A year after announcing plans for a major reformulation to duck under the government’s sugar levy, sales of Lucozade Ribena Suntory’s flagship Lucozade Energy drink brand have fallen by 8.4% year on year, The Grocer can reveal.
According to Nielsen, value sales for Lucozade Energy have fallen by more than £25m, while volume sales were down 7.6% [52 w/e 9 September 2017].
The figures come almost 12 months to the day after LRS COO Peter Harding revealed the start of an overhaul, completed across LRS’s soft drinks portfolio in July 2017, which meant all its drinks with added sugar now contain less than 4.5g of total sugar (a teaspoon) per 100ml.
Hailed by LRS as a “game-changing” breakthrough, it said at the time that advances in sweeteners had allowed it to get the same taste with far less sugar.
The reformulation saw the most dramatic reduction to Lucozade Energy Orange, with the reformulated version containing 65% less sugar, at 4.5g compared with 13g, while Lucozade Original contains 48% less than the previous 8.7g.
But the reformulation has attracted criticism, particularly on social media, with consumers taking to Twitter to express their distaste at a “horrible” new recipe.
One tweeted: “Oh dear lord just had my first bottle of Lucozade in ages, what the actual is that taste!!!?? It’s rank !!”
Another described the new recipe as “the worse [sic] I’ve ever tasted”.
Harding said this week: “As part of our far-reaching health and wellbeing plan, we pledged to remove 50% of the sugar from our drinks. We’ve already reformulated 74% of our portfolio, including our biggest brand - Lucozade Energy.
“We’re confident that the changes we’re making to our portfolio, in line with consumer health and wellbeing trends, are absolutely the right thing to do both for our consumers and our retail customers, helping them reap the rewards both now and in the years to come,” said Harding.
“We expected to see some impact on Lucozade Energy sales following the brand’s reformulation earlier this year. With any brand as well-loved as ours, some consumers will notice a recipe change. However, we also know these shoppers will return to the drinks they love and this is exactly what we’re starting to see now. We’re delighted that 13 million shoppers have already converted to the new lower sugar recipe. The overwhelming feedback from our extensive sampling campaign was hugely positive and we’re seeing extra consumers buy into the category who previously might have disregarded energy drinks because of their higher sugar content.
With increased criticism of artificial ingredients among health lobby groups Harding also sought to reassure the trade over Lucozade’s safety credentials. “Additionally, despite some media reports, all approved sweeteners in the EU have undergone rigorous assessments by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to ensure they are safe to consume. Sweeteners are an essential tool in helping us move consumers to lower sugar drinks and both industry and government must relay factual information to consumers to help address these misconceptions.”
Harding added: “This is a long-term project. We’ve got ambitious plans for Lucozade Energy in 2018, that are above and beyond the expectation of even a category leading brand like ours, and we can’t wait to see this investment translate into increased sales for retailers as we ensure the brand is fit for the future.”The impact on Lucozade will be carefully watched by suppliers, with the looming Soft Drinks Industry Levy in April, and PHE’s separate reformulation targets across other sectors piling pressure on companies to reformulate.
One supplier source said: “The brand has absolutely bombed. Lucozade may have ducked under the sugar tax but their sales have taken a dive. It shows how careful you have to be with reformulation.”
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