Maxxium UK has invested £4m in repositioning its Sourz shots range as a more sophisticated, mixable spirit.

The brand relaunch, entitled 'Add some zing', features a new blackcurrant flavour and more stylish packaging, which Maxxium hopes will broaden its appeal to the 21 to 35-year-old target audience.

"Despite experiencing 20% year-on-year sales growth for the past eight years, we felt Sourz had evolved and grown out of its old faddy and garish packaging," said Chris Anderson, senior brand manager.

"After extensive consumer and market research, we decided on this contemporary label design."

Anderson denied that the supermarket would be a challenging environment in which to encourage consumers to buy into the idea of the 15% abv spirit as a mixable rather than a shot-style tipple.

"The bottle label will carry signature serve ideas and the point of sale will carry alternative recipe information. Other added-value merchandise such as special Sourz glassware is in the pipeline," he said.

The cherry and apple flavours will hit shelves in August and will be joined by the blackcurrant flavour in the autumn. The 700ml bottles will continue to carry an rsp of £10.49.

Spirits companies have been keen to promote spirits with mixers this summer, with Diageo taking the lead, investing £1.4m promoting its brands this way.