Spar has cut the sugar content of its own-label soft drink ranges by 10%.
The symbol group has removed 51.6 tonnes of sugar proportionate to annual sales from its fizzy drinks as a response to growing consumer concern about sugar.
As part of the reformulation, Spar has made changes to the branding on many of its SKUs, including changing American Cola to Classic Cola, to clearly place it as a competitor among bigger brands, and giving Blue Bear energy drinks a new look.
The Blue Bear range, now worth over £1.6m, has also added two new flavours, Apple Sourz and Cherry Sourz featuring the lower sugar level. “The amount of sugar in soft drinks is becoming an increasing concern for our customers,” said Spar UK brand director Susan Darbyshire. “So we are making these improvements to make sure our own-label offering is competitive, modern and adapts to the changing market and consumer shopping habits.”
Flavoured sparkling water will also undergo a reformulation, and most popular flavour Lemon and Lime, which outsells other sparkling water flavours in the market by more than double, is now available in a one-litre bottle. During the range review, an estimated 206 million calories were removed from the products. “Our Spar brand soft drinks range is worth over £15m per year, covering 69 products in 18 subcategories,” said Darbyshire.
“All these changes, along with keeping our pricing clear and competitive, will help entice even more shoppers into our own-label range, boosting sales and profit for our retailers.”
Spar own-brand carbonates, mixers, glucose and isotonic energy drinks are also undergoing the reduced-sugar reformulation, with further details of the refreshed ranges to be announced soon.
No comments yet