PepsiCo is investing £9m in the launch of a premium Tropicana smoothie range to compete with Innocent as part of a total overhaul of its UK smoothie strategy.

Tropicana, which also owns the PJ's Smoothies brand, said it would be targeting a more mature, affluent market with the line while PJ's would continue to cater for a younger audience.

The five-strong range of Tropicana smoothies will be launched this month in one-litre and 250ml formats, priced at £2.99 and £1.79 respectively, pitching the brand directly against category leader Innocent.

"Growth in the smoothie category has now started to slow after a number of years of phenomenal expansion," said Tropicana senior brand manager Adrian Baty.

"However, we think that with only 30% penetration there is still plenty of opportunity in the category. Moving a brand such as Tropicana into the market will stimulate interest, attract new consumers and drive growth."

The smoothies will come in five flavours: strawberry & banana; mango, passionfruit & pineapple; blackberry & blueberry; raspberry & pomegranate; and apple, pear & cranberry.

The launch will be backed with a £5m campaign including TV, press and online ads and sampling. The ads will concentrate on Tropicana's "sophisticated, quality image and our expertise in fruit", Baty said. Packaging would emphasise the fruitiness of the product and include GDAs and 5-a-day information, he added.

The Grocer revealed that PepsiCo would be overhauling its PJ's Smoothies range last month, slashing prices and reducing the line-up to half its size to compete with own-label smoothies.

The lower price point was achieved by removing botanical extracts and replacing exotic fruits with more mainstream ingredients including apples, oranges and bananas, said the company.

Currently, smoothies is the second-biggest segment in the chilled sector, worth £210m and led by Innocent, which grew sales 60.6% to £131.4m last year [Nielsen].

"We believe this sector of the market could be worth £300m in just two years," said Baty. "By bringing Tropicana drinkers into the smoothie category we will be driving incremental growth and adding value."

Topics