This article is part of our 2016 Soft Drinks Digital Feature.

The ripples of Ribenagate are making their mark in fruit juice drinks. Six months after Tesco delisted a raft of added-sugar kids’ fruit juice drinks from its shelves in a bid to remove 5% of sugar from the soft drinks it sells, it’s not just the brands involved in the cull that have seen sales tumble.

Ribena, Capri-Sun and Rubicon were all singled out in Tesco’s so-called Project Reset, prompting Lucozade Ribena Suntory to hit back by relaunching its entire Ribena brand with a ‘significant strategic shift’ in August 2015, a month after the delisting was announced, and Capri-Sun to extend its no-added-sugar lines.

Unsurprisingly, sales of all three brands are down. Capri-Sun is worst hit with value sales down 12.1% on volumes down 13.8%, while Rubicon has seen value sales slide 6.3% on volumes down 5.6% [IRI 52 w/e 30 January 2016]. Ribena has been hit hard with its low-calorie and standard lines struggling. Value and volumes sales of standard Ribena are down 7.2%, while the value of Ribena Really Light Low Calorie has almost halved, with value sales down from £22.6m to just £12.3m, a loss of 45.4% on volumes down 49%.

But the three brands are by no means alone. Robinsons Fruit Shoot has seen value sales slide 16.7%, on volumes down 24.3%, and Sunny D and Juice Burst are in a similar boat with value sales down 8.9% and 5% respectively on volumes down 16% and 5.9%.

“While the decline in the ambient juice market has slowed down, the juice drinks sector of the market is the fastest declining,” says Joanna Watling, marketing director at Princes. “More no-added-sugar branded new product development is required in the market to counter shopper concerns around their sugar intake.”

The performance of Robinsons’ low-calorie Fruit Shoot is a perfect example. The variant is up 8.1% to £58.6m on volumes up 20.6%. But it’s not as straightforward as simply reducing calories. Despite reformulating its Robinsons Fruit Shoot My 5 to cut sugar in August 2015, value sales of the Britvic brand are down 6.5%, on volumes down 3.7%.

How players react to Osborne’s sugar tax and what impact this has on fruit juice drinks remains to be seen, but there’s no doubt the category isn’t the healthiest sector to be in at the moment.

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