Soft drinks is a tough, crowded market; Brits drank nearly 13.5 million litres of the stuff in 2017 (British Soft Drinks Association, Global Data 2018). Now there’s a new wave of innovative young brands enjoying growing sales, and they’re causing a stir in soft drinks with their standout packaging, and unusual and enticing flavours. So […]
As one of the most heavily regulated categories, the spirits business has long been defined by mandated category norms and a reliance on traditional points of sale. However, as technology evolves and eCommerce reinvents retail, this disruption is starting to be felt by the spirits market as well. While spirit consumption has been dominated by […]
Our drinking habits are changing fast and the beer industry is transforming alongside these trends. The Office for National Statistics states that one adult in five in the UK is now teetotal, and for 16-24-year-olds, it goes up to one in four. Some 4.5m people took part in Dry January last year, a number which […]
After years of everything ‘Millennial’ taking centre stage, the focus is shifting to a new Generation – ‘Z’; Those born between 1996 and 2010 will make up 33% of the world population by 2020. Much has been said about the millennial spirit but ‘millennialism’ isn’t just about millennials. It is a mind set that drives […]
It’s probably no accident that the majority of entrepreneurs which successfully pitch for expert investment on the BBC television show Dragons Den run food and drink businesses. It’s a sector that’s familiar to many of the dragons who know they can open the necessary retail doors without too much upfront capital investment on their part. […]
Before the craft drinks revolution, genuinely tasty beverages that were founded on taste and creativity, rather than global branding and mass-production, were hard to come by. Fortunately, flavour and brand character now abound in beers and spirits, and the big global brands are scratching their heads, or just buying up the craft brands to compete! […]
Recently I was given the opportunity to take on a new role at GSK HQ in London. Living here again after 15 years my first impression is that not much seems to have changed – great curries, crammed Underground, pre-occupation with the royal family, lengthy and repeated discussions on the weather (remains a national pastime) […]
“Today, we declare a new front in the battle for good beer. This is a new chapter in the craft beer revolution. This is all or nothing.” Few campaigns start with such emotive words, but this was how BrewDog co-founder James Watt described the launch of Punk IPA’s audacious push to increase its customers by […]
After a great night in with mates, drinking beer and playing music together, a friend of mine took a closer look at his beer can and exclaimed; “Guys! We’ve been drinking alcohol free beer!”. They all laughed, and couldn’t believe they hadn’t noticed! He mentioned that much to his own surprise he had really enjoyed […]
We are emotional beings when we buy food and drink brands. However much we deny it, our instinctive behaviour tells a different story. In a crowded and noisy supermarket aisle, our brains are inundated with information overload, which we struggle to rationally compute at speed. Our modus operandi default position is to buy brands that […]