Innocent

Innocent is the fastest growing brand in the Checkout Nielsen Top 100 and has moved 30 places up the league to 33.

With sales growth of 45.6%, Innocent is now a £141.2m brand and the seventh biggest player in soft drinks.

“We are delighted,” says commercial director Giles Brook, “and growth isn't slowing. In the 52 weeks to 29 December 2007, smoothies added £43m to the chilled juice category, providing 69% of its total growth.”

Brook credits the brand's success to sitting at the heart of the four top macro trends: health/wellbeing, indulgent/premium, convenient and ethical.

And it has innovated around these areas in 2007.

It launched new recipes for its top-selling flavours, Strawberries & Bananas and Mangoes & Passionfruit, and worked with key customers to extend distribution.

It also launched the Breakfast Thickie combining yogurt, oats and blueberries, designed to meet new need states, says Brook. Its success ushered a second variant with pears and figs.

“The Thickie has been a huge seller with peaks in the early morning, mid-morning and mid-afternoon,” reports Brook, who claims smoothies can meet a snacking role that other beverages cannot.

Looking forward to 2008 Innocent is increasing its support for the brand by 50% to £12m and introducing a bigger 1.5-litre pack.

In April, meanwhile, it is launching into the dairy category with three Innocent Thickie recipes in 750ml take-home PET bottles.

Brook says the range offers the usp of being “incredibly healthy and indulgent versus existing yogurt drinks which are full of artificials”.

The brand's range of Super food smoothies will be relaunched mid-year while This Water, Innocent's juice drink, will be backed by a £1m campaign. Brook reports it is going from strength to strength and outsells rivals.

This year has also seen the launch of 100% recycled PET bottles, claimed to be an industry first. The bottles are recyclable at the end of life and use 20% less packaging than the original format. It ticks the ethical box Brook mentioned earlier and is part of Innocent's aim to “leave the planet a little bit better than we found it”.

Other initiatives include the switch to greener electricity at its production partner and sourcing all bananas from the Rainforest Alliance. Brook reports Innocent is looking to source more Rainforest Alliance fruit in future.

The company was also one of the first to sign up to the Carbon Trust scheme to to measure and lower its carbon footprint.

According to Brook, this is declared on the company's website but not on pack because the brand believes there is at present a danger, as with nutritional labelling, of confusing the consumer.

But such moves will become key believes Brook. “It's not going to be everybody's prerequisite but people want to do their bit for the environment and they will see Innocent in a good light.”

2007 £141.2m
2006 £97.0m
yoy change 45.6%