- Strongbow, the UK’s no 1 leading cider, has announced all of its variants will be made with no artificial sweeteners, colours or flavours – setting itself apart from competitors
- Taste profiles of all Strongbow cider variants have remained the same and have been positively tested with thousands of loyal Strongbow consumers
- Rolling out this month, the news marks Strongbow’s first step in revitalising the apple cider category in 2019, which will be heavily supported by in store activations across the UK
Strongbow, the no 1 brand in the cider category, has announced its Strongbow Original, Strongbow Cloudy Apple and Strongbow Dark Fruit variants are now made without artificial sweeteners, colours or flavours. Strongbow, whose ciders use approximately 25% of all apples grown in Britain, is firmly asserting its position as the category leader with this move.
Leading from the front, Strongbow aims to transform the cider category in 2019 and the move to focus on more natural products is just the first step in achieving this. The brand is adding calorie and nutritional information labelling to all its packaging to enable consumers to easily find the ingredients and calorie content of their drink. And responding to shoppers’ interest in understanding ingredients and taste profiles within the apple cider category, shoppers will be helped to navigate the apple cider category and explore different taste profiles as part of the brand’s biggest retail activation in 2019.
Using millions of apples grown in Herefordshire orchards, and with hundreds of years of cider making experience, Strongbow has been able to remove all artificial colours, flavours and sweeteners, with no effect on taste.[1] With its ‘Better Cider’ programme, HEINEKEN is continuing its cider making journey to ensure a sustainable future for this great British industry.
Cindy Tervoort, UK Marketing Director at HEINEKEN, says: “With the apple cider category hugely important to the off-trade, we’ve been on a mission to make our Strongbow offering even better and future-proof it for generations to come. Research tells us that consumer attitudes are changing; they are thinking more about what they consume and where it’s from – which includes being more mindful about ingredients too – so with this change we’re leading the way with Strongbow as you would expect from the no.1 cider brand in the category.”
Strongbow Original is the No.1 brand in the apple cider category with 48% share[2] and is currently worth a massive £165m[3] to the off-trade. Meanwhile, Strongbow Cloudy Apple is currently experiencing 38% growth in the off-trade and Strongbow Dark Fruit 30% growth in the off-trade[4], with the total Strongbow brand in 12% growth[5].
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