**We’ve known your business right from the start. We began publishing the forerunner to Beverage Innovation magazine around about when Innocent first hit the headlines. Did you ever imagine figures like £30m as a feature of your future back then? And when did you first begin to realise that you might be an attractive proposition to a giant such as Coke?**
Richard Reed: No way! We didn’t have that sort of figure in our heads. Our original business plan that we went to the bank with in 1998 was to make £6m from four different smoothie recipes. And then, of course, this expanded into more products in different containers such as cartons, with smoothies in wedges for kids, and moving into supermarkets from the independent retailers. So a lot has happened since then.
Now we’re moving into Europe. We sell most smoothies in Ireland, followed by France, where we have the team set up in ‘Eiffel Towers’, then we have our Nordic office ‘Viking Towers’ covering Denmark, Sweden and Finland. We’re No1 in Liechtenstein and Luxembourg, and doing well in Germany and Austria.
But these are all small markets for us right now. Even taken together, they’re less than 20% of total volume. We’re certainly looking at eastern Europe and Spain, which had been too far away to manage until now.
Basically, we want to use the money to fund the international side of things, as we can see there’s room for expansion here. And we want to continue with our mission of making natural fruit, veg, whole grain and dairy easier to eat. And making it easier for people to do themselves good, as with our new Veg Pots.
Last week, the Department of Health agreed that we could acknowledge that our smoothies contain two portions of fruit because of their high crushed fruit content. So we feel we’re making real progress despite the economic headwind, and it’s nice to have some good news to spread when everything else seems downbeat.
You took a bit of stick when you managed to have Innocent smoothies listed in McDonald’s, being accused of “selling out” by some of the media. Are you prepared for a similar reaction to this move with the king of globalisation, Coca-Cola?
Reed: The reaction has actually been pretty balanced, and we recognise that some people have very definite views and we have to respect these. However, having this money means we can get more products to more people in more places, and that’s got to be good. We’re doing this more sustainably than many other companies, with more environmental packaging, and helping by contributing to charities in the countries where the fruit comes from. We can do more of what we said we’d do right at the start. And most importantly right now, we’re creating more jobs.
It’s The Coca-Cola Company based in London, headed up by James Quincey (CEO of Coca-Cola Northwest Europe), which has made the investment. Of course, our chilled, short shelf-life product is very different to the sort of product they usually handle. What we have agreed to is ‘cash with experience’, and that’s valuable, yet they have no hand in the decision making. No one has all the answers, but we can access their collective wisdom of 120 years in the beverage industry. But, we’re still a standalone company. They have a minority investment with basic rights, much as our original investor Maurice Pinto did, but we still control everything.
While Pepsi’s Tropicana has moved into smoothies with varying degrees of success, Coca-Cola in Europe hasn’t tried the concept much beyond the Minute Maid ‘Go Smoothie’ range. What are the chances we’ll see Innocent’s products in Coke company chillers and vending machines?
Reed: I don’t think you’ll see Innocent drinks in Coca-Cola chillers this summer, but it may come. They have 80,000 of these and it would be great for us to have a presence in them. There’s no other way we could reach so many people. If it’s a hot summer, we could do very well with our This Water range, too.
The three of you (the founders) have had a huge 10 years, and we know that while it’s been a lot of fun for you, it’s also been really hard work. You’re all still young, and I would guess bursting with ideas. Is there a long-term plan? Might Innocent go the way of Darius Bikoff’s Glaceau Vitaminwater?
Reed: We’re really glad that we made a major investment in patenting the brand name worldwide in 2000. This cost us around £20,000 back then. But as for the long-term plan – well, we’re 10 years into our 30-year goal and plan to stick with it and continue to work from the UK. And we’ve agreed to invest the whole £30m back into the company. We want to continue to be the Earth’s favourite healthy food and drink company.
Richard Reed is one of three founders of Innocent Drinks
Claire Phoenix is managing editor of Beverage Innovation magazine
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