Juices & smoothies: juice brands risk running out of juice

Britain’s losing its sweet tooth - at least when it comes to juice. Nearly all the growth in the category this year is thanks to posh smoothie brands such as Innocent and Naked - the duo have racked up a combined £26m in extra sales. That’s not just because the average prices of both Innocent and Naked grew by 5.9% and 2.4% respectively; both brands also increased their volumes. Over in juices, however, well-established brands such as Princes (down 33.7% to £2.6m), Del Monte (down 25.4% to £3.4m) and Copella (down 1.4% to £38.4m) are floundering. So is it game over for fruit juice brands?

Not entirely. Tropicana, despite being knocked off the top spot by Innocent last year, is holding strong. Its sales are back in the black with £1.9m growth. “They’ve focused on optimising the basics,” says Hamish Renton, MD of HRA Food & Drink. “They’ve got the sizing talking to the price point and that’s enabled a tempting promotional strategy.”

And it succinctly tapped the health trend with the relaunch of its Essentials sub-brand this year, a range of four new juices containing trendy veg such as carrot and spinach, all of which tout a high vitamin content.

It’s also notable that Tropicana has seen its average price drop. While many juice brands containing added sugar have become more expensive thanks in part to the introduction of the sugar tax in April, Tropicana contains no added sugar and is therefore exempt. The increased awareness of sugar goes some way to explain why pure juices like Tropicana are up 1% and juice drinks are down 6%.

Tropicana’s better fortunes aside, it’s clear the way the market is going. While juices are struggling, smoothies are growing at 13%. Part of the reason, says Renton, is smoothie producers can be faster and more flexible when responding to consumer trends.

“You’re effectively competing on your ability to source and combine raw materials in the right proportions. Therefore, if chia seeds suddenly come in and flax seeds go out of fashion, you can roll with it no problem at all. Smoothies are seen as a health food and health food is a fashion industry.”

The category leader now by a long shot, Innocent’s recent moves have been less about adding flavours and more about capitalising on wider fmcg trends such as cutting down on plastics - it announced plans in April to roll out 100% non-virgin plastic across its packaging by 2020.

It’s also set its sights on growth in the booming dairy alternatives category with the launch of a trio of unsweetened nut milks, squaring up to the dominant Alpro. Our Top Launch Adez took a similar route. Plant-based players will no doubt be watching the developments with interest.

TOP LAUNCH

Adez, Coca-Cola European Partners 

Coke’s foray into dairy-free smoothies certainly raised some eyebrows in January. Especially considering Unilever had already launched Adez in the UK in 2006 as a soya fruit juice, but ditched it shortly afterwards citing lack of shopper interest. CCEP’s reimagining drops the soya and comes in Almond Mango-Passionfruit; Oat Strawberry-Banana; and Coconut Berry flavours. It’s audacious, sure, but given the current rude health of the dairy-free sector, Adez could well nail its second run.