Flavoring Syrup and Concentrate Manufacturing (U.S.) — NAICS 31193

An investor's primer at the NAICS-industry (5-digit) level. Figures are U.S. federal statistics unless noted; company and market figures are cited inline.

Read this first — single-child level. NAICS (North American Industry Classification System) code 31193 contains exactly one child industry, 311930, of the same name. At this level the two codes are effectively identical: every establishment, dollar of shipments, and worker counted here is also counted in 311930. This page gives the level's own ground-truth federal stats and a short orientation. For full detail — the concentrate business model, company-by-company universe, demand drivers, regulation, and how to invest — see the 311930 primer.

1. Overview

This is the business of making the flavor base — syrups and concentrates — that other companies turn into finished drinks. A concentrate plant ships a high-value liquid or powder; a bottler or café then adds water, sweetener, carbonation, and packaging to make the beverage you actually buy. It is the least visible and most profitable link in the beverage chain: cola concentrate for the Coca-Cola and Pepsi systems, fountain syrup for restaurants, and the flavored coffee syrups (Torani, Monin) squirted into a latte all sit in this one code [311930 primer].

Why it matters to investors: the model is famously asset-light and high-margin. A tiny workforce and a handful of plants generate enormous downstream value because the maker sells intellectual property — a secret recipe — rather than a commodity. The U.S. Census counts only about 9,468 workers in the entire industry [1], yet the global concentrate operations of a single participant — The Coca-Cola Company — generated 59% of consolidated revenue in 2025 while accounting for 85% of worldwide unit-case volume [3].

2. What's inside — and why the level equals its one child

NAICS is a nested hierarchy: sector (2-digit) → subsector (3-digit) → industry group (4-digit) → NAICS industry (5-digit) → national industry (6-digit). Most 5-digit industries split into several 6-digit children. 31193 does not — it holds a single national industry:

Because there is only one child, the 5-digit rollup is that child. Nothing is aggregated, averaged, or lost between the two. This page therefore stays short and points to 311930 for everything substantive.

3. How big it is (this level's rollup figures)

Ground-truth U.S. federal figures for NAICS 31193 (identical to 311930):

The Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI, a standard market-concentration measure) is suppressed in the federal data for this industry [2], so we do not report a value; the concentration ratios in Section 8 tell the story instead.

Producer pricing has risen appreciably since the 2022 Census. The BLS industry PPI increased from 156.5 in December 2022 to 174.3 in April 2026 — approximately 11.4% [4]. That is an output-price index, not revenue growth or margin expansion.

Measurement caveat (unusual — it runs the other way). Federal statistics usually undercount industries dominated by tiny operators. Here the distortion is reversed: the industry is dominated by giants, and the U.S. totals understate its true economic footprint. Employment (9,468 workers [1]) badly understates value because concentrate is one of the most value-dense products in consumer goods; and much U.S.-consumed concentrate is manufactured offshore for tax reasons (for example, most PepsiCo U.S. cola concentrate is made in Cork, Ireland), so U.S.-soil shipments miss scale controlled by U.S.-headquartered firms [5]. Read the $11.8 billion as domestic plant shipments, not the economic weight of the businesses involved.

4. The investable universe (where the value sits)

With one child, value concentrates exactly as it does in 311930: there is no listed pure-play in flavoring syrup. Public exposure comes through the diversified beverage majors for whom concentrate is the core profit engine — Coca-Cola (KO), PepsiCo (PEP), Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP), Monster Beverage (MNST) — and through adjacent flavor-and-color "picks-and-shovels" suppliers such as International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF) and Sensient (SXT) that sell into the syrup makers. KDP completed its acquisition of JDE Peet's in April 2026, with a planned separation of its coffee and beverage businesses pending as of June 2026 [6][7]. The most characteristic private businesses are family-owned syrup houses — Torani and Monin — that rarely come up for sale [311930 primer]. Full company table, revenue figures, and the private-market map are in the 311930 primer.

5. How the money works

A recipe-and-royalty business, not a volume-commodity one. The maker sells a flavor base at very high gross margin and lets partners bear the cost of water, sweetener, cans, warehousing, and delivery. Coca-Cola's company-wide gross margin was 61.1% in 2024 (up from 59.5%) [8]. Investors watch concentrate sales volume (unit cases shipped), price/mix, and the concentrate-vs-finished-product split — the higher the concentrate share, the higher the margin and return on capital. The majors deliberately sell off bottling plants ("refranchising") to keep the fat concentrate margin and shed low-return capital [311930 primer]. The branded-syrup niche (Torani, Monin) instead earns per-bottle margins driven by foodservice velocity and direct-to-consumer growth, competing on flavor-innovation speed rather than price.

6. What drives demand

• Downstream beverage consumption — concentrate demand ultimately tracks finished drinks sold; U.S. carbonated-soft-drink (CSD) volumes are mature-to-declining but positive pricing keeps revenue growing.
• Secular headwind on full-sugar beverages — USDA reports that U.S. per-capita caloric-sweetener availability fell nearly 20% between 1999 and 2023 [9], though zero-sugar beverages still require flavor systems, acids, colors, and nonnutritive-sweetener formulation.
• Café culture and specialty coffee — the strongest tailwind for the syrup side; the global coffee-syrup market was ~$2.8B in 2025 and is projected to reach ~$4.78B by 2034 (~6% CAGR) [10].
• Functional and energy beverages — energy, protein, wellness, and zero-sugar lines are the fastest-growing pull on concentrate volume.
• Away-from-home foodservice and customization / clean-label demand — expanding SKU counts and premium pricing [311930 primer].

7. Regulation

Products fall under the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) food-safety and labeling regime (including the Nutrition Facts "added sugars" line) [11]. Covered facilities are subject to FDA current good manufacturing practices and FSMA hazard-analysis and preventive-control requirements [12]. Live policy issues: local sugar-sweetened-beverage (SSB) taxes (no state levies one; about six localities do); reformulation pressure tied to the "Make America Healthy Again" (MAHA) agenda pushing cane sugar over high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and removal of synthetic dyes — FDA announced measures in 2025 to phase out petroleum-based synthetic dyes and set January 15, 2027 as the deadline for removing FD&C Red No. 3 from foods [13][14]; the federal sugar program, which keeps U.S. sugar near twice the world price [15]; and trade/tariff risk on offshore-made concentrate [311930 primer].

8. Consolidation

This is one of the most concentrated food-manufacturing industries in the U.S. The four-firm concentration ratio (CR4) is 70% — the top four firms make 70% of industry revenue — with CR8 at 78.4%, CR20 at 90.8%, and CR50 at 98.1% [2][16]. In plain terms, a few beverage majors dominate the concentrate side and the remaining ~140 firms split a thin residual. Consolidation is steady rather than dramatic: strategic bolt-ons as majors buy fast-growing functional and better-for-you brands (see 311930 for the deal history).

9. Risks

Food safety — a contaminated or incorrectly formulated concentrate batch can be diluted into a much larger quantity of finished beverage, making this the principal operating risk. Beyond that: secular decline in sugary CSDs (offset so far by price); regulatory and tax risk (soda taxes, added-sugar rules, dye/HFCS mandates); input-cost volatility (the U.S. sugar premium, PET resin, freight); supplier formula dependence (some suppliers own flavor formulas unavailable to concentrate makers); health-and-behavior shifts including the appetite-suppressing effect of GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1) weight-loss drugs; customer-concentration risk (concentrate sellers depend on a few bottlers); trade/tariff exposure on offshore concentrate; and foreign-exchange translation for the global majors [311930 primer].

10. How to invest, and the outlook

Because 31193 is a single-child level, the investing playbook is identical to 311930's. Public routes: Coca-Cola (KO) is the closest large-cap proxy for the concentrate model; PepsiCo (PEP), Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP), Monster (MNST), Celsius (CELH), and National Beverage (FIZZ) blend concentrate with finished product; flavor houses IFF, Sensient (SXT), and Kerry Group are the picks-and-shovels; broad consumer-staples and food-and-beverage exchange-traded funds (ETFs) give diffuse exposure. Private routes: the marquee independents (Torani, Monin) are seldom for sale, so private capital more realistically enters through foodservice-syrup roll-ups, franchise-bottling operations, or craft/functional startups. Outlook: a durable, cash-rich, oligopolistic core with a faster-growing specialty-syrup fringe; the live uncertainties are reformulation (cane sugar, dye/HFCS removal, Red No. 3 deadline) and demand-side health shifts (soda taxes, GLP-1 drugs). Tickers, valuation multiples, and yields are outside this primer's scope — see 311930 and do your own pricing work.

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Sources

Drawn from the child-industry primer (311930), which carries the full source list. Key references cited on this page:

1. U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns (CBP) 2023, NAICS 311930 (establishments, employment, payroll). https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/cbp.html
2. U.S. Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census — Concentration ratios and receipts, NAICS 311930 (receipts, firms, CR4/CR8/CR20/CR50; HHI suppressed). https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/economic-census.html
3. The Coca-Cola Company, 2025 Form 10-K (concentrate operations, revenue split). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/21344/000162828026010047/ko-20251231.htm
4. Bureau of Labor Statistics / Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, PPI for NAICS 311930 (series PCU3119331193). https://fred.stlouisfed.org/data/PCU3119331193
5. Benzinga, Coca-Cola Escapes New Tariff Costs With US-Based Production, While PepsiCo's Irish Supply Faces 10% Levy (concentrate manufacturing locations). https://www.benzinga.com/markets/equities/25/04/44892858/
6. Keurig Dr Pepper, JDE Peet's acquisition filing, 2026. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1418135/000119312526135642/d137180dex991.htm
7. Keurig Dr Pepper, June 2026 separation-status filing. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1418135/000141813526000045/kdp-20260622.htm
8. The Coca-Cola Company, Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2024 Results (gross margin). https://investors.coca-colacompany.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/1128/coca-cola-reports-fourth-quarter-and-full-year-2024-results
9. USDA Economic Research Service, Per capita caloric sweetener availability. https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/charts-of-note/110515
10. Global Growth Insights / Fairfield Market Research, Coffee Syrup Market (size and CAGR). https://www.globalgrowthinsights.com/market-reports/coffee-syrup-market-114586
11. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Added Sugars on the Nutrition Facts Label. https://www.fda.gov/food/nutrition-facts-label/added-sugars-nutrition-facts-label
12. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, FSMA Final Rule for Preventive Controls for Human Food. https://www.fda.gov/food/food-safety-modernization-act-fsma/fsma-final-rule-preventive-controls-human-food
13. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, HHS, FDA to phase out petroleum-based synthetic dyes, 2025. https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/hhs-fda-phase-out-petroleum-based-synthetic-dyes-nations-food-supply
14. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, FDA encourages food manufacturers to accelerate phasing out FD&C Red No. 3 (January 15, 2027 deadline). https://www.fda.gov/food/food-ingredients-packaging/fda-encourages-food-manufacturers-accelerate-phasing-out-use-fdc-red-no-3-foods-2027-deadline
15. U.S. Government Accountability Office, Sugar Program: Alternative Methods for Implementing Import Restrictions (U.S. sugar ~2x world price), 2024. https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-24-106144
16. Iowa State University Center for Agricultural and Rural Development, 2022 Census concentration data (CR4). https://www.card.iastate.edu/files/publications/pdf/26PB51.pdf

For the complete numbered source list (company filings, market-research reports, regulatory and trade sources), see the 311930 primer.