13 (12) Robinsons
Sales: £275.5m -7.6%
Launch: 1823
Talk about ‘shooting’ yourself in the foot. The July recall of Robinsons Fruit Shoot after safety concerns over a new sports cap cost Britvic dearly (about £25m in lost sales as volumes fell 11.9%).
But it could have been worse. The brand was widely praised for the timely way in which it dealt with the crisis. And Fruit Shoot’s fortunes are looking up, according to Britvic’s commercial director for grocery Ian Forshew.
“Distribution is back to pre-recall levels in grocery and in-store visibility of Fruit Shoot has returned to normal,” he says. “There’s been no long-term damage to brand equity. In fact, recent research shows 72% of kids aged seven to nine think Fruit Shoot is really cool or quite cool - ahead of the competitive set.”
Last year Britvic shelled out £4.8m on advertising space for Robinsons, up 61% on the previous year [Nielsen], and the company is promising a heavyweight above and below-the-line campaign to give the brand a sporting chance of returning to growth.
Forshew hints that things didn’t go exactly according to plan for Robinsons Squash in 2012, despite value and volume increases: “Britvic’s main goals for Robinsons and the squash category last year were to drive awareness of Double Concentrates. However, there was definitely an education process needed to make consumers aware of the benefits to drive category growth.”
With Robinsons continuing its support of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships, the outlook for 2013 is positive, adds Forshew. Even more so if Andy Murray finds his form.
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