Innocent drinks
 |
|
| Industry | Beverage |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1998 |
| Founder | Richard Reed, Adam Balon and Jon Wright |
| Headquarters | London, United Kingdom |
|
Area served
|
Europe |
|
Key people
|
Douglas Lamont (CEO) |
| Products | Drinks |
| Owner | The Coca-Cola Company (90%) |
| Website | www |
Innocent Drinks is a company that makes smoothies and juice sold in supermarkets, coffee shops and various other outlets. The company sells more than two million smoothies per week. Innocent is over 90% owned by The Coca-Cola Company.
Innocent was founded by three Cambridge University graduates: Richard Reed, Adam Balon and Jon Wright, then working in consulting and advertising. The three were friends at St John's College, Cambridge. In 1998, after spending six months working on smoothie recipes and £500 on fruit, the trio sold their drinks from a stall at a music festival in London. People were asked to put their empty bottles in a "yes" or "no" bin depending on whether they thought the three should quit their jobs to make smoothies. At the end of the festival the "yes" bin was full, with only three cups in the "no" bin, so they went to their work the next day and resigned. After quitting their jobs, the three struggled to find investment, but eventually had a lucky break when Maurice Pinto, a wealthy American businessman, decided to invest £250,000. In total, it took fifteen months from the initial idea to taking the product to market.
In 2007 McDonald's began a five-year trial of using Innocent smoothies as part of their Happy Meals. Feedback from customers led McDonald's to drop the product in 2012. However, in 2015, the Chiquita Smoothie was replaced by two varieties of Innocent smoothies in The Netherlands.
Revenue for the company declined in 2008 as a result of the global financial crisis which led to an overall loss of £8.6m.
On 6 April 2009, Innocent Drinks announced on its website an agreement to sell a stake of 10-20% to The Coca-Cola Company for £30 million, with the three founders continuing to retain operational control. As a result of the takeover Ethical Consumer magazine reduced their ethical rating for the company. In April 2010, Coca-Cola increased its stake in the company to 58% from 18% for about £65 million. In February 2013 Coca-Cola increased their stake to over 90%, leaving the three founders with a small minority holding.
In June 2016, the drinks company reported a sales surge thanks to new products such as coconut water and vegetable smoothies. These new products contributed to £28m to sales. Revenues reported for last year were £247.4m, a 13% increase on the previous 12 months.
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