The latest news, trends, analysis, interviews and podcasts from the global food and beverage industry

Pepsi Raw has been created using an innovative recipe that includes ingredients from natural sources, capitalising on the growing consumer demand for premium and more natural products.

Aimed at a sophisticated, urban market, Pepsi Raw is a cola made from a unique blend of quality ingredients – including natural plant extracts – that give it a distinctive and delicious taste and more subtle carbonation, as well as a unique colouring. It doesn't contain artificial colours, preservatives, flavourings or sweeteners.

Pepsi Raw has been created to provide consumers with a premium cola choice at the bar, complementing the existing Pepsi range with a more subtle tasting cola and sophisticated brand image. It can be enjoyed on its own as a premium soft drink or mixed with quality spirits. Its subtle flavour doesn't mask the taste of spirits and enables individual flavour characteristics to cut through cleanly.

Cola is currently worth £1.5bn to the licensed trade, with a 42% share of total soft drinks sales. According to Paul Linthwaite, on-premise business unit director at Britvic: "Cola is a hugely important category to the on-premise market as it represents almost half of all soft drink sales. However, it's also a maturing category that needs rejuvenation to drive further growth.

"As with many other drinks categories within on-premise, the growth of soft drinks is being driven by premium offerings, with our research indicating that 53% of people will pay more for a quality drink. The launch of Pepsi Raw will capitalise on this growing opportunity for premium drinks, providing a new tier of cola product to meet desire and give consumers a new reason to enjoy cola.

"We're delighted that the UK on-premise industry will be the first in the world to benefit from this exciting new innovation. Pepsi Raw is set to reinvigorate the cola category and boost profits for licensees."

To support the launch, PepsiCo and Britvic have worked closely with IP bartenders to create premium spirit pairings for Pepsi Raw, providing licensed retailers with the opportunity to generate excitement and intrigue across spirit categories and drive sales through signature drinks.

In addition, the launch will be supported by a targeted press and outdoor advertising campaign, extensive national and regional PR, premium POS and bar staff training around the Pepsi Raw brand and perfect serve. The brand will also be supported digitally with a seeding campaign and new website, Pepsi Raw, that features a trade and consumer focused sections.

Pepsi Raw will be available in style-led outlets in seven key urban areas (London, Manchester, Glasgow, Brighton, Birmingham, Leeds and Liverpool) from February 2008, with a wider roll-out among the licensed trade throughout 2008.

It will be available in a glass 300ml bottle with a sophisticated and stylish design. Both the pack and product performed strongly in extensive consumer testing.

"Our research showed that consumers viewed the introduction of Pepsi Raw as genuine news for the cola category and, as a result, the rate of consumers who said they'd purchase it was high – well above the UK standard for food and drink innovation. Additionally, consumers said they loved the distinct taste of Pepsi Raw," said Paul Linthwaite.

"With significant investment in a targeted launch campaign, backed up by strong long-term commitment to building the brand, we have real ambition to drive growth in the cola market through the introduction of Pepsi Raw."