Innocent to broaden portfolio with more food products

by Joe Thomas, marketingmagazine.co.uk 04-Feb-09, 09:00

LONDON - Innocent Drinks will further diversify its product range this year as it looks to position itself as 'the Earth's favourite little food company', reducing its reliance on the fortunes of the smoothie sector.

The Innocent brand suffered last year, with overall sales of its smoothies falling by 20%, from £134.1m in 2007 to £107m, according to Nielsen. Overall, the juice drinks and smoothies sector declined by 1%.

Innocent intends to fight back by broadening its brand portfolio and said it will put an emphasis on product innovation. It is understood that one of the year's first product launches will be a food snack called Innocent Squeezies.

Innocent launched its first product outside its drinks range last year when it unveiled its Veg Pots brand in September. A spokeswoman for Innocent said: 'After moving into food for the first time with our Veg Pots, we are looking at a variety of tasty and healthy food and drink options for 2009.' She declined to give details of specific products.

The brand has also stated its intention to expand more aggressively across Europe.

The spokeswoman acknowledged the pressure Innocent is under. 'Things are challenging due to the economic environment, and last year some big companies launched against us in our category,' she added.

Innocent launched a pure Orange Juice product last August to compete with PepsiCo-owned Tropicana. The latter extended into the smoothie sector and grew its sales by 16.6% to £282.8m in 2008.