Consequently around that same time, some U.S.
FUZE ICED TEA DISCONTINUED FULL
Come July 2014, Coca-Cola will stop distributing evian waters (read the full story here). It appears that Coca-Cola and evian have both outgrown their distribution partnership. At that time, Canadians will join other countries that further contribute to Fuze’s annual sales of a billion dollars. If Fuze tea drops sell well and Freestyle machines back up the brand’s popularity, there may be finally be Fuze tea coming to Canada. With Fuze tea drops, Canadians are one step closer toward experiencing Fuze the way other consumers get to enjoy it. Most Canadians only experience Fuze as a bottled juice unless they choose the brand where Coca-Cola Freestyle machines are available or purchase Subway sandwiches. In Canada, Nestea is still being distributed by Coca-Cola so Fuze tea may be limited in its availability. It’s also telling that Fuze was one of the select brands among Coca-Cola’s liquid enhancer portfolio, joining Dasani, Powerade, and Minute Maid as beverages available in this format. To support this rollout, the company activated Fuze Tea Drops with in-store signage and branded merchandising racks across participating Canadian retailers. Coca-Cola launched Fuze Tea Drops in the Canadian marketplace, building more momentum behind this brand with three flavors of liquid enhancers. Most recently, Coca-Cola has extended the Fuze brand beyond bottled juices and teas. With over 30 Fuze tea variants, consumers looking for tea options would not have any trouble picking a tea under the Fuze portfolio.
The Coca-Cola system also support the brand by cranking out drink flavors built on its foundation of green tea and black tea. Coca-Cola Canada’s Fuze Tea Drops: Green Tea Mango, Peach, and Raspberry. As a result of this, Fuze cultivated a stronger international presence. With Nestea returning to Nestle Waters’ distribution network, this opened up more space for other beverages to grow their footprint within Coca-Cola’s distribution network. This support materialized in both marketing and trade support. Gold Peak and Fuze became the main benefactors of the company’s increased support. This in turn allowed Coca-Cola to redeploy efforts to their own stable of healthy refreshments. Save for Canada and a few other geographies, Nestle Waters would retain distribution rights for Nestea. Even Samir Bhutada, Coke’s global director of tea and ready-to-drink coffee, mentioned that part of Fuze’s popularity was related to beverage trends around the ready-to-drink tea category because it delivers on great testing refreshment and natural goodness.Īnother important step in Fuze’s history came in 2012, when Coca-Cola and Nestle Waters amended their Beverage Partners Worldwide distribution arrangement. Not only were they earning sales across Subway locations, their availability increased consumer exposure to Fuze as a ready-to-drink tea and a viable alternative to Coca-Cola’s soda offerings. Securing distribution in Subway was a critical step toward Fuze’s current status. Since then, the hydration brand has emphasized tea more than juices. The importance of tea in the brand’s portfolio emerged in 2009 when Fuze tea was part of the fountain drink options in Subway’s sandwich franchise restaurants. At that time, Fuze existed as a primary competitor to SoBe’s line of fruit juices owned by Pepsi. In 2007, Coca-Cola bought Fuze and promptly brought the juice brand into their beverage roster.
A key question to answer may be what happened in the past two years to help Fuze become one Coca-Cola’s roster of 20 billion dollar brands. Regardless of their geographical footprint (40 markets and growing) or product assortment (30+ Fuze skus between juice, tea, and liquid enhancer flavors), reaching one billion dollars this quickly is surprising. Fuze expanded into teas back in 2012 and surpassed one billion dollars in annual sales just two years later, which may make it one of the fastest brands under Coca-Cola’s stewardship to achieve this milestone. Per Coca-Cola’s n ews release a couple weeks back, the soda giant’s Fuze brand has joined the company’s billion dollar club this year (story here). Fuze surpassed a billion dollar in annual sales in 2014. Coca-Cola’s Fuze tea joins the company’s growing roster of billion dollar brands.
0 kommentar(er)
