GSK to revamp bottle cap on Lucozade Sport
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is to introduce sports caps for its Lucozade Sport drinks as a way to stay ahead in the sports drinks market.
Lucozade Sport is the market leader in the sports drink category, but unlike competitors such as Coca-Cola’s Powerade or Nestlé Waters’ Vittel+ Energy, its 500ml plastic bottles are not packaged with sports caps, a feature popular with athletes and gym users. Insiders say GSK will revamp Lucozade Sport’s packaging to include the caps by spring.
The sports drink market grew 35 per cent by volume last year, reaching 73 million litres. It is worth £150m (Zenith International).
Lucozade Sport, launched in 1991, is available in orange and lemon flavours and is also packaged in 330ml “sportpack” pouches, 330ml cans and 345ml glass bottles.
GSK announced it was introducing sports caps to its Ribena drinks in early 2002 but it took more than a year to implement the plan (MW March 14, 2002).
The company has spent £4.6m on advertising Lucozade Sport in the year to September (Nielsen Media Research). This includes a £1.2m press campaign in March, created by M&C Saatchi, which featured British Olympic athletes such as rower James Cracknell and triathlete Tim Don. The campaign carried the strapline “Are You Ready?”.
