In Brief…

Britvic Soft Drinks unveils new 12.5cl and 20cl recyclable bottle format for its juice and mixer ranges for on-trade channel, replacing returnable bottles.

Kraft Foods reveals plans to increase its marketing spend and refocus its product portfolio in aim to boost organic sales growth to 3-4% in 2007.
PepsiCo announces plans to introduce a new ‘energised’ Diet Pepsi Max as a lower calorie alternative to its Mountain Dew energy drink in June 2007.

GlaxoSmithKline launches ‘biggest ever’ £8.25m ‘Get Your Edge Back’ marketing campaign for its Lucozade Energy brand in the UK.

UK’s broadcasting regulator is to ban ‘junk’ food advertising on all children’s TV shows as well as adult programmes that appeal to children.

In the UK, Innocent Drinks is to rebrand its Juicy Water range to This Water in a £1m marketing push.

Irish food and ingredients firm Kerry Group posts a 4.9% rise in 2006 revenue, and trading profits increase of 1%, limited by surge in energy and energy-related costs.

Danone participates in nanotechnology packaging project at Queen’s University, Belfast with aim of reducing raw material usage in plastic packaging.

Irish drinks firm C&C Group announces 25% growth in turnover for year ending 28 February 2007 on sales of cider, but 1% decline in soft drinks sales.

French government sets new rules on food and drink advertising, saying all adverts should carry healthy eating messages.

Organic Milk Suppliers Co-operative says UK sales of organic milk are rising 24% year on year, but other sources suggest a dramatic slowdown.

UK soft drinks market grew by 7% in 2006 to £8.3bn, according to Britvic’s Soft Drinks Report 2007.

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