Health is big influencer

DISCOUNTERS and c-stores are squeezing soft drinks sales in the big four supermarkets, with cola sales in the multiples falling by 1.4% in the last year and pure juice sales down by 2.4%. This is revealed in the latest soft drinks review from Britvic.

And with consumers increasingly looking for healthier drinks, Britvic reports that the fastest growing brands in grocery are Innocent, Pure Life, Fever Tree, Pepsi and Naked.

Managing director of Britvic UK, Paul Graham, said: “We’ve removed 19bn calories per year from our portfolio since 2012.

“We will continue to keep our commitment to providing consumers with inspiring choices that deliver on taste at the heart of our strategy in the years to come.”

The latest new product from Britvic is Robinsons Refresh’d, a combination of spring water and fruit.
It is available in three flavours: raspberry and apple, orange and lime, and kiwi and apple with an RRP of £1.29 for a 500ml bottle.

• Vimto had the health conscious shopper in mind when it created its latest drink.

Vim2o is a no-added-sugar still spring water drink, flavoured with Vimto.
Vimto says new product development has contributed to a successful 12 months for the brand, when it consistently outperformed the market by 1.1%.

It says its previous product launch, Vimto Remix, is already worth £3.8m and it is predicting similar success for Vim2o after 70% of consumers who took part in a sampling campaign said they would purchase it.

Vim2o is initially available in a 500ml sportscap format and  a 250ml variant, designed for lunchboxes, is to be added later in the year.