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Bang energy drink1/27/2024 He grew it into a retailer with tens of millions of dollars of revenue, targeting a narrow niche of customers focused on weightlifting and fitness. He opened a small sports supplements store, called VitaHouse, in a Miami strip mall in 1993. Owoc, 61, has for decades sold the image of himself as the archetype of a self-made American entrepreneur. Former Bang executives said privately they were skeptical that Owoc would ever give up control of his company. about a potential sale - discussions that quickly fell apart. That came just weeks after reports that Vital was in talks with Keurig Dr Pepper Inc. ![]() The jury also held Owoc personally guilty for that violation. He didn’t disclose, though, that ending the agreement prematurely had cost his firm $115 million.Īnd in September, a California jury found that Bang had for years made false advertising claims about its eponymous product and ordered the company to pay $293 million to Monster. In June, Owoc announced that the distribution deal with PepsiCo, which had gone from rosy to sour, was over. The ruling also required Owoc’s company to pay them a 5% royalty on all future US sales of Bang Energy. In April, the parent company was ordered to pay $175 million to Monster and Orange Bang, the California juice maker, for breach of contract and trademark infringement. Those in the beverage world have wondered for months how long Bang could stave off a Chapter 11 filing as bad news kept stacking up. The company owes more than $340 million to existing lenders.īang’s current lenders have agreed to put up $100 million of new money to fund the bankruptcy, but there’s a catch: Owoc will have to begin trying to sell the company if he can’t find a way to refinance all of its high-ranking debt in the next three-and-a-half months, court papers show. Bang’s advisers looked for months for either a new equity investment or fresh debt, but found no takers, according to court papers. Bang’s lenders held off on seizing their collateral - and even advanced $60 million of new money - while the company searched for a rescue deal.īut so far, no one has been willing to fully bail out Owoc’s kingdom. Vital Pharmaceuticals Inc., Bang’s parent, listed total assets and liabilities of as much as $1 billion each in its bankruptcy petition.īang has been in financial disrepair since at least March, when it defaulted on hundreds of millions of dollars in debt, bankruptcy court documents show. ![]() Some current and former employees doubt that Owoc, whose fortune is valued at about $3 billion by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, can get the company out of the mess he landed it in. And industry insiders point out that the energy-drink category has changed since Bang’s astronomic rise began in 2018: There are now lots of good-for-you brands, and distributors increasingly want to carry several of them, not just one. Taken together, the debt to PepsiCo and the cumulative legal damages, which could still swell, likely swallows up most of the revenue Owoc’s company collected last year from sales of Bang Energy, its dominant product, according to estimates by Bloomberg News. “We are coming like a freight train and cannot be stopped,” Owoc said.īut Bang’s challenges are mounting. He disclosed that Bang’s lenders have put up another $100 million, and that the firm has pieced together a new distribution network that will take over once PepsiCo stops shipping Bang Energy on its trucks this month. In a statement, Owoc vowed to keep the business going and said the company will emerge stronger. Meanwhile, Bang’s share of the energy-drink market, once nearing 10%, now sits just above 6%. It owes another $115 million to PepsiCo Inc., its old distributor. That same day, Owoc signed papers to put his company into bankruptcy protection.Ī combination of legal damages, a failed distribution deal and stagnant sales has overwhelmed the Miami-based energy-drink maker and its founder, unraveling what some observers call the most improbable success story in the beverage industry.Ĭourt papers filed in Florida on Monday reveal that Bang’s parent company owes more than $500 million to its arch-rival, Monster Beverage Co., and a small California juice maker. On TikTok rolled a medley of videos showing women clutching cans of the drink and of Owoc, crowdsurfing and pumping his fists in the air.īut the cheery posts from Sunday, which marked the energy drink’s 10-year anniversary, obscured a far more somber reality. ![]() On Instagram, he blew out the candles atop a massive birthday cake dedicated to his blockbuster product, Bang Energy. (Bloomberg) - It should have been a weekend of celebration for billionaire Jack Owoc.
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