New drinks range offers seven different functions |
Anna-Marie Julyan, The Grocer 27 March 2010 In: Industry news, Soft drinks
| |
A functional drinks brands from the US headed up by the former Red Bull North America CEO Dan Ginsberg has set out ambitious plans to achieve £100m UK sales in five years.
The seven-strong Neuro range of vitamin and mineral-based drinks (rsp: £1.79-1.99) each claim to provide a different function, such as mood enhancement in the form of NeuroBliss, weight loss via NeuroTrim, or "improved performance" with NeuroGasm.
They debuted in the US last June, while four variants isotonic NeuroSport, NeuroBliss, NeuroTrim and energy drink NeuroSonic soft-launched in Waitrose in January.
So far it is averaging sales of 10,000 bottles a week through the retailer, said Anthony Johnston, business development manager of Neurobrands UK. It is now talking to all the multiples to gain national distribution for the range, he added.
The brand was launched by entrepreneur and socialite Diana Jenkins, wife of banker Roger Jenkins, who set up the £7bn refinancing of Barclays during the credit crunch. The company is spending £3.5m marketing its drinks in the UK this year, including ads in Metro and poster sites on the Tube.
The drinks were unlike any others on the market, including V Water and Coke's Glaceau, as "the technology the drinks use was unavailable in beverages until recently," added a spokesman.
However, brand consultancy The Value Engineers warned that bigger functional drink brands, including efforts by Coke, "haven't been tremendously successful yet".