Who Owns 7UP? My Clear Guide to the Brand's Real Owners

When most people think of 7UP, they picture a crisp, clear, lemon lime soda that has been around for generations. The drink feels simple, yet the answer to who owns 7UP is not as simple as many expect. Different companies control the brand in different parts of the world, which can make the story a bit confusing at first glance.

To give a clear starting point, I treat ownership in two main layers. In the United States, 7UP is owned and produced by Keurig Dr Pepper. In many countries outside the United States, PepsiCo owns the rights to the 7UP brand, often working with local bottling partners. In some regions, older agreements and joint ventures still shape how the drink is made and sold.

7UP also has a long and colorful history. It began in the early 1900s as a new kind of soft drink, has passed through several owners, and has seen its formula and image change with each era. That history helps explain why no single global company controls every can and bottle today.

In this guide, I will answer the core question about who owns 7UP in a clear way, then break it into simple parts. I will look at U.S. ownership, how global rights work, and how past deals still affect the brand now. Laws and business deals can change over time, so I rely on the most recent public information available, and I will flag the areas where things tend to shift the most.

Who Owns 7UP Today? (Quick Answer)

When people ask who owns 7UP, the short answer is that it depends on where you live. In the United States, 7UP is owned and managed by Keurig Dr Pepper. In many countries outside the United States, PepsiCo controls the 7UP brand through licenses and local bottling deals. There is no single global owner that runs 7UP everywhere.

The drink started as an independent soda brand, then moved through different owners as the soft drink industry grew and merged. Over time, rights to the name, recipe, and logos were split by region. That is why one company can own 7UP in the United States, while another uses the same brand in other markets.

When I talk about who owns 7UP today, I treat it as a shared brand. Keurig Dr Pepper handles the core U.S. business. PepsiCo uses the brand in many international markets, often along with its 7UP-compatible products and local partners. In a few countries, old contracts still give regional bottlers special rights, although those are less common now.

This split structure can feel odd at first, since people often assume a global drink has one clear owner. In practice, 7UP is a good example of how long term deals, mergers, and local rules shape modern brands. The key idea is simple: Keurig Dr Pepper for the United States, PepsiCo for much of the rest of the world, with a handful of exceptions where local agreements still apply.

Keurig Dr Pepper and 7UP in the United States

In the United States, Keurig Dr Pepper owns the 7UP trademark, controls the recipe, and manages marketing and strategy. It also handles production, either directly or through licensed bottlers that bottle and distribute the drink under its control.

PepsiCo and 7UP Outside the United States

Outside the United States, PepsiCo holds the rights to 7UP in many regions. It uses those rights through its global bottling network and through local partners, which is why you often see 7UP next to Pepsi, Mirinda, and other PepsiCo brands in stores worldwide.

Who Owns 7UP in the United States?

When people search for who owns 7UP, they are often thinking about the drink they see on shelves in the United States. In the U.S. market, the answer is clear and straightforward. 7UP belongs to Keurig Dr Pepper, a large beverage company that controls the brand, the recipe, and the marketing for 7UP inside the country.

Even though local bottlers and distributors handle the cans and bottles you buy, the power over what 7UP is and how it looks in the U.S. sits with Keurig Dr Pepper.

Keurig Dr Pepper: The U.S. Owner Behind 7UP

Keurig Dr Pepper is a major North American drink company. It sells coffee systems, sodas, flavored waters, and many other drinks. In simple terms, it combines two big businesses under one roof:

• Dr Pepper Snapple Group: A soft drink company that owned brands like Dr Pepper, 7UP (in the U.S.), A&W, Canada Dry, and Snapple.
• Keurig Green Mountain: A coffee company known for Keurig brewers and K-Cup pods.

These two companies merged in 2018. The combined company took the name Keurig Dr Pepper. From that point on, the U.S. rights to 7UP continued inside this new, larger company.

So when I talk about who owns 7UP in the U.S., I am really talking about this merged business.

It controls:

• The U.S. trademark for 7UP.
• The formula and flavor profile.
• The brand strategy, from the logo and colors to national ads.

That is why you will often see 7UP featured alongside Dr Pepper and Canada Dry in U.S. marketing and store displays. They sit together in the same brand family.

How 7UP Fits Inside Keurig Dr Pepper’s Brand Portfolio

Inside the Keurig Dr Pepper portfolio in the United States, 7UP is classed as a non cola soft drink. It is a clear, lemon lime soda, so it does not compete with dark colas like Pepsi or Coca-Cola in the same way. Instead, it sits in the same broad space as drinks like Sprite or Sierra Mist (Starry).

I find it helpful to think of the company’s lineup in simple groups:

• Cola and dark sodas: Dr Pepper and related flavors.
• Non cola soft drinks: 7UP, A&W root beer, Sunkist, Canada Dry, and others.
• Non carbonated drinks: Snapple, some juices, and teas.
• Coffee and hot drinks: Keurig brewers and K-Cup pods.

7UP gives Keurig Dr Pepper a strong lemon lime option in the U.S., which helps the company compete in stores and restaurants where customers expect that style of soda. The brand often appears in promotions or bundles with other Keurig Dr Pepper drinks, but it keeps its own identity as a clean, crisp, citrus soda.

Bottlers, Distributors, and Who Puts 7UP on Shelves

Even though Keurig Dr Pepper owns 7UP in the United States, it does not always bottle and deliver every can or bottle itself. Instead, the company uses a mix of:

• Company-owned bottling plants.
• Independent bottlers that have contracts to produce and distribute 7UP.
• Regional distributors that move product from plants to stores, restaurants, and vending machines.

This is where many people get confused about who owns 7UP. You might see a local bottling company’s name on a truck or on packaging and assume that business owns the drink. In reality, those partners work under agreements with Keurig Dr Pepper.

Keurig Dr Pepper keeps control of the parts that define the brand:

• The recipe and quality standards, including how 7UP must taste.
• The branding, such as the logo, color, and packaging design.
• The national marketing, such as TV ads, digital campaigns, and sponsorships.

Local partners handle the parts that work better close to home, like filling bottles, running warehouses, and managing delivery routes. This structure lets 7UP stay consistent as a brand while still reaching stores across a large and diverse country.

Why This Matters If You Care About Who Owns 7UP

If you want a clear answer to who owns 7UP in the U.S., here is the short form. Keurig Dr Pepper is the owner of the 7UP brand in the United States. It sits in the company’s non cola soft drink group, alongside other well known sodas. Local bottlers and distributors help get it into coolers and fountains near you, but they do not own the brand itself.

Once you see that split between brand owner and local partners, the U.S. picture of 7UP ownership becomes much easier to understand.

Who Owns 7UP Around the World?

Outside the United States, the answer to who owns 7UP becomes more complex. The brand sits on top of a web of contracts, regional rights, and long term partnerships. In simple terms, one company owns the core U.S. rights, while another company controls how 7UP is used and sold across much of the rest of the world.

At the center of this structure, Keurig Dr Pepper holds the underlying brand rights in the United States. PepsiCo then manages and markets 7UP in many other countries under long term agreements. In a few markets, local drink companies have their own deals, often based on older contracts that never fully merged into a single global system.

I find it helpful to look at it by region before breaking down the details.

Global Snapshot of 7UP Ownership and Control

The table below gives a simple overview of who typically controls 7UP in different parts of the world. It does not list every country, but it shows the main pattern.

Region	Primary controller of 7UP rights in practice
United States	Keurig Dr Pepper (owner and brand manager)
Canada and North America*	Mix of Keurig Dr Pepper rights and local partners
Europe	PepsiCo and its bottling partners
Latin America	PepsiCo and regional bottlers
Middle East & Africa	PepsiCo and local bottlers
Asia-Pacific	PepsiCo and local bottlers

*Canada and some neighboring markets can involve extra local agreements, but the U.S. ownership still sits with Keurig Dr Pepper.

This split explains why 7UP might sit in the Pepsi section of a supermarket in one country, but not in another.

PepsiCo’s Role Outside the United States

Once I step outside the U.S., PepsiCo is usually the face of 7UP. In many countries, PepsiCo:

• Manages marketing and brand positioning for 7UP.
• Works with local bottlers that produce and distribute the drink.
• Places 7UP alongside Pepsi, Mirinda, and other PepsiCo sodas in stores.

PepsiCo treats 7UP as its main lemon lime soda in many markets. In those countries, if you order a lemon lime soft drink in a restaurant that pours Pepsi products, there is a good chance you get 7UP.

Even though Keurig Dr Pepper holds the core U.S. rights, I often see PepsiCo acting almost like the "owner" in these foreign markets. In practical terms, PepsiCo decides:

• How the packaging looks for that country.
• What kind of ads and promotions appear.
• Which sizes and formats are sold, from cans to big bottles.

That is why the 7UP logo or slogan might look slightly different from one country to another, even if the basic idea of the drink stays the same.

How Licensing of 7UP Works in Simple Terms

To understand who owns 7UP around the world, I need to talk about licensing in plain language.

A license is a formal permission. One company owns a brand, then gives another company the right to use that brand in a certain place or in a certain way. The owner keeps control of the brand, but the other company is allowed to sell it under set rules.

With 7UP, the basic structure looks like this:

1. Keurig Dr Pepper owns the 7UP brand in the United States.
2. Through long term agreements, it gives PepsiCo the right to use and market 7UP in many countries outside the U.S.
3. PepsiCo then works with local bottlers that actually make and sell the drink in those regions.

So when you buy a can of 7UP in a country where PepsiCo runs the brand, several layers sit behind that can:

• The brand owner at the top.
• The license that grants rights by region.
• The local producer that bottles and ships the product.

This is how you can have one main answer to "who owns 7UP" in the United States, yet see PepsiCo acting as the public face of 7UP in large parts of Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Africa.

Local Exceptions and Special Regional Deals

On top of the broad split between Keurig Dr Pepper and PepsiCo, some regions still follow older or local contracts. These often date back to when different companies controlled parts of the 7UP business.

In practice, this can mean:

• A local beverage group holds long running rights to bottle and sell 7UP in a specific country.
• A joint venture between PepsiCo and a regional company manages 7UP branding and sales.
• Some markets use 7UP under unique formulas or packaging, adjusted for local tastes.

These exceptions do not change the basic pattern of who owns 7UP at the top, but they can affect who you see on the label, how the drink tastes, or which company logo appears on trucks and vending machines.

If I walk into a store in one of these markets, the corporate name on the bottle might be a regional company, not PepsiCo or Keurig Dr Pepper. That does not mean the local company owns the global brand. It means it has a deal or license to use the 7UP name under agreed terms.

This mix of global ownership, long term licensing, and local agreements is why the story of who owns 7UP around the world feels more layered than a simple one line answer. Once I see how the pieces fit together, the pattern becomes much easier to follow.

How Did 7UP End Up With Different Owners? A Short History

When I look at the story of who owns 7UP, I find that the split between Keurig Dr Pepper in the United States and PepsiCo in many other countries did not happen overnight. It grew out of almost a century of product launches, rebranding, and sales to larger companies. A few key turning points shaped the path from one small soda in the 1920s to the divided ownership we see today.

From "Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda" to 7UP

7UP began in 1929 in the United States as a lemon lime soft drink created by Charles Leiper Grigg in St. Louis. The original name was long and strange by today’s standards, "Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda", and the drink even contained lithium salts, which were later removed.

In the early years, the brand shifted its identity several times. The name soon shortened to 7UP, which made it easier to remember and market. As the formula changed and the drink dropped lithium, the focus moved to a clean, refreshing taste and a simple, bold name.

These early choices matter today because they set 7UP apart from colas. From the start, it lived in the lemon lime space, which later made it a natural rival to Sprite and other clear sodas around the world.

Independent Growth, Then Sales to Larger Companies

For a long time, 7UP operated as an independent brand. It grew across the United States with the help of franchised bottlers that produced and sold the drink in local territories. The company that owned it moved through different corporate hands, but the product still felt like a stand alone soda.

In the second half of the 20th century, the soft drink industry began to consolidate. Large companies started to buy smaller brands so they could build wide portfolios. 7UP became part of this wave. It moved from being a smaller, focused company product into the lineups of larger

beverage groups.

Over time, these sales and mergers separated brand rights by region. The U.S. ownership and some international rights followed one path. Other foreign rights fell under long term deals with companies that would later sit inside PepsiCo’s network.

How History Led to Split Ownership Today

The present day picture, with Keurig Dr Pepper in control in the United States and PepsiCo managing 7UP in many international markets, comes from this sequence of deals and licenses.

In the United States, the 7UP trademarks and core brand ended up inside the Dr Pepper Snapple Group. When Dr Pepper Snapple Group combined with Keurig Green Mountain in 2018, the new company, Keurig Dr Pepper, became the U.S. owner of 7UP. That is why any clear answer to who owns 7UP in the U.S. points to Keurig Dr Pepper.

Outside the United States, a different thread continued. Long standing licensing and bottling agreements gave PepsiCo the right to produce, market, and sell 7UP in many regions. PepsiCo uses these rights through its global bottling system, so in much of Europe, Latin America, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, 7UP appears as part of the Pepsi family.

In simple terms, early independence, later sales, and region based contracts all combined to split the brand. The drink started as one soda from one company, but ownership followed different roads in different places. That is how we reached the current structure where Keurig Dr Pepper owns 7UP in the United States, while PepsiCo controls 7UP in many markets abroad through licensing and local partners.

Common Questions About Who Owns 7UP and How the Brand Works

At this point, the ownership story behind 7UP is clearer, but many smaller questions still come up. In this section, I want to address the most common questions I see about who owns 7UP, how the brand is managed, and how it compares to other well known sodas.

Is 7UP owned by Pepsi or Coke?

7UP is not owned by Pepsi or Coca-Cola in the United States. In the U.S., Keurig Dr Pepper owns 7UP and controls the brand.

Outside the United States, 7UP is often managed and sold by PepsiCo under long term agreements. That is why 7UP sits next to Pepsi in many countries, but that does not mean PepsiCo owns the core U.S. brand.

Why does 7UP sometimes look like a Pepsi product?

In many countries, PepsiCo has the right to produce, market, and sell 7UP. PepsiCo places 7UP in its own product family in those markets, often on the same displays and menus as Pepsi, Mirinda, and Mountain Dew.

From a shopper’s point of view, 7UP can look like a full Pepsi brand in those places. Behind the scenes, PepsiCo uses licensed rights, while Keurig Dr Pepper still holds the base ownership in the United States.

Who owns 7UP vs Sprite?

7UP and Sprite belong to different companies. 7UP is owned by Keurig Dr Pepper in the United States, with PepsiCo controlling many international rights under license. Sprite is owned and controlled globally by The Coca-Cola Company.

Both drinks are lemon lime sodas, so they compete in the same space. When I compare them, I see 7UP tied to Keurig Dr Pepper and PepsiCo, while Sprite stays fully inside the Coca-Cola system.

Why is 7UP owned by different companies in different countries?

The split ownership comes from old contracts, mergers, and regional deals. Over decades, 7UP moved through different parent companies that signed long term licensing agreements outside the United States.

When those companies later merged or restructured, the regional rights did not always move in a simple way. The result is what we see now: Keurig Dr Pepper as the U.S. owner, and PepsiCo managing 7UP in many countries under agreements that grew out of that history.

Does PepsiCo actually own 7UP anywhere?

Public information points to Keurig Dr Pepper as the main owner of 7UP for the U.S. market, with PepsiCo holding rights to use the brand in many countries rather than full global ownership.

In daily practice, PepsiCo acts like the owner in those foreign markets, since it controls local marketing, bottling, and sales. From a legal and brand rights view, it makes more sense to say PepsiCo manages 7UP in those markets, while Keurig Dr Pepper remains the core brand owner for the United States.

Who makes the 7UP I buy at my local store?

The answer depends on where you live. In the United States, Keurig Dr Pepper either bottles 7UP in its own plants or works with licensed bottlers that follow its standards.

In many other countries, PepsiCo bottlers or regional partners produce and distribute 7UP. The label usually lists the local bottler, which explains why you might see a different company name on cans and bottles, even though the drink is still 7UP.

Is 7UP the same drink in every country?

The basic idea of 7UP, a clear lemon lime soda, stays the same, but details can shift by market. Local bottlers may adjust:

• Sweetness level
• Type of sweetener
• Carbonation level
• Packaging and design

These changes follow local taste and law. So while the brand is still 7UP, the exact flavor profile or feel of the drink can vary from one country to another.

How does 7UP fit in Keurig Dr Pepper’s business?

Inside Keurig Dr Pepper, 7UP is part of the carbonated soft drink portfolio and sits in the non cola group. It stands next to brands such as Dr Pepper, Canada Dry, and Sunkist as a key national soda.

From a strategy point of view, 7UP gives Keurig Dr Pepper a strong lemon lime option in the United States. That helps the company compete with Sprite from Coca-Cola and similar drinks from other firms, while keeping a clear identity as a crisp, caffeine free citrus soda.

Why do some people still ask “who owns 7UP?”

The question keeps coming up because the brand does not fit the simple pattern many people expect. Most shoppers assume one global company owns a global drink. With 7UP, the answer splits between where you live and which company holds regional rights.

The short answer is this: Keurig Dr Pepper owns 7UP in the United States, and PepsiCo controls and markets 7UP in many other countries under licensing and bottling deals. Once I keep that split in mind, the rest of the brand story lines up.

Conclusion

When I step back and look at who owns 7UP, the picture becomes clear. In the United States, 7UP belongs to Keurig Dr Pepper, which controls the recipe, branding, and national strategy. Outside the U.S., PepsiCo usually runs the show through long term licensing deals, then works with local bottlers to produce and sell the drink. One brand, two main corporate stewards, with a few local exceptions.

This split did not appear overnight. It grew from decades of mergers, sales, and regional contracts that followed different paths in different countries. Laws on trademarks, bottling agreements, and distribution all played a part. From the outside, that history can make 7UP look like a Pepsi product in one place and a separate brand in another, even though both views are true in their own context.

When I understand who owns 7UP, everyday details start to make more sense. I can read a soda label and know why a local bottler name appears next to a big brand. I can watch an ad and see which company is behind the message in my country. I can also see how global brands rely on shared rights, licenses, and partners to reach me.

Knowing the real story behind who owns 7UP gives me a clearer view of the drink in my hand, and of how global soda brands actually work.