Waitrose fruit juices

Waitrose has added more own-label products to its juice range

Waitrose is stripping sugar from its chilled juices fixture in a shake-up that has brought more own-label products to the range and seen Tropicana and Copella listings slashed.

By adjusting its range and reformulating products, 7.1 tonnes of sugar would be removed from the total volume of chilled juice and smoothies it sells in a year, it claimed, adding that the update had begun in March and would continue over the coming year.

Waitrose has introduced own-label apple and orange juice drinks that contain stevia and 30% fewer calories than standard juice. It has also launched four new smoothies under its Love Life range, including a yoghurt-based peach & raspberry drink and an apple & beetroot drink. All have lower sugar levels than previous offerings and added vitamins and minerals. Three new lower-sugar variants have also been added to the premium own-label range, including an apple, kale & lime drink.

The launch follows a string of stories in the national press about the high sugar content of some juices and smoothies.

“Fruit juices are very popular with our customers and an easy way to get one of your five a day, but can have high levels of naturally occurring sugars,” said chilled juice buyer Chloe Graves. “This range reduces the sugar content and still delivers great taste.”

As part of the shake-up, Waitrose has added new branded products including a Cracker no-added-sugar range (see right) but has cut the listings of brands including PepsiCo’s Copella and Tropicana. Copella has dropped from 11 lines to two, while the Tropicana range has been cut by more than two thirds from 37 to 11 [BrandView.co.uk]. Among the Tropicana delistings are five of the seven reduced-calorie Trop 50 lines previously sold by Waitrose.