Back to nature

Few can deny the dominance of the health and wellbeing trend in UK soft drinks.

Visible government-driven marketing campaigns opposing obesity and less visible work by processors and organisations such as the Food Standards Agency (FSA) continue to influence consumer trends and product development.

With the total market worth £15bn and consumption growing 70% in the 10 years to 2007 according to Food Manufacture's Soft Drinks market report, compiled by RTS Resource, it's unsurprising officials see it as such a vital area to target.

Sugar is a big focus. Nestlé Waters cited the government's Change4Life campaign, urging shoppers to swap high sugar products for low or no sugar equivalents, as motivation to ditch its Buxton flavoured waters from April.

However much falling flavoured water sales may have been another factor, specifically referencing the campaign is significant.

"We leverage our association with Change4Life and have been working with the Department of Health on this for months," says Nestlé Waters marketing director Rebecca White, adding that her firm will use its PureLife water to draw shoppers from sugar.

Mirroring many processors, Susan Turner, Britvic's head of corporate affairs, says: "Low or no sugar variants form an important and growing part of our portfolio."

Commenting on the take-home market (non-foodservice channels), Britvic's 2009 Soft Drinks Report claims: "The focus on health, and growing concern about obesity, continue to push consumers towards no-sugar variants. In 2008 diet brands gained a further percentage point of share in volume [29%] and value [23%]."

British Soft Drinks Association (BSDA) communications director Richard Laming says it's discussing sugar reduction with the FSA, but it's "too soon to say" how things will go.

The sticking point is the same one other sectors have with salt: cutting content overnight would lead to shoppers rejecting the taste of products. "I don't believe it's possible to come up with targets, because of consumer acceptability," says Laming.

The problem is complicated by the clean label movement, with retailers favouring 'natural' over 'artificial' sweeteners.

One natural sugar alternative is the Stevia range of herbs and shrubs. "We're still looking at Stevia, but the taste is quite challenging," says Simon Speers, md of Bottlegreen Drinks Company, which makes cordials, pressés and sorbets with natural flavours such as elderflower or lime. "On some products it's overpowering, on some it isn't, but the product will feel 'thin'."

Speers is unapologetic about Bottlegreen's sugar use. "We're under no pressure from retailers to tone down sugar," he says.

The target market makes a big difference. "Bottlegreen consumers don't have a beef with sugar. They know it's about the absolute amount you take in."

David Hanlon, sales and marketing director at Silver Spring, says: "A lot of multiples have sugar or sweetener only products. We've gone from sugar to sugar and sweetener to taking sugar out to using sugar and sweetener together. Retailers in own label have gone for full sugar."

Thus, appealing to a growing appetite for natural products may overcome concerns about sugar, versus sweeteners such as aspartame, which has received bad press.

This is especially true in fruit juices, says David Patmore, md of organic juice processor Grove Fresh. "Consumers see high sugar fruit content, but are willing to trade that off for vitamins and minerals."

Certainly, PepsiCo's 250ml Tropicana Pure Premium Original Orange Juice contains 22.5g of sugar - a quarter of the guideline daily amount - and that's clearly not turning consumers off. Tropicana stormed ahead last year according to Britvic's report, with take-home value sales up 16% to £286M.

Sports drinks​

Nor has sugar content dampened sales of glucose and stimulant drinks. It showed the fastest take-home growth of any sub-category - 12% in value to £522M and 12% in volume to 255Ml, claims Britvic's report. Sports drinks rose 7% in value to £166M and 9% in volume to 103Ml in the same channels. High sugar hits, fuelling strenuous physical activity, is often what the target market here wants.

However, Sorcha Tobin, business development manager at Glanbia Nutritionals, ingredient supplier for many sports drink processors, foresees problems as products are increasingly drunk for non-sports purposes. "With the category becoming more mainstream, brands are going to come under pressure [over their sugar content]. There's also space for a female offering and girls will look at the calorie count."

Again, there is the dilemma of 'natural' versus 'artificial' sweeteners. "ACE K (acesulphame potassium) is a sweetener used a lot in mainstream products," says Tobin. "A lot of customers are requesting we replace this with natural sweetener."

Natural sugar boosts are not the only thing offered by this category. The clean label movement is leading to the replacement of 'artificial' components with 'natural' functional ingredients here as much as any other area.

S Black has added natural cellulose fibres including wheat, bamboo, apple and oat to its portfolio. In addition to the health benefits, they also bind minerals, reduce ingredient clumping and improve body and mouthfeel.

Dietary fibres offer massive benefits in the realm of dairy drinks, promoting gut health, says Tim Van der Schraelen, Beneo-Orafti marketing and communication manager. "We have seen a 90% increase in the number of dairy drink products that contain inulin and oligofructose over the last seven years."

In pursuit of clean label clients, Limagrain Céréales Ingrédients, based in Rennes, France, has launched Farigel Wheat Low Viscosity, which avoids the high viscosity created by most cereal ingredients in dairy drinks and other beverages.

Even mainstream processor Silver Spring is looking at the functional arena. "There are a number of products we're working on," says Hanlon. "It won't be a big push, just something we add to some of our brands. We've been making children's drinks with vitamins and minerals for a few years. We're working on more and investigating botanicals."

With such emphasis on health, there's just one thing that's puzzling. How is it that regular, traditional brands, not best-known for their health credentials, are showing strong growth?

Britvic's report says of the take-home market: "Cola doubled its value growth to 4% and remains the top sub-category with sales of £1.29bn - 21% of the take-home market."

Pepsi grew 15% in value to £258M and Irn Bru grew sales by 5% to £91M. "Pepsi Max grew by 20%, regular by 16%," adds Britvic. "Coke sales grew 2% to £969M as 4% growth for Regular offset Coke Zero's 6% decline."

Britvic says regular products outperformed diet or no-added sugar variants (+4% vs +2%).

Brand value​

Some of the answer lies in the heavy promotional activity that these brands can support. Promotions account for almost three quarters of branded cola sales, says Britvic, and in the current economic climate that has to be a factor.

In the same way, despite their health benefits, in 2008 smoothie sales fell 20% in value to £172M and 15% in volume in take-home channels. Britvic explains that "consumers were clearly not willing to pay the price premium when they could get their fruit fix elsewhere"

There's also the "flight to trusted brands seen in past economic downturns", according to Britvic.

One product that seems to combine the attraction of a trusted brand with consumers' growing thirst for natural ingredients and low sugar is Pepsi Raw. The drink hit take-home channels early this year in 250ml cans, having made its debut in pubs and bars.

PepsiCo boasts that the product is "a natural cola made from quality ingredients and sparkling water - including natural plant extracts", without 'artificial' colours preservatives, flavourings or sweeteners. Perhaps this could indicate a way to merge prevailing trends.