Aldo Zilli's babyfood brand is hoping to reinvigorate the declining baby drinks market with the launch of an organic range.

The Baby Zilli drinks will hit supermarkets from mid-June in: apple; summer fruits; orange, mango & ­apple; and tropical flavours (rsp: 85p for a 250ml pouch), with four more ­variants set to launch in September.

Brand co-founder Dean Dunham said the new range would revitalise the baby juice market, which has fallen 1% over the past year to £12.6m [SymphonyIRI 52w/e 26 Mar 2011]. An absence of competition and PR were chiefly responsible for the category's under-performance, he added.

"A lot of companies don't talk about drinks a great deal so it is no surprise it's not a fast-growing area," he said. "When parents go into a supermarket they think about feeding their baby but they don't necessarily think about fluids. We plan to make drinks an important part of our range and will support it."

Sourcing ingredients for the range was more costly and difficult than non-organic would be, which would inevitably eat into profit margins, admitted Dunham, but the end-product would be better quality.

Baby Zilli is also adding five new lines to its core food range next month and is rolling out a selection of 'pud' desserts from June.The initial range will include a Red Berry Crumble with strawberry, raspberry and blueberry and a Fruit Medley Pud with apple, ­banana and blueberry.

The brand is shortly exporting into Europe and there are longer-term plans to take it to the US market.