Tasty advice - soft profit

Mealtimes are the perfect opportunity to boost your soft drink sales and profits

Britvic's Right Choice has identified the "family friendly" occasion as a key profit opportunity for publicans. Pubs have become increasingly popular for family meals over recent years, especially during weekend lunchtimes. It is imperative to stock premium brands, which customers prefer, and to have the right range and choice to suit all members of the family.

For adults​

Amé plays a key role in Britvic's Right Choice adult strategy as a healthy, premium soft drink for all occasions, aimed primarily at women aged 25 to 44.

Amé is a great tasting, lightly sparkling fruit drink containing spring water and a unique blend of eastern herbal extracts (schisandra, jasmine, gentian, limeflower) with no added sugar or artificial sweeteners.

There are four variants available to suit all tastes: Delicate White, Crisp Dry, Refreshing Rosé and Radiant Red. Amé retails in 750ml bottles for sharing or 330ml single serve bottles.

For kids​

Britvic offers the best in kids drinks including on-premise brand leader Fruit Shoot from Robinsons and the new and revolutionary Freekee Soda, ensuring that licensees can offer both a great still drink and an exciting fizzy drink to their younger customers.

Since its launch in 2000, Fruit Shoot has doubled its volume year on year and is now worth £47m.

Britvic has announced a £6m support campaign for Fruit Shoot in 2003 including original TV ads continuing the "New Thinking" theme and a six-month sponsorship of one of Cartoon Network's most popular programmes Beyblade.

Fruit Shoot is currently running its first ever on-pack promotion offering youngsters the opportunity to win a place at the Fruit Shoot Sports Camp next spring.

Get Active is an instant win promotion and is backed by kids press activity, point-of-sale and interactive website www.fruitshoot.com.

New for 2003, Freekee Soda (see box below)​ mixes the fizz with the smooth to create a totally new taste sensation smizziness.

Darren Carney of the Sportsman Inn, Halifax says:​

"Amé has proved popular as an adult soft drink. As a family pub, food is extremely important to our business and it is vital that we serve the right soft drinks to accompany our menu.

"For kids, Fruit Shoot from Robinsons has proved very, very popular and has been extremely successful.

"The sports caps and bright colours obviously appeal to the kids whilst parents choose it because there is no added sugar or additives. We do a party package where kids can come and play for an hour before having their meal and we always provide Fruit Shoot with these meals as its the drink of choice.

"Many adults have soft drinks with their meal as a matter of course but the fact that we are quite a way out of town, means that we also have a number of drivers.

"Amé has proved popular as an adult soft drink and we have run a number of promotions on it. It's good that adults and kids have a separate range, which wasn't the case in the past."

Customers at the Sportsman Inn had the following comments to make:

• "I like Freekee Soda because it is very fruity and fizzy but smooth at the same time."
• "The Blackcurrant and Apple Fruit Shoot is really nice and the bottle is really sporty."
• "I've not tried Amé before and I was very pleasantly surprised at how nice it is. I like the fact that it comes in a large bottle so that you could share it over a meal."