Brits loving their smoothies says soft-drink maker UK consumers are increasingly turning to more health focused beverages like fruit smoothies over the more traditional carbonated beverages, according to new research. UK soft drink group Britvic said this week that sales of carbonated beverages in the country during 2007 fell two per cent, despite industry wide revenues increasing by 2.4 per cent to £8.5bn, as part of an annual beverage report compiled with Nielsen Co figures. Smoothies in particular posted significant gains, with sales up by 31 per cent in value terms, according to the findings. Sales within the glucose-based and stimulant drink category were up by 25 per cent on the back of the performance of brands such as Red Bull and Lucozade, Britvic said. PepsiCo taps into functional water demand PepsiCo says it has reformulated a range of waters under its Aquafina brands in the US to tap into growing demand amongst consumers for functionality. The company claims that the Aquafina Alive range of nutrient waters has been re-launched in four different varieties with a number of new additives and even a product with 10 per cent of the recommended daily intake of fibre. Other formulations include caffeine, electrolytes, antioxidants and vitamins, the company said.
