Sunny Delight Beverages Company is relaunching Sunny D and introducing a juice and a smoothie - in a bold attempt to rehabilitate the much maligned brand.
SDBC, which bought the brand two years ago from Procter & Gamble, has reformulated the basic range by removing vegetable oil and artificial thickeners and cutting sugar to 25% less than rival juice drink brands.
The new look Sunny D, which will be the first branded soft drink to feature Guideline Daily Amount information on front of pack, hits chillers on Monday and will be followed by new no-added sugar Orange & Pineapple.
Later this summer, the company, which set up a parents advisory group to help re-invent the brand, will launch a 100% pure juice with vitamins A, C and E and the ingredient of the moment, Omega-3. The blended juice, still under development, has been provisionally called Smart Start and is aimed at the breakfast market. A number of flavours are being considered and the one-litre cartons are expected to retail at about £1.49 .
A new smoothie range, provisionally called Fruit Boost, will be launched early next year. Aimed at kids' lunchboxes, the 90g crushed fruit pouches will retail at about £2.70 for five.
The launches come weeks after Sunny D was blamed for a spillage at the Somerset factory of Gerber Foods Soft Drinks, its UK packer and distributor. Years of negative publicity have resulted in sales of £250m shrinking to £35m.
Jean Jacques Fredj, SDBC's MD, Western Europe, said the goal was to stretch the brand to new markets, including teenagers. Ultimately, he said, the company wanted to make the basic Sunny D range totally additive-free and was looking at innovations, such as fruit tea and milk drinks - already launched in France - and even yoghurts.
"The logic is that there is the mother brand and the sub-brand, but it needs to be close enough to say it's Sunny D. We have a mono product. The next step is to develop different brands for different target markets."
SDBC, which bought the brand two years ago from Procter & Gamble, has reformulated the basic range by removing vegetable oil and artificial thickeners and cutting sugar to 25% less than rival juice drink brands.
The new look Sunny D, which will be the first branded soft drink to feature Guideline Daily Amount information on front of pack, hits chillers on Monday and will be followed by new no-added sugar Orange & Pineapple.
Later this summer, the company, which set up a parents advisory group to help re-invent the brand, will launch a 100% pure juice with vitamins A, C and E and the ingredient of the moment, Omega-3. The blended juice, still under development, has been provisionally called Smart Start and is aimed at the breakfast market. A number of flavours are being considered and the one-litre cartons are expected to retail at about £1.49 .
A new smoothie range, provisionally called Fruit Boost, will be launched early next year. Aimed at kids' lunchboxes, the 90g crushed fruit pouches will retail at about £2.70 for five.
The launches come weeks after Sunny D was blamed for a spillage at the Somerset factory of Gerber Foods Soft Drinks, its UK packer and distributor. Years of negative publicity have resulted in sales of £250m shrinking to £35m.
Jean Jacques Fredj, SDBC's MD, Western Europe, said the goal was to stretch the brand to new markets, including teenagers. Ultimately, he said, the company wanted to make the basic Sunny D range totally additive-free and was looking at innovations, such as fruit tea and milk drinks - already launched in France - and even yoghurts.
"The logic is that there is the mother brand and the sub-brand, but it needs to be close enough to say it's Sunny D. We have a mono product. The next step is to develop different brands for different target markets."
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