Drinkable Fruit Set to Storm the US, claim Innova Market Insights
A review of launch activity using the Innova Database shows that activity has been mostly confined to Europe to date, with the initial launches in the Benelux region being followed by introductions in the UK, Germany and Spain in 2005, and France in 2006.
29/06/09 The one-a-day single serve drinkable fruit or fruit-and-juice market may be set for a major boost with the arrival of one of the pioneering European brands in the US. Hero’s Fruit2Day has been launched in a joint venture with White Wave (Dean Foods), and, as in Europe, contains two portions of fruit in a single-serve bottle, claiming to provide consumers with half their daily fruit requirement in a more convenient format.
These products have been on the European market for some years, pioneered by Hero’s Fruit2Day and Knorr Vie (Unilever). Both products first appearance on the market was in the Netherlands in early 2005, when they were introduced on the back of growing awareness of the need to increase fruit and vegetable consumption in many countries, which combined with the growing familiarity with the one-a-day concept via the success of the single-bottle, dose-delivery active health drinks market.
A review of launch activity using the Innova Database shows that activity has been mostly confined to Europe to date, with the initial launches in the Benelux region being followed by introductions in the UK, Germany and Spain in 2005, and France in 2006. Sales have remained very limited, however, with Spain perhaps the most successful market, with Hero Fruit2Day taking fourth place in the dynamic chilled juice market with over 8% by value, giving it fourth place overall, ahead of other drinkable fruit brands Solan Cabras Fruta Essencial with over 5% and Knorr Vie with 4%. Knorr Vie has also gained over 6% of the French chilled fruit juices market
The German market has also been relatively successful, with Fruit2Day finding instant success following its 2005 launch, quickly reaching sales of over EUR20m a year and also being extended into the spoonable fruit market. Knorr Vie meanwhile, has also gained a foothold in the German market and keeps interest going with its limited edition flavours, particularly its Summer and Winter variants. The Innova Database also records that a new Kidz variant has been added to the Knorr Vie range in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain and selected Scandinavian markets, specifically targeted at children and offering a slightly sweeter variation on the existing adult shot drinks.
Fortunes have been mixed, however, with the market remaining relatively small and fragmented in comparison with the overall small-bottle active health drinks market, and some countries, notably the UK market, are proving particularly difficult to crack. Knorr Vie was launched in 3 flavors under the Knorr Vie Shot name in the UK in mid 2005 and by the autumn of 2006 claimed sales of GB£10m a year, but the brand did not thrive and was eventually withdrawn. Rival Fruit2Day, launched in early 2006, had an even rockier ride, being reported to the UK Advertising Standards Agency in 2006 for claiming that Fruit2Day counted as 2 of the recommended 5 portions of fruit a day, which was in contravention of Department of Health guidelines that allowed fruit juice to count as only one portion, regardless of quantity drunk. Hero promptly withdrew the brand from the UK, saying that it could not market it effectively under these conditions. Activity in the UK market remains extremely limited, even following the summer 2008 launch of Essential from the Portuguese company Compal, imported by Fayrefield Foods.
LuAnn Williams, Innova Market Insight’s Head of Research contends that “With the popularity of fruit, the existing size of the fruit juices and drinks market, rising awareness about the role of antioxidants in the diet and the convenient and healthy image of the new single-serve drinks, the US could be seen to be more than ready to make a success of this new market sector. On the negative side, however, the high price of the product, recommended at US$3.79 per twin-pack, may inhibit sales at a time of economic difficulty when consumers may find it hard to justify the added value of what is essentially fresh fruit and juice, both of which can be obtained much more cheaply elsewhere.”
