McDonalds to trial sale of Innocent smoothies

Tue, 1 May 2007

Innocent Drink is launching a trial of its smoothies at 80 McDonalds restaurants in the north of England. Its smoothie for kids will be available in Happy Meals in fast food outlets across the North East and Yorkshire from May 2.

McDonalds is trialling one variant, strawberry, blackberry and raspberry variant, for six months but plans to stock as a permanent range if it proves successful.

The tie-up with McDonalds comes as Innocent faces pressure from supermarket own brand smoothies, which are looking to eat in Innocent's market share of the category. The brand has a 60% share of the market and an 11% share of the chilled juice market, according to AC Nielsen. The company now sells in excess of one million smoothies every week.