UK: Calypso brings out smoothie option in schools

By just-drinks.com editorial team | 4 April 2006

Calypso Soft Drinks is launching a range of Juice Smoothies for children and is targeting schools for business.

The company is setting out to appeal to the secondary school age group of 11 to 16-year-olds.

Calypso's sales and marketing director Richard Cooke said: "Juice smoothies are one of the big growth areas in soft drinks, with sales jumping by 36% in 2004 and continuing to climb as families become increasingly health-conscious."

He added: "Children find them more fun to drink than plain water or fruit juice, and smoothies are a great way to encourage them to enjoy fruit. Yet most smoothies are premium-priced chilled products with short shelf lives which create difficulties in storage as well as the potential for wastage in schools."

Each 200ml carton contains one portion of fruit under the '5-a-day' criteria and has a shelf life of 12 months. The two flavours available are strawberry & banana and orange, banana & mango, and will be supplied to dealers in packs of 27x200ml cartons.

Calypso has said that its smoothies meet the government's recommendations for healthy food and drink without the additional costs and are recommended by the School Meal Review Panel in their 'Turning the Tables' report.

Sectors: Soft drinks