Plenish was founded in 2012 by native New Yorker Kara Rosen, who had moved to the UK but couldn’t find cold-pressed juices free of sugar.
It has since become one of the fastest growing plant-based milks brands (its portfolio covers almond, oat, cashew, soya, hazelnut and coconut) while the juice-led DTC business continues to grow at more than 100% pa.
The company focuses on quality, organic and sustainably sourced ingredients; and it is an accredited B-Corporation and carbon negative business.
For Britvic – Great Britain’s top producer of branded still drinks and number 2 in carbonates – the acquisition allows it to grow its brands into a new category beyond key brands such as Robinsons, J2O, Fruit Shoot, R Whites and Purdeys.
“The transaction is closely aligned with Britvic’s strategy of building a portfolio of soft-drinks brands for every consumer occasion and its focus on accessing new spaces in the soft drinks category,” explains the company.
“Britvic has a long track record of successfully leveraging its scale and capabilities to grow its brands, and it will draw on this experience to fulfil the full potential of Plenish.”
The company highlights the attraction of the fast-growing plant-based drinks segment, with plant-based milks set to achieve retail sales values of over £500m ($692m) by 2024.
In particular, the non-soya plant-based milks market has grown more than tenfold over the past decade and it is ‘fast becoming a mainstream category, with consumers favouring healthier, plant-based products over dairy’.
Britvic follows other large companies diversifying their footprint into plant-based brands: such as Coca-Cola with soy-based smoothie brand Ades (also Adez); Molson Coors with Golden Wing (a non-dairy plant-based milk alternative made from barley); and PepsiCo's joint venture with Beyond Meat to develop plant-based beverages and snacks.
