| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1999 |
| Founder(s) | Richard Reed, Adam Balon and Jon Wright |
| Headquarters | London, England, UK |
| Products | Smoothies and Veg Pots from 2010 |
| Revenue | £128 million[1] |
| Employees | 220 [2] |
| Website | innocentdrinks.co.uk |
Innocent Drinks is a UK-based company founded in 1999 whose primary business is producing smoothies and flavoured spring water, sold in supermarkets, coffee shops and various other outlets nationally as well as in Ireland, Netherlands, Finland, Belgium, Germany, France, Austria, Denmark and Switzerland. Innocent has a 75% share of the £169m UK smoothie market and the company sells two million smoothies per week.[3] Innocent is 58% owned by The Coca-Cola Company.
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Innocent was founded by three Cambridge graduates – Richard Reed, Adam Balon and Jon Wright; at the time they were working in consulting and advertising. The three were friends at St John's College, Cambridge. In 1998, after spending six months working on smoothie recipes and £500 on fruit, the trio sold their drinks from a stall at a music festival in London. People were asked to put their empty bottles in a 'yes' or 'no' bin depending on whether they thought the three should quit their jobs to make smoothies. At the end of the festival the 'YES' bin was full, with only three cups in the 'NO' bin, so they went to their work the next day and resigned. After quitting their jobs, the three had a lucky break when Maurice Pinto, a wealthy American businessman, decided to invest £250,000.[4]
On April 6, 2009, Innocent drinks announced its agreement to sell a small stake of between 10 and 20% to The Coca-Cola Company for £30 million.[5] Their website was bombarded with customers and several pages on social networking sites have emerged that encourage a boycott of the company.[6] In April 2010 Coca-Cola increased its stake in the company to 58% from 18% for about £65 million.[2]
Innocent credit the creation of their brand identity to David Streek (aka Gravy),[7] the design director at Deepend, which also developed their early label designs and website. Before settling on the name "innocent", the product was going to be called Fast Tractor. The company's HQ, Fruit Towers, is now based in Ladbroke Grove. On 2 December 2007 Innocent Drinks appeared at number 40 in the Sunday Times Fast Track 100, a list of the fastest-growing private companies in the UK. It was the only company to have appeared in this list for the last five years consecutively. In each of the last four years, Innocent has more than doubled its revenues.
Smoothies are Innocent's primary product. The Innocent smoothie consists primarily of whole crushed fruit and juices, but other ingredients such as carrots and ginger have been used in some drinks. A smoothie also counts towards two of the 5 a day as a 250ml smoothie contains at least one portion of whole crushed fruit (80g) and one portion of juice (150ml).[8]
Innocent also makes smoothies in little bottles and big cartons, smoothies and juice for kids, a refreshing range of not-from-concentrate orange and apple juice, and Veg pots, a range of quick and tasty meals.[9]
The Innocent Foundation is a UK-registered charity that gives grants to NGOs and other charities, typically in the form of three-year partnerships. It was set up in July 2004 'with the idea of bringing nature and communities closer together for mutual benefit'.[10] This allows Innocent to donate 10% of its profits to charity. The majority of funding goes to overseas projects - to the countries where Innocent source their fruit.[11]
In October 2005 there were several reports of Innocent smoothies "exploding".[12] In 2007, Innocent recalled 100,000 bottles, stating that the explosions were caused by a natural fermentation of the ingredients.[13]
In October 2007 Innocent was warned by the Advertising Standards Authority for making unsubstantiated claims about the health benefits of their "superfoods" smoothies stating that their claims could not be backed up by medical science and ordering Innocent to not repeat them.[14]
In 2007 the European Union passed a new law, that would take effect from 2009, which required companies labelling their products as "superfoods" to justify statements that their products are "superfoods", "healthy" or "good for you". [15] Currently Innocent still uses the word "superfruit" in their marketing.[16]
On 27 May 2011 the Daily Mail reported that the company had held back money that was intended for the Innocent Foundation. The reporter said: "Analysis of its financial records has revealed £520,000 intended for the foundation was kept in the company’s bank account, where it could collect a higher rate of interest. Innocent – which since last year is now majority owned by Coca-Cola – has not donated to the foundation for the past three years as it has made no profits".[17] In May innocent announced it had previously taken a decision to donate £250,000 to the innocent Foundation in years where it doesn't make a profit, to make sure that innocent can continue to support new projects going forward
A number of ex-Innocent employees have since gone on to form their own business including Mike Stevens and Dan Shrimpton, who founded the chewing gum firm Peppersmith; Bronte Blomhoj, who co-founded London restaurant and deli Scandinavian Kitchen; Gareth Helm and Giles Brook, who launched the snack firm Bear; and former head of PR Ailana Kamelmacher, who left to set up her own communications company Story PR.[18]