UK smoothie leader denies ‘greenwash’

Filed by Bill Bruce

innocent: back to basics with orange juice

The UK’s top smoothie maker, innocent Drinks, has denied accusations that it is guilty of “greenwashing” in describing the way its beverages are produced and transported.

The accusations were made in The Telegraph on Saturday – coinciding with innocent’s annual music and comedy festival in London’s Regent’s Park, and just two days before the rollout of the smoothie maker’s first regular orange juice, launched to challenge PepsiCo’s market-leading Tropicana brand.

The Telegraph noted that innocent’s website told consumers its fruit “always travels by boat or rail,” using less fossil fuel than air or road transport.

The website also said innocent smoothies were produced “in the countryside,” implying they were made in the UK.

“However,” the newspaper continued, “The Telegraph can reveal that the drinks are blended on the Continent before being driven in dozens of tanker lorries hundreds of miles across Europe for bottling in the UK.”

The report quoted Sam Chase of the environmental campaign group Rising Tide, who said: “We are drowning in a sea of corporate greenwash.

“Even companies which are supposed to have the highest ethical standards are at it now, and the major problem is that it encourages consumers to believe they do not have to make the changes that are necessary to combat global warming.”

Richard Reed, one of three Cambridge University graduates who founded innocent in 1999, said there had been no deliberate attempt to mislead consumers.

However, he admitted the company had not publicised the fact that its smoothies are now blended in the Netherlands.

Commercial reasons
“We are attempting to get the best quality drinks to our customers while generating the least amount of carbon,” Reed continued.

“While it might sound strange, Rotterdam is the port which all the fruit comes into, so it makes sense to blend our drinks there.

“It had been our policy not to talk about where are drinks are made, for commercial reasons – but we now seek to tell our customers everything about the drinks, and be completely open with them.”

Reed agreed that innocent’s website had included some out-of-date information, suggesting that fruit was transported only by sea and rail, but said this had now been corrected.

Innocent dominates the £169 million (€213.5 million) UK smoothie market with a share of more than 70%.

But smoothies account for only 17% of the total UK juice market, which is worth almost £1 billion (€1.26 billion).

Innocent hopes to boost its turnover to new heights by breaking into the fresh orange juice market, currently dominated by PepsiCo’s Tropicana.

The first cartons of innocent orange juice go on sale today (4 August) in the Tesco and Sainsbury’s supermarket chains, with a recommended price of £1.89 (€2.38) per litre.

“We’re going in with a promise of taste, quality and ethics, while Pepsi is about cheaper prices,” said Reed.

“It gives us an opportunity to dramatically widen the demographics of the brand. A litre of smoothie is £2.99 (€3.78), a litre of orange juice will be £1.89. People can buy into the innocent ideals at a lower price point.”