Britvic spots £42m boost in school lunch box launch

Britvic Soft Drinks aims to boost sales by &£42m with the launch of two innovative products aimed at getting its drinks into children’s school lunch boxes.

The company is launching a Robinsons line, called Fruit Shoot, and a 250ml size Tango. Both are packaged in plastic bottles suitable for children’s lunch boxes, so bypassing the ban many schools have on canned drinks.

The move is part of Britvic’s Right Choice strategy, which aims to build the soft drinks category as a whole.

The launch of Fruit Shoot, which comes in a sports-style plastic drinks bottle, will be backed by a &£4m marketing campaign, including TV, children’s press and Internet advertisements, plus in-store activity.

The brand will initially be launched in two flavours, orange & peach and blackcurrant & apple, and will cost about 60p for a 300ml bottle. It will also be available in multi-pack formats.

The launch will coincide with new 250ml packaging for Tango.

The 250ml bottles, which will cost 42p, will be promoted through Tango’s existing marketing activity and be supported by children’s press ads and sampling.

The Tango range is also being boosted by the permanent introduction of Cherry Tango, which was available for a limited period last summer.

The company estimates Fruit Shoot will offer a first-year retail value of &£30m, while Tango 250ml bottles will raise an extra &£10m.

Britvic marketing director Andrew Marsden says: “Fruit Shoot and Tango 250ml are evidence of our determination to develop new products that increase profitability, while offering better choice to consumers.”