Pommac, a carbonated soft drink well-known to drinkers in Sweden
and Finland, has been voted one of the brands to watch for 2003 by
fashion magazine Wallpaper.
Tetra Pak Carton Ambient has launched a new straw concept, Sensory
Straw. Targeted at children and young teenagers it "squirts"
liquids directly into the drinker's mouth.
Tetra Pak has launched its Centri AirTight concept - already a
proven technology for the dairy beverage sector - for the
ready-to-drink tea market in Asia.
Cheerwine, the quirky US soft drink which is popular in the
southeastern states, is now available for the first time in Europe.
Norway will be the first market for the cherry-flavoured soft drink
outside North America.
A new website designed to provide accurate information about the
Greek wine industry has been launched, with the aim of dispelling
the downmarket image.
Miller Brewing has introduced a new logo for its flagship light
beer brand, Miller Lite. A new marketing campaign will support the
packaging change, which should be seen across the US by the end of
the month.
Leading lithographic printer of wet glue labels, Buckleys, has been
named UK Label Printer of the Year at the 2002 Print Week Awards.
The prize was awarded for the company's innovative techniques in
drinks labelling.
Gentech International has extended its range of flow switches with
the introduction of a Noryl-construction inline flow switch to
cater for food and beverage applications.
A new company, Advercan.com, has been formed in the US to tackle
the problem of drinks can hygiene while simultaneously providing
another means of can advertising.
Hot on the heels of Pepsi-Cola's announcement that it is to update
the labelling of its entire Pepsi range, Coca-Cola has this week
unveiled a new package design for its Diet Coke soft drink.
Pepsi-Cola has unveiled an updated, bolder-looking package graphics for Pepsi-Cola and Caffeine Free Pepsi-Cola at the Beverage Digest's Future Smarts conference in New York City.
Further evidence of the growing importance of the enhanced water
market has been revealed this week as Gatorade announces that its
Propel Fitness Water brand had exceeded sales of $100 million
(€99.9m) in the US.
The UK's leading brewer has installed a new keg racking system
produced by German company KHS and which will double the brewer's
keg output with no increase in floor space. The modular dry area
and keg line has been installed...
Crown Cork & Seal has signed a licensing agreement with Amcor
to supply its SuperEnd beverage can ends in the Australian and New
Zealand market places.
Just 83 bottles of The Balvenie Cask 191 single malt have been
produced, making this the smallest ever release under the brand. A
bottle of the whisky, which was laid down in 1952, will set you
back more than €9,000.
Coca-Cola and Disney have joined forces to launch a new soft drink
for young children in the Spanish market. The drink, which is
fortified with vitamins, features characters from Disney cartoons
and has already been successfully launched...
New research sponsored by the French closures group Sabate has
discovered that controlling the permeability of the closure on a
bottle may be the best way to avoid TCA.
Australia's CUB group has been awarded a 10-year contract to brew,
distribute and market the premium Belgian beer Stella Artois, one
of the drivers of growth in the increasingly important premium beer
segment.
Cognac Godet is pushing ahead with its exports to the potentially
huge Russian market following an agreement with its new distributor
there, Ladoga. The St Petersburg-based firm will now market three
Godet brands in major Russian...
Drinking grape juice may be a better alternative to taking
supplements, say researchers, who report that concord grape juice's
powerful antioxidant effects may offer extra benefits that
supplements do not.
Lactobacillus plantarum 299v (LP299v) bacteria, used in the
probiotic drink ProViva, can reduce several of the most common risk
factors associated with cardiovascular disease, according to a
study by researchers in Poland. The makers...
The different characteristics of grapes and the soil they are grown
in help give wines their character, but according to Sri Lankan
firm Dilmah, the same is true of tea. The company has launched a
new range of teas under the Watte...
Green Apple is the latest flavour variant to join the Smirnoff
vodka range from Britain's biggest drinks group, Diageo. The vodka
is being launched this month in the key US market, and is the fifth
flavoured variant of the Smirnoff...
Heinken's Spanish unit has lost its court case against smaller
local brewer Alhambra over the rights to the Aguila Negra brand. On
the surface, Heineken's case was built on the claim that Aguila
Negra was competing unfairly...
The Famous Grouse, the favourite blended Scotch whisky among the
ever-demanding Scots, is investing heavily in marketing and
promotions this Christmas in a bid to garner a greater shares of
the market at a time of year when whisky...
A scheme designed to promote ethical labour practices in the Cape
wine industry has been praised by wine retailers in the UK, which
have also pledged substantial financial support.
Year-to-date sales at French soft drinks group Teisseire declined
by 3 per cent, but this is only to be expected as it reorganises
itself as a producer of innovative juice drinks and revamps its
traditional cordial business.
Hain Europe, a division of the US natural and organic food company
the Hain Celestial group, is set to launch a range of healthy
drinks, made from a mix of fruit juice and soy, on the European
market in coming months.
Interest in South Africa's trademark grape, Pinotage, is helping to
drive sales of the country's wines outside traditional export
strongholds such as the UK. For example, Norway's state monopoly
has just bought three...
Five months after its initial launch, and just as the diet version
hits the shelves in the US, Vanilla Coke is to be launched in
Europe. Sweden will be the first country on this side of the
Atlantic to get the drink, followed by the...
The growing trend towards healthy drinks has prompted Finnish
brewer Hartwall to introduce a new variant to its Fenix drink, made
with cranberry juice from Ocean Spray.
Campari is extending the global presence of its premium vodka
brand, SKYY. Australia is the latest country to get the drink
following an agreement with the Fosters unit CUB - and Australia is
also a potential market for Campari's...
There is just one remaining bottle of The Macallan Scotch whisky
distilled in 1841, but after almost a year of work, the company has
released a replica of the whisky offering drinkers the chance to
taste the 160-year-old Scotch.
Just a few months after the launch of its distilled water brand
BonAqua in Spain, Coca-Cola has signed a bottling agreement with
Italian water group San Benedetto which will step up the pace of
the brand's introduction there.
At a time when Europe's leading brewers are growing bigger and more
international on almost a weekly basis, smaller companies are
finding it increasingly hard to expand their own businesses. We
spoke to Michael Hoffmann of the...
Siku, which means 'ice' in Greenlandic, is the brand name of a
range of drinks - a beer, a vodka and a bottled water - made using
water from the Qualerit glacial ice field in Greenland.
Ocean Spray, the US co-operative group best known for its cranberry
juices, has launched a new grapefruit juice which it claims can
give drinkers an energy boost and meet all their vitamin C
requirements.
The success of J&B Twist and Smirnoff Ice in Spain has
convinced Diageo that RTD products are the way forward in a market
where it has been steadily losing sales in recent years.
In Zone Brands is one of the many companies from the US attending
this week's SIAL show in Paris in a bid to garner interest for its
products from buyers on this side of the Atlantic - which should
not be difficult for its striking...
