Innocent Drinks

The company overview

Three ambitious friends, Richard, Adam and John graduated from Cambridge University into professional employment. In the summer of 1998, they spent six months testing various juice recipes on friends, trying to find a successful product. They spent £500 on fruit and tested their recipes on individuals at a London music festival, marking two bins 'yes' or 'no' and placing a sign next to them reading: "Do you think we should give up our jobs to make these?". At the end of the day the yes bin was full. They gave up their jobs the following day and Innocent Drinks was formed (innocent, our story)

The creation of this company was difficult for the three friends who had no money, they asked their friends for rich contacts and were introduced to Maurice Pinto, a wealthy American who lent them £250,000 after seeing the potential of their plan.

After six years, Innocent operates from Fruit Towers in Shepherd's Bush, an office block with faux-grass walls and trendy young staff. They produce 5 product ranges totalling 17 varieties and are the market leader in Smoothies in the UK (innocent).

Innocent is a British beverage producer that makes and distributes a range of natural fruit drinks in the UK. The products of the company include smoothies, thickies, juices, and fruit-enhanced water. Innocent sells its products through coffee shops, grocery stores and department stores. Innocent smoothies contain over three-quarters of a pound of pure and fresh fruit without sugar, water or concentrates. Innocent also offers a range of superfood smoothies, with recipes that are super rich in naturally functional foods. The Superfood smoothies come in three varieties, Natural Vitamin C, Natural Vitamins A and C, and Natural Detox(Datamonitor)

The Innocent Thickies range, are yoghurt based drinks containing probiotic cultures that aid digestion, real fruit and honey, with spices. Thickies do not contain any fruit preparations, stabilisers or preservatives. (Datamonitor, 2005).

Market share

Innocent Drinks produce a wide variety of products with interests in all aspects of the fruit juice market. Their specialist product, smoothies, has gained a market share of 34% in the last 5 years, becoming the leader in this particular market segment.

Turn over

A company's turnover is vital to its continued survival and success and can be improved by a successful marketing strategy. In Innocent's case, the total sales revenue increased over its 6 year life from 0-£ 15m.

Daily Sales figures

Daily Sales figures indicate the popularity and brand success of a product. Innocent achieved sales in excess of 50,000 smoothies per day in 2004, showing an impressive impact on a fiercely competitive marketplace.

Number of retailers

Innocent Drinks sell through over 4,000 retailers in selected key cities . The availability of the product through some national supermarket chains (Sainsbury, Tesco, and Waitrose) reveals huge trust in the brand's profitability and consumer popularity.

Awards

Finally, the highest profile measure of Innocent's marketing success, is the national recognition and respect the company gained, highlighted by winning 28 awards, including 3 for Best Marketing Campaign, one for Best Poster Campaign for Non-Alcoholic Drinks and various Innovation, Product and Employee Awards.

Innocent Drinks were 50th in the 2004 Marketing Power 100 which represents the most influential people in the UK marketing industry. Inclusion requires a mix of powerful marketing, a famous brand, a big budget, influence, quality and entrepreneurship.

Recommended growth strategy

Growing your business can be difficult and often a proficient you are as a leader, business development may be draining your energy, funds and desire to achieve the original plans you had for your company. Yet growing your business is as critical step in maximizing your company's potential and in revenue enhancement. Therefore in order to achieve success, you need a growth strategy (finkle, 2008).

There are few ideas that would cross over any business type, industry or size. Some of them are:

1. LEVERAGING:

Every business should be looking for ways to leverage everything they do in multiple ways. The question to ask as a company before being anything- be it a new service, a products offering innovative idea- is how else they might be able to leverage it. If the company is creating a new service, what else can be done to utilize the new service? Does it offer opportunities for joint ventures with opportunities to be leveraged in multiple ways? The company needs to be creative, therefore companies are recommended to create new services that are bringing innovations to the business, and they should ensure that these innovations are distinct in order to have a competitive advantage over other companies. (Finkle, 2008)

2. INFRASTRUCTURE

Building an infrastructure is a very good strategy for companies in sending to grow in their various fields. This infrastructure should include budgets, planning and order pieces of business involved