New Tea-Infusion Launch from Lucozade

MayTea launches with listings in Morrisons and BP M&S stores for its two-SKU range

MayTea, a new low-calorie launch from Lucozade Ribena Suntory rolled out to Morrisons and BP M&S stores this week.

The brand - already a major success in France and Belgium – will be in more than 900 stores throughout the British Isles by the end of the month once roll out in Irish wholesale and independent retail giant BWG takes place.

Suntory’s tea expertise played a major role in the development of the drinks, which contain whole tea leaf infusions rather than powdered tea extract to create a delicate taste profile. Both flavours scored highly in independent tests for purchase intent and repeat rate, placing MayTea in the top 30% of all innovation in the Ipsos database.

The white tea infusion with raspberry and lychee has 2.8g of per 100ml, equivalent to 31 calories per 250ml, while the green tea infusion with peach and mango contains 3g sugar per 100ml, meaning 32 calories per 250ml.

As part of Lucozade Ribena Suntory’s commitment to the environment the 500ml SKUs are made from 50% rPET and designed to be fully recyclable within existing UK infrastructure. Once recycled, the MayTea bottle will be processed as plastic and turned back into food-grade rPET.

MayTea will be supported by a nationwide marketing campaign encompassing proximity six sheets, heavy-weight sampling, in-store shopper marketing and social media advertising.

Victoria Morgan, Head of Innovation at Lucozade Ribena Suntory comments,

“The MayTea brand has seen incredible success on the continent. In just three years, the brand has generated £85m in sales revenue across France and we believe MayTea will perform exceptionally well in the UK. Ready-to-drink teas have huge potential here; they saw 9% value and volume growth in the off-trade in 2017 to achieve £12m in sales and the forecasted continued growth is expected to lead to approximately £23m in sales by 2022i.”

“The UK may have an enduring love-affair with traditional black tea, but our recipes use green and white teas as a base, which both performed better in research in the UK & Ireland than black tea when drunk cold. Our use of a less-bitter tea base means we can keep the calorie content low and make a great proposition for increasingly health-conscious consumers.

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About Lucozade Ribena Suntory

Lucozade Ribena Suntory (LRS) is one the leading soft drinks businesses in the UK and Ireland. LRS was formed in 2014, and is part of Suntory Beverage & Food Europe. Our much-loved soft drinks brands include Lucozade Energy, Lucozade Sport, Fitwater, Ribena, and True Nopal Cactus Water. Our business is driven by our “Yatte Minahare” spirit and our role is to have a positive impact on the lives of our consumers by providing them with a responsible choice of great-tasting drinks and enabling them to lead active lifestyles.

For further information, please visit: www.lrsuntory.com

i Euromonitor International, Ready To Drink Tea UK Report, 2018