Don Simon has pulled one-litre smoothies - 18 months after launching them to challenge Innocent.
The Spanish juice giant has ceased production of its one-litre smoothies for the UK, with stockists Ocado and Asda now selling through their stock. The drinks were launched last April at £1.99, with Don Simon declaring smoothie prices were “ruthlessly high” and that it aimed to eat into Innocent’s dominance.
This week, however, it said concerns about category value erosion - and a 21% slump in total volume sales [Kantar 52 w/e 15 September 2013] - had prompted it to remove the one-litre lines.
“Although we were well supported in Ocado and Asda, several retailers expressed concern about consumers trading down in the category,” said Richard Cawood, marketing manager at Don Simon owner J Garcia Carrión. “Ultimately, sales were not strong enough to justify the range.”
The company is shifting the focus of its UK smoothies business to lunchbox cartons, which it said were in strong growth. “A design refresh of our ambient My Little Smoothie range, and continued support of our Disney Cars and Princess smoothies will be our focus for the year ahead,” added Cawood.
Don Simon also has plans for its UK juice and juice drinks range. This week, it is launching two 1.5-litre juice drinks - pineapple & coconut and passion fruit, apple & mango (rsp: £2.50) - into 500 Tesco stores.
The launch follows the rollout of Disfruta sugar-free juice drinks into Morrisons early in October. Sweetened with sodium cyclamate and saccharin, they contain 50% fewer calories than traditional juice drinks.
Don Simon is this month rolling out Disney Monsters University-branded one-litre drinks in apple & blackcurrant and tropical flavours.
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