Major retailers face a shortage of freshly squeezed orange juice this weekend after supplier Sunjuice - a subsidiary of Serious Food Company - went into administration this week.
The shortages will have a major impact on stores across the UK, according to a Sunjuice insider who spoke to The Grocer today.
"A major supplier, based in Cardiff, is refusing to deliver the purees and ingredients needed to produce the juices, as he is owed significant amounts of money,” the source said.
He added that two interested parties from "well-known juice companies" were in consultation with Sunjuice about a fast acquisition.
Rob Lewis and Derek Howell, of PricewaterhouseCoopers, were appointed administrators of Serious Food earlier this week. Yesterday they released a statement reporting that the administration would not affect the soup and distribution subsidiaries of Serious Food.
Innocent, which uses Sunjuice to package its smoothies, claimed it would not be affected by the news.
"Whilst Sunjuice is one of our six manufacturing partners, the facility there that packs our smoothie bottles is continuing to operate as normal," said a spokeswoman for Innocent. "We were aware of the situation in advance and had been in discussions with Sunjuice's owner and, more recently, the administrators to ensure a clear plan is in place to continue supplying innocent, so the announcement will have no impact on the supply of our smoothie bottles.
"We understand that the situation there has arisen primarily from trading difficulties with their own-label juice business. Making smoothies for us is the strongest part of their business and will continue to operate as normal."
She added: "Sunjuice is just one of our six manufacturing partners and, in line with best practice, we also have a number of alternative supply routes."