The Coca-Cola Company acquired Minute Maid in 1960 to enter the packaged orange-juice market.
Minute Maid began as a juice business associated with frozen concentrated orange juice. Its products offered consumers a practical way to prepare orange juice at home, helping popularize frozen juice concentrate in the United States.
Coca-Cola’s acquisition expanded the company beyond carbonated soft drinks and established a major presence in juice and other noncarbonated beverages. Minute Maid later became part of Coca-Cola’s broader portfolio of juice brands and products.
Minute Maid is sometimes confused with Simply Orange, which is a later Coca-Cola juice brand, or with Tropicana, a competing orange-juice company. The 1960 acquisition specifically concerns Minute Maid and marked an important diversification step for Coca-Cola.