At Hotelympia 2018 in London, Sleep Well exhibited for the first time a new chocolate flavour of its dairy-based sleep aid beverage.
As Sleep Well co-founder Allan Watts told FoodBev’s Martin White, this is the first time that the brand has showcased its chocolate flavour in the public arena. The new variant is the result of six months’ worth of product development.
Sleep Well is based in Jersey – one of the Channel Islands – and, as FoodBev reported in January, contains the therapeutic herb valerian. Targeted at consumers who struggle to sleep in unfamiliar surroundings such as hotels, the drink helps reduce the ‘first night effect’ – the state of mind which puts travellers on alert in a new environment. It is also aimed at consumers in their homes who have mild difficulties in relaxing before bed.
As Watts explains, anecdotal evidence suggests that the drink has a beneficial impact on 80-90% of those who use it.
The UK is an important market for the brand, but it also has plans to expand internationally with ongoing discussions with distributors in South Korea, Hong Kong, Dubai and mainland China – although it admits that, owing to the regulatory environment in China, breaking into the world’s most heavily populated market will be difficult.
At Hotelympia, there were also positive discussions with a beverage distributor in India, who may be interested in taking the product to consumers there.
Watts said that there are opportunities to ‘piggy-back’ on its production partner Jersey Dairy, which already sells a lot of milk to Hong Kong, so that it can realise even broader and deeper international expansion.
Recorded, produced and edited by: Martin White
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