Danone considers scrapping Volvic Revive following poor sales uptake

Danone’s Volvic Revive, its first functional water brand, is under threat of being scrapped after less than a year due to poor response from consumers. The brand, backed by a £7m marketing and advertising push last April, is thought to have failed against established competitors like GlaxoSmithKline’s Lucozade.

Danone’s Volvic Revive, its first functional water brand, is under threat of being scrapped after less than a year due to poor response from consumers. The brand, backed by a £7m marketing and advertising push last April, is thought to have failed against established competitors like GlaxoSmithKline’s Lucozade.

Danone has already de­cided to axe the brand’s Citrus Kick flavoured variant and is understood to have informed at least one major supermarket of its intention to scrap the brand altogether.

One retail insider des­cribes Volvic Revive Citrus Kick as resembling “cooking oil” which has had little consumer appeal.

Another says the brand has struggled against competition on supermarket shelves from the likes of Lucozade. He says: “Danone approached us before Christmas and told us it was getting rid of the brand altogether as it was not working with customers.”

Volvic Revive, marketed as an alternative to mainstream energy drinks and targeted at 18-to 35-year-olds, is also sold in a Berry Blast flavoured variant.

The drinks contain guar­ana and ginseng extracts, which it is claimed have energising properties, as well as having no added sugar.

Revive has been sold across supermarkets in sports-top bottles along with multipacks of four in an effort to appeal to a young demographic.

Danone, which also sells leading water brand Evian, admits it has decided to delist Volvic Revive Citrus Kick but maintains that it has no intention of delisting Berry Blast, which it claims has performed well and will be the focus of its future efforts.

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