Buxton is moving outside plain waters for the first time with a new functional Plant + Water range.
It has created a trio of fruit and herb flavoured waters: Lime, Lemon & Sage, Blood Orange & Rosemary, and Pomegranate & Basil.
They are infused with magnesium, which is billed as helping reduce fatigue and tiredness, as well as plant polyphenols – botanical compounds found in green coffee beans.
They will roll out exclusively into 689 Boots stores across the UK from 6 July, in bottles made from 51% recycled PET (rsp: £1.79/500ml).
Nestlé Waters head of marketing Warren Plaskett said the brand had begun “exploring the power of plants around three years ago, predicting the growing interest and movement towards plant-based diets”.
“We saw a huge opportunity in this research into plants and accelerated this insight to create a beverage that provides more than just thirst-quenching refreshment.”
It was “part of an exciting trend that recognises the benefits of plants and provides hydration with a gentle uplift to support the active lifestyle of our consumers,” he added.
The NPD comes after a difficult 2019 for Buxton: over the 52 weeks to 25 January 2020, the brand lost almost a quarter of its value, dropping 23.6% to £84.7m, as the category struggled to lap 2018’s stellar summer and Brits swapped plastic bottles for reusables such as [Nielsen].
It wasn’t alone in its decline: every category of bottled water lost value in 2019, with the total category haemorrhaging £34.2m in sales – a 6.4% decline. Plain waters like Buxton accounted for more than half of that loss, falling £17.6m [Kantar 52 w/e 3 November 2019].
December saw Buxton pledge to convert the packaging of its entire bottled water range to 100% rPET by 2021.
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