Innocent Drinks
Innocent Drinks is a UK-based company founded in 1999 whose primary business is producing smoothies and flavoured spring water, sold in supermarkets, coffee shops and various other outlets nationally as well as in Ireland, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, Austria, Denmark and Switzerland. Innocent has a 75% share of the £169m UK smoothie market[citation needed] and the company sells two million smoothies per week.[3] Innocent is 58% owned by The Coca-Cola Company.
Contents
[hide]
1 History 2 Products 3 Innocent Foundation 4 Controversy 4.1 Product recall 4.2 Advertising claims 4.3 Charitable donations 5 Alumni 6 References 7 External links
[edit]
History
Innocent was founded by three Cambridge graduates – Richard Reed, Adam Balon and Jon Wright; at the time they were working in consulting and advertising. The three were friends at St John's College, Cambridge. In 1998, after spending six months working on smoothie recipes and £500 on fruit, the trio sold their drinks from a stall at a music festival in London. People were asked to put their empty bottles in a 'yes' or 'no' bin depending on whether they thought the three should quit their jobs to make smoothies. At the end of the festival the 'YES' bin was full, with only three cups in the 'NO' bin, so they went to their work the next day and resigned. After quitting their jobs, the three had a lucky break when Maurice Pinto, a wealthy American businessman, decided to invest £250,000.[4]
On April 6, 2009, Innocent drinks announced its agreement to sell a small stake of between 10 and 20% to The Coca-Cola Company for £30 million.[5] Their website was bombarded with customers and several pages on social networking sites have emerged that encourage a boycott of the company.[6] In April 2010 Coca-Cola increased its stake in the company to 58% from 18% for about £65 million.[2]
Innocent credit the creation of their brand identity to
Contents
[hide]
1 History 2 Products 3 Innocent Foundation 4 Controversy 4.1 Product recall 4.2 Advertising claims 4.3 Charitable donations 5 Alumni 6 References 7 External links
[edit]
History
Innocent was founded by three Cambridge graduates – Richard Reed, Adam Balon and Jon Wright; at the time they were working in consulting and advertising. The three were friends at St John's College, Cambridge. In 1998, after spending six months working on smoothie recipes and £500 on fruit, the trio sold their drinks from a stall at a music festival in London. People were asked to put their empty bottles in a 'yes' or 'no' bin depending on whether they thought the three should quit their jobs to make smoothies. At the end of the festival the 'YES' bin was full, with only three cups in the 'NO' bin, so they went to their work the next day and resigned. After quitting their jobs, the three had a lucky break when Maurice Pinto, a wealthy American businessman, decided to invest £250,000.[4]
On April 6, 2009, Innocent drinks announced its agreement to sell a small stake of between 10 and 20% to The Coca-Cola Company for £30 million.[5] Their website was bombarded with customers and several pages on social networking sites have emerged that encourage a boycott of the company.[6] In April 2010 Coca-Cola increased its stake in the company to 58% from 18% for about £65 million.[2]
Innocent credit the creation of their brand identity to
References: ^ http://www.oracle.com/customers/snapshots/innocent-drinks-demantra-snapshot.pdf ^ a b Steele, Francesca (2010-04-09) ^ "Coke buys into Innocent smoothies". BBC News. 2009-04-07. Retrieved 2010-05-05. ^ Tryhorn, Chris (2009-04-07). "Smoothie operators Innocent tread familiar path to lucrative deal". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 2010-05-05. ^ http://www.innocentdrinks.co.uk/us/our_story/2009-investment/ ^ Northedge, Richard (12 April 2009) ^ innocent (April 2009). A Book About Innocent: Our Story and Some Things We 've Learned. Michael Joseph. ISBN 0718153170. ^ "Fruit And Veg Portions", Innocent Drinks, 2010, retrieved 2010-12-04 ^ "rise and shine" ^ http://www.innocentfoundation.org/ ^ Watson, Donna (October 22, 2005) ^ "Fruit smoothies are a real blast.". Europe Intelligence Wire. 19-JAN-07. Retrieved January 31, 2009. ^ Daily Mail - Prove 'superfoods ' are good for you, supermarkets told, By Beth Hale (30 June 2007) ^ http://innocentdrinks.co.uk/things_we_make/smoothies/pom_blue_acai/