Ribena, the number one juice drink in the UK[i], is unveiling an eye-catching new design that will make it the largest soft drinks brand with bottles that are made from 100% recycled plastic andare 100% bottle-to-bottle recyclable[ii].
Every Ribena bottle – once recycled – will now have the optimum chance of being recycled into another drinks bottle. Rolling out from November, the new bottle’s design features a reduction in the plastic sleeve, making the bottles moreeasily detected as clear plastic to be recycled by existing UK recycling infrastructure.This packaging change has removed 202 tonnes of plastic and is the most significant brand design update in the past decade. This major change has been made possible only after a two-year development programme and investment of £1.6M in new manufacturing equipment, as well as in research and design.
Every new Ribena bottle will feature a number of recycling messages embossed on its bottle, as well as featuring on the bottle label, to encourage consumers to recycle. The brand will also include recycling messaging on its advertising and invest six-figure sums, the biggest campaign for Ribena next year, to encourage consumers to recycle.The marketing campaign will help make the redesign unmissable to consumers and will include a TV advert, social media and POS materials.
“We want to continue to use the positive power of our iconic brand and our long history of leading the way in sustainability to encourage drinkers to recycle. 67%[iii] of shoppers say they have become more aware of the environmental impact of plastic packaging over the last 12 months, and, we’re proud to take this huge step forwardto ensure everyone’s Ribena bottle can be recycled back into bottles,” says Charlotte Flook, Head of Brand, Ribena, at Suntory Beverage & Food GB&I.
The new pack designs aim to draw on the familiar and distinctive aspects of the previous Ribena packaging, while modernising the brand.
Flook adds, “We set ourselves incredibly high standards for this design and we didn’t settle for anything less than perfect. Consumers told us we’re onto a winning design, boasting extremelypositive[iv]scores acrossimportant metrics like environmentally friendly, modernity and naturalness.
“Another significant change is that we are now showcasing Ribena’sdistinctive liquid which consumers tell us they love.It isn’t just the packaging of Ribena that’s focused on sustainability, we have a full-time agronomist and partner with the Farming & Wildlife Advisory Group so that each of our growers has a resilient biodiversity plan tailored to the individual habitats at each farm. With 90% of blackcurrants grown in the UK destined to go into Ribena, we wanted to show off this uniquely British asset.”
All Ribena Squash and Still Ribena 500ml bottles are made with 100% rPET and have always been recyclable. This design makes another significant positive step, with a reduced label size saving 202 tonnes of plastic per year.
Over the years, the brand has removed more and more plastic from the bottle’s design, with 527 tonnes of plastic taken out of circulation.This year, Ribena became the first major UK juice drink brand to introduce a paper straw to its drinks cartons.
The redesign ties in with the Suntory vision of Growing for Good – the bigger we are, the greater our positive impact can be. The company has an ambitious target to move to using only 100% sustainable plastic bottles by 2030, as part of a wider 2050 environmental vision, aiming to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions across the entire value chain.
[i] EXT IRI, MarketPlace GB, Value, latest 52 weeks to 29.03.20
[ii]EXT IRI, MarketPlace GB, Value, Soft drinks, latest 52 weeks to 23.08.20
[iii]Mintel’s 2019 BPC Trend Sub-Zero Waste https://www.mintel.com/webinar-sub-zero-waste-trend
[iv]The Big Picture Quantitative Research November 2019. Scores improved across all tracked areas including: Environmentally friendly +11%, Modern +10%, Healthy +5%, Natural +4 % and Quality +4%
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