Soft drinks: Fruit punch

Warm weather, a Wimbledon win and customers coming in wearing flip-flops - could this be the year that Britain finally gets its summer back? If so, then it’s important to keep room in the chiller for a thirst-slaking juice and smoothies offer, alongside the waters and carbonates.

“Juices and juice drinks are a crucial category to the convenience channel, with a 16.4% value share of total soft drinks (10.7% volume),” says Coca-Cola Enterprises trade communications manager Dave Turner. “The sector is growing ahead of the general soft drinks category in convenience, with volume up 3.3% and value up 5.7%,” he reveals.

With figures like these, juice looks like a welcome ray of sunshine for the c-store sector. And to suit this sunny mood, shoppers are opting for seriously tropical tastes.

Adrian Troy, head of marketing at AG Barr, says 11,000 new consumers started drinking exotic juice stalwart Rubicon every day during 2012, 80% of whom Troy refers to as ‘mainstream’ shoppers (TNS Omnibus/Ethnibus Org 2012).

To feed this demand Rubicon has added a new lychee variant to its 500ml stills range - the first of its kind in the impulse market. “Lychee is Rubicon’s fastest growing flavour at 15% MAT,” points out Troy.

CCE isn’t being slow to meet the tropical trend, either. It’s putting its marketing might behind new mango flavours, in both its Oasis and Capri-Sun lines.

Elsewhere in the category, the drive for authenticity is inspiring new brands to tailor exotic flavours to the increasingly adventurous UK market.

Originally designed for his North London restaurant, Jamaican-born entrepreneur Colin Carr is now launching his Saapos range of Caribbean drinks into the impulse channel under the strapline ‘The Original Caribbean Punch’.

“We started making fresh punches based on my Jamaican family’s traditional recipes in the kitchen of our Caribbean restaurant,” says Carr.

“In our corner of North London we were experiencing growing demand from local convenience retailers, which is why we’ve taken this big step out into the impulse market. C-stores have a very wide consumer base and not everyone wants fizzy colas or mineral water.”

Carr says that he had to tweak the original recipes to fit in with a market that’s more attuned towards health.

“If we were marketing our Caribbean Punch drinks in the Caribbean islands, they would have a lot more sugar - here in the UK people are more concerned about their sugar intake and are probably more inclined to read the label, so we have taken a great deal of care with our ingredients,” he says.

This seemingly unquenchable desire for the exotic is also part of the reason coconut water has become such a big hit, with product introductions to the category more than quintupling in the past five years, according to Mintel. Giles Brook, Vita Coco ceo, says that independents are the backbone of the category’s success.

“We’ve managed to get into 4,500 independents and all the supermarkets,” he says. “Two-thirds of our sales are through independents, and that’s where we’ve built the brand.”

After rapid growth, Vita Coco is making a steady march into the juice aisle with its Vita Coco orange product.

“If you go round the world you see that coconut water is not a new product at all - it’s just relatively new to the UK. A lot of people start the day with coconut water, which is one of the reasons we launched the orange variant,” he explains.

Joining the party is new coconut water brand Invo, seeking shelf standout by highlighting its ‘fresh from the tree’ credentials.

Invo brand manager Timothea Horwell says that because Invo isn’t pasteurised with heat, it retains more of the health benefits that draw consumers to the drink in the first place.

“Coconut water is low in calories, rich in potassium and fat- and cholesterol-free. It’s healthier than a soft drink or juice, keeps us better hydrated, and has more beneficial effects than regular plain or bottled water,” she adds.

All juice

Stepping away from big flavours for a moment, the ‘100% juice’ trend is also gathering pace with brands keen to big up juice’s health benefits and distinguish them from concentrates.

“The launch of our 100% Juice range last year brought incremental younger, upmarket families to the brand,” explains Tara Levine, EMEA managing director at Ocean Spray. However, she adds that consumers “still wanted the option of chilled cranberry juice drinks”.

To keep these consumers in the loop, the brand has brought back its Cranberry Original and Light drinks, siting them alongside the 100% Juice option - packaged to remind shoppers that they account for one of the government’s five-a-day.

Because of the healthy edge, parents often opt for juices over carbonates for their children. So when choosing your range it pays to play on the category’s kiddie appeal.

“Keeping a range of lunchbox drinks such as Fruit Burst or Um Bongo is really important,” advises James Logan, commercial director at the Gerber Juice company. “This suits mums buying for their children’s lunchboxes and offers an on-the-go treat for the kids themselves.”

Junior choice

In the lunchbox league, Just Juice has always been a c-store winner, since it’s not available at the multiples. And now the brand is sweetening the deal with a pricemarked pack.

“Just Juice has a £1 pricemark on the 500ml PET and this is performing well,” says Logan.

“This is great value for a pure juice and also fits with the ‘round pound’ deals that independent stores are promoting.”

Jucee is also giving retailers more bang for their buck by making its cartons exclusively available to c-stores in a case of 18.

“Jucee is the UK’s fastest growing lunchbox drinks brand,” says Princes brand manager Graham Breed.

“The products were previously available only as a multipack in major retailers, but with the same eye-catching pack design with child appeal, these new single mini cartons are ideal for store owners looking to tap into impulse sales opportunities.”

Crush hour

Breakfast may be shoppers’ favourite time to sink a smoothie at home, but when they’re on the go they’re more likely to wait till the afternoon for a fruit fix to assuage the afternoon blood sugar slump.

“Smoothie consumption tends to take place in the afternoon,” says Tropicana group marketing manager Patrick Kalotis. “Providing two of your five-a-day, Naked is outperforming the category, driving frequency and value,” he adds.

For smoothie shoppers, fruit quotient is a key area, with three out of five smoothie consumers willing to pay more for a higher amount of fruit in their drinks, according to Mintel. However, it’s a category where the mults offer deep discounts, so c-stores could have to use promotions to help them stay in the game.

“Offer ‘meal deals’ so consumers visit several categories in one trip and potentially increase their spend,” advises Razin Ali, brand manager at Sunmagic, a brand that offers a full range of juices and smoothies.

“Additionally, changing drinks offers regularly is a tactical mechanic to keeping customers interested in the category.”