Noni by NewAge Review: Morinda autoship carries over
A juice company founded on a tropical island dream has quietly morphed into a multilevel marketing operation spanning decades and corporate takeovers.
Noni by NewAge traces its roots to 1996, when Kerry Asay launched Tahitian Noni Juice and essentially created the noni supplement market overnight. The company's website glosses over 24 years of history in two paragraphs, jumping from that origin story straight to its current mission of spreading "the true power of paradise." What the company leaves out tells the real story.
In 2012, Asay renamed his operation Morinda. Three years later, when BehindMLM reviewed the company, we found its business model built on autoship recruitment rather than genuine retail sales—a hallmark of problematic MLM structures. Then in December 2018, New Age Beverages Corporation, headquartered in Denver, acquired Morinda for an undisclosed sum. Asay cashed out his executive position in exchange for shares.
The rebrand followed quickly. Morinda became Noni by NewAge, though the Morinda name persists on products and compensation materials. New Age CEO Brent Willis took the helm after his 2016 appointment. His LinkedIn profile reveals something telling: the Morinda acquisition marked Willis' first executive role at an MLM company.
The product line has grown since those early days of pure noni juice. Noni by NewAge now pushes four categories: everyday wellness, weight loss, performance and energy, and skin health. The everyday wellness section features the original Tahitian Noni Juice at $40 per liter, alongside newer offerings like Tahitian Noni Max ($59 for 750 ml), which claims to protect cells using "over 30 different iridoids from five sources." There's TruAge Extra ($45), a noni-blueberry-olive blend, and TruAge Pure ($40), a concentrated noni product marketed for smoothies. The company also sells Tahitian Noni Joint Concentrate ($17.99) with glucosamine for joint health, and Morinda Omega 3,6 supplements.
What matters here is the business structure, not the bottles. The company's emphasis on autoship—automatic recurring shipments—combined with recruitment-focused compensation plans, creates the financial incentives that benefit those at the top far more than average participants. This model predates Willis' arrival and survives his tenure.
The genealogy is revealing. Asay built something in 1996 that worked. But as the juice market matured, growth stalled. Enter New Age Beverages and the MLM infrastructure. Suddenly the company had a recruitment machine to drive sales, along with a CEO making his first venture into this territory. Whether Willis understood the MLM implications remains unclear.
The Noni by NewAge operation represents what happens when a successful supplement company runs out of conventional growth options. Instead of adapting, it embraced the multilevel structure that had already raised red flags years earlier. The tropical narrative of paradise and wellness remains. The autoship machine rolls on. And the company name changed, but the fundamentals did not.
🤖 Quick Answer
What is Noni by NewAge and its corporate history?Noni by NewAge, formerly Morinda, originated in 1996 when Kerry Asay launched Tahitian Noni Juice, pioneering the noni supplement market. The company underwent corporate restructuring in 2012 with a name change to Morinda, followed by subsequent ownership transitions that shaped its current operational structure and market positioning.
What business model does Noni by NewAge employ?
Noni by NewAge operates through an autoship-based recruitment system where participants maintain continuous product purchases to sustain membership and commissions. This model prioritizes recruitment and recurring subscriptions over conventional retail sales to external consumers, characterizing the company's primary revenue generation mechanism.
How has BehindMLM analyzed Noni by NewAge's operations?
BehindMLM's 2015 review identified structural concerns with
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