanarkshire, Scotland widely known for manufacturing the drink Irn-Bru. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational corporation founded in 1892. It manufactures, sells and markets soft drinks including Coca-Cola, other non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups, and alcoholic beverages. Its stock is listed on the NYSE and is part of the DJIA and the S&P 500 and S&P 100 indexes.
Odwalla Inc. is an American health food company based in Dinuba, California. Founded in Santa Cruz, California in 1980 and formerly headquartered in Half Moon Bay, California from 1995 to 2020, the company's product lines include fruit juices, smoothies, soy milk, bottled water, organic beverages, and several types of energy bars known as "food bars".
PepsiCo, Inc. is an American multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation headquartered in Harrison, New York, in the hamlet of Purchase. PepsiCo's business encompasses all aspects of the food and beverage market. It oversees the manufacturing, distribution, and marketing of its products. PepsiCo was formed in 1965 with the merger of the Pepsi-Cola Company and Frito-Lay, Inc., PepsiCo has since expanded from its namesake product Pepsi Cola to an immensely diversified range of food and beverage brands. The largest and most recent acquisition was Pioneer Foods in 2020 for US$1.7 billion and prior to it was buying the Quaker Oats Company in 2001, which added the Gatorade brand to the Pepsi portfolio and Tropicana Products in 1998.
Coca-Cola Zero Sugar is a diet cola produced by the Coca-Cola Company.
Relentless is the brand name of an energy drink created in February 2006 by the Coca-Cola Company. After a deal on 14 August 2014 seeing Coca-Cola purchase a 16.7% stake in Monster Energy, the ownership of the Relentless brand was transferred to Monster Energy and Monster Energy's non-energy brands transferred to Coca-Cola.
Energy Brands, also doing business as Glacéau, is a privately owned subsidiary of The Coca-Cola Company based in Whitestone, Queens, New York, that manufactures and distributes various lines of drinks marketed as enhanced water. Founded in May 1996 by J. Darius Bikoff with an electrolyte enhanced line of water called Smartwater, Energy Brands initially distributed its products to health food stores and independent retailers in the New York area. Adding Fruitwater and Vitaminwater to its line in 1998 and 2000, respectively, the company expanded to nationwide distribution in the early 2000s.
Since its invention by John Stith Pemberton in 1886, criticisms of Coca-Cola as a product, and of the business practices of The Coca-Cola Company, have been significant. The Coca-Cola Company is the largest soft drink company in the world, distributing over 500 different products. Since the early 2000s, the criticism of the use of Coca-Cola products, as well as the company itself, escalated, with criticism leveled at the company over health effects, environmental issues, animal testing, economic business practices and employee issues. The Coca-Cola Company has been faced with multiple lawsuits concerning the various criticisms.
NOS is an energy drink sold in 16-and-24-US-fluid-ounce cans. The drink was also distributed in a bottle designed to look like a NOS tank but this bottle has been discontinued. Formerly a property of the Coca-Cola Company, it is currently produced by Monster Beverage and licensed by Holley Performance, which owns the trademark. NOS contains 160 mg of caffeine, with an unknown amount of taurine and guarana. L-Theanine was removed as a "CMPLX6" ingredient in 2016, with inositol becoming listed as one of the six featured ingredients on the can. NOS Energy is currently available in Original, GT Grape, and Sonic Sour.
Jesse Itzler is an American entrepreneur, author, and rapper. He is the co-founder of Marquis Jet, one of the largest private jet card companies in the world, a partner in Zico Coconut Water, the founder of The 100 Mile Group and one of the owners of the NBA's Atlanta Hawks.
J. Christopher Reyes is an American billionaire businessman and the co-chairman, with his brother Jude Reyes, of Reyes Holdings, a food and beverage production and distribution company, ranked by Forbes in 2023 as the 6th largest privately held company in the US with $40 billion in annual revenue.
James Robert B. Quincey is a British businessman based in the United States. After starting his career at Bain & Co, he joined The Coca-Cola Company in 1996 and was later named chief operating officer (COO). He is now the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) at the company.
Mike Repole is an American entrepreneur, businessman, and racehorse owner. He is best known for co-founding Glaceau, which sold to Coca-Cola for $4.1 billion, and BODYARMOR SuperDrink, a sports drink manufacturer, which also sold to Coca-Cola for $5.6 billion.