The 4C Interview -
Adam Balon from Innocent Drinks

Adam
Balon

Chief
Squeezer

innocent
drinks

Q. Briefly describe your products and services

A. We
make totally natural tasty little drinks. Our range includes smoothies
(100% pure crushed fruit & juices, never from concentrate), thickies
(yoghurt, fruit & spices) and juicy waters (natural thirst quenching
drinks made with spring water). Innocent is now the number one
smoothie brand and the third fastest growing company in the UK (Sunday
Times Fast Track survey).

Q.
What cultural trends are affecting your customers?

A. The
smoothie market is growing at a phenomenal rate and innocent has grown
60% each year we’ve been in business. This is because we make the best
drinks on the market, and also because they are tapping into a real
consumer demand for products that are natural, convenient and healthy.
If you think about government initiatives to eat more fruit & veg,
rising gym membership, concern with what goes into your food, these
are all very real trends that are having an impact on how healthy &
food conscious our nation is.

Q.
What other market trends are impacting your business?

A. On
the whole, fresh, healthy convenience food is on the up. Looking at
your local store a few years ago, you would never have expected to
find fresh fruit or veg in there - just tins & cleaning things. Now
everyone is offering healthier, fresher options because that is what
consumers are looking for.

Q.
How is your company reacting to these opportunities/challenges?

A. Basically we keep innovating. Our
smoothies are constantly being improved in subtle little ways and then
we are always listening to what our drinkers want. When they said they
wanted something more thirst quenching, we developed juicy waters.
Likewise when they wanted something specifically for colds we made our
super vit C smoothie that delivers 500% vitamin C naturally. Last year
saw the launch of one litre take home cartons in response to requests
for bigger pack sizes that people can then keep in their fridges from
home. And this year has seen the launch of a range for kids because
parents are increasingly concerned with what their little ones are
consuming. As well as ranges, we look at specific ingredients. So this
year we launched the first ever beetroot smoothie in January, and last
year the first ever carrot smoothie. We like to keep things fresh,
whether that is our marketing or what goes in the bottle. Whist we do
take the drinks seriously, we have a bit of fun too so you might see
our delivery vans covered in grass up & down the UK, or read our
labels which just chat about what is going on in the office. We
encourage people to call the banana phone and tell us what they think,
or pop into Fruit Towers. By remaining open to the most important
people, the ones that drink our drinks, and never compromising on
quality we hope we can keep offering people the best drinks on the
market.

Innocent Drinks

‘4C :  The View From Here’ is a new regular section on PSFK where we ask senior
execs in a myriad of industries what cultural trends are facing their
business today. If you know of someone who’d like to particpate in this column, then email Piers at piers@psfk.com. Thanks.