Jones Soda Keeps Poppin'

• Email
• Share
• Print

Producing another quarter that was more fizz than flat, alternative-beverage upstart Jones Soda (Nasdaq: JSDA) saw its fourth-quarter sales spike 37% higher as it turned a profit of $0.03 a share for the period. It simply broke even a year earlier. The top- and bottom-line results came in better than the lone analyst's expectations.

The bottler of premium sodas with user-submitted labels has picked its distribution partners well. You can find Jones Soda bottles in places like Starbucks (Nasdaq: SBUX), Panera Bread (Nasdaq: PNRA), and Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS). Its eclectic sodas in canned form can be bought at Target (NYSE: TGT).

Jones Soda is available in several grocery store chains, too, but the non-supermarket retailers provides a good glimpse as to how the company is targeting fast-growing chains that will help the company broaden its reach organically.

Speaking of organic, the company continues to make inroads in the energy-drink market, but it's not alone. Given the success that Hansen Naturals (Nasdaq: HANS) has had lately with its Monster beverage, it seems as though most of the industry players want to mash together their own Monsters. Jones Soda mentioned that 400 different energy drinks have been launched in the past six months alone. It's why Jones Soda's flagship sodas should continue to be the real drivers here.

Jones Soda has personality, and that's not something that its larger carbonated-soda rivals like Cadbury Schweppes (NYSE: CSG) are likely to inherit anytime soon. Now the challenge will be for Jones Soda to continue to grow without shedding its distinctive spirit along the way. If it survived being canned up at cheap-chic Target, I like its chances in 2006.

If you like small stocks with spunk like Jones Soda, you may appreciate the Motley Fool Rule Breakers ultimate growth stock newsletter service. Subscribe today or take the taste test with a free 30-day trial subscription.

Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz actually enjoyed the Jones Soda candy corn, pumpkin, and caramel apple sodas from Target last year during its Halloween promotion. He also owns shares in Jones Soda. The Fool has a disclosure policy. Rick is also part of the Rule Breakers newsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early.