Lucozade Sport, the nation’s number one sports drink (IRI, 52w/e 19.02.17), is launching a new functional water called FitWater.

Available from August 1, FitWater comes in 600ml bottles and will allow retailers to tap into the profit opportunity of the fastest-growing segment in soft drinks.

With an additional £75.8m value sales in the past year alone, water currently accounts for 14% share of total value sales of Great Britain’s soft drinks. Functional water is the fastest-growing area within the still water segment, with a sales increase of 27.6% (IRI, 52 w/e 21.05.17).

Claire Higgins, Lucozade Sport senior marketing manager at Lucozade Ribena Suntory (LRS) said: “We’re absolutely thrilled to be launching FitWater. We’re confident it meets the growing consumer demand for functional drinks to enjoy as part of an active lifestyle. We know that sales of water have climbed 7.6% in grocery, yet within the independents & symbols channel this figure is only 5.8% (IRI, 52 w/e 21.05.17). This gap represents a crucial missed opportunity for retailers to grow their sales; stocking up on FitWater will enable them to bridge this gap and increase water sales in store.

“FitWater combines the best of both worlds - Lucozade Sport’s longstanding history and instant recognition on shelf, alongside Lucozade Ribena Suntory’s impressive credentials for delivering NPD that’s in line with consumer trends. FitWater can be trusted to pique the interest of existing Lucozade Sport consumers while also appealing to new drinkers; we know from our extensive consumer research that 89% (Marketing sciences research for Lucozade Sport May 2016) of people would buy FitWater.”

Lucozade Ribena Suntory was the largest single contributor to NPD soft drink value sales growth (IRI Symbols & Independents  w/e 19.02.17) in the past year, responsible for 30.1% share of the drink now segment NPD sales uplift (IRI Symbols & Independents, 52 w/e 19.02.17).

To generate high impact at launch, FitWater will be supported by a £3M media spend in September across outdoor, experiential and social media. A full range of eye-catching POS materials will be available from August.

FitWater comes in 600ml bottles (RRP £0.89) in cases of 12.