Life Health Foods has bought collapsed smoothie brand Savsé out of administration.
Savsé was battered by declining sales, financial pressures from Brexit and the loss of a major listing in Boots last year. Earlier this month The Grocer revealed it had called in administrators Smith & Williamson for aid.
It has been snapped up by LHF, the owner of protein drinks brand Up & Go, which now plans to bring its manufacturing back to the UK from Europe and release new products.
LHF UK CEO Chris Laidlaw told The Grocer: “There are some fundamentals to fix to really unleash the potential of the brand but, if you look at the product’s taste and nutritional value, it’s far superior to other players in the category.
“All categories need a challenger brand as it provides a point of difference, holds to account the quality of the products, stimulates innovation and offers value to retailers rather than categories becoming commoditised. The juice and smoothie category is no exception to this.”
LHF’s immediate priority was to “get the premium smoothie and juice business back into the great challenger brand it once was”, he added.
“With the commercial fundamentals in place, we’ll set an innovation pipeline for the brand for some first-to-market opportunities that deliver on the Savsé promise of premium raw nutritional products.”
Savsé’s products are notable for being made with high pressure processing, which stabilises the drinks while preserving nutritional content.
“The tech and application has a lot of potential across other categories,” said Laidlaw. “If you can utilise that in other categories you can have a solution for better-tasting, nutritionally enhanced products across the supermarkets.”
Smith & Williamson joint administrator Colin Hardman said there had been “substantial interest from companies operating in the drinks and health foods markets”.
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