Magazine: Growing popularity of juices with fruity bits

Réka Soós
category and innovation manager
Sió-Eckes

According to Réka Soós, category and innovation manager of Sió-Eckes Kft., in the first half of 2018 sales in the Hungarian fruit juice market jumped more than 10 percent in value and volume sales augmented by 5.2 percent. The biggest winners of this positive trend were private label fruit juice manufacturers and Sió-Eckes Kft. Ms Soós opines that shoppers are willing to pay more for high-quality products and fruit juices offering something extra, such as Hohes C Plus.

Zoltán Matskási
operational marketing manager
Coca-Cola HBC Magyarország

Zoltán Matskási, operational marketing manager of Coca-Cola HBC Magyarország Kft. told our magazine that year after year the category produces a two-digit sales growth, primarily due to the great performance of juices, nectars and premium fruit juices – this trend is also reflected in the Cappy portfolio. Mr Matskási added that consumers already like and are willing to spend money on premium products. László Torbán, sales director of Szikrai Borászati Kft. revealed: their like-for-like fruit juice sales were up 22 percent in the first eight months of 2018. He added that from Szobi products only 100-percent juices qualify as fruit juice. Sales of 100-percent fruit content products in 1-litre Tetra packaging grew by nearly 60 percent, while sales of 0.2-litre Tetra-packaged products increased by 30 percent.

Mihály Kozma
sales director
Garden Juice

Mihály Kozma, sales director of Garden Juice Kft. also reported a sales increase, which he thinks is mainly the result of more people following a conscious diet than before. He added that shoppers don’t only look at the price any more, quality matters a lot when buying fruit juice. Erika Balogh, marketing manager of Biopont Kft. deemed it important to mention that there is great demand for both very cheap and premium products in the fruit juice market. Especially ‘clean’, organic products are popular, so sales of the company’s vegetable and fruit juices keep growing.

Péter Hajdú
manager director
Rivan-Nova

Rivan-Nova Kft. is the distributor of Dr. Steinberger drinks and managing director Péter Hajdú revealed to Trade magazin that their sales rose a little from last year’s level. Maspex Olympos Kft.’s Topjoy brand is now one of the top brands in the market, in terms of value sales – told brand manager Anna Cholnoky – for instance due to the sales growth produced by the 0.25-litre glass bottle range and new product launches such as Fruits of the World fruit drink products in 1.75-litre PET bottle packaging.

Vilmos Várkonyi
senior brand manager
Maspex Olympos

Brand manager Vilmos Várkonyi added that sales of Kubu products had also grown above the average.

Ms Balogh reckons that it is mainly high vitamin content that shoppers are searching for in the winter period. Traditional fruit juice flavours have remained popular and 0.75- and 1-litre are the most frequently purchased product formats. The share of discount supermarkets is growing in sales, and private label fruit juices are more and more popular. Mr Hajdú shed light on the fact that the high season for Rivan-Nova Kft.’s products is between September and May, because they aren’t selling thirst-quenching products: their fruit juices are characterised by high vitamin and mineral content, and all of them are free from preservatives and colouring. Their mixes such as Vitesse Immun drinks are also popular.

Anna Cholnoky
brand manager
Maspex Olympos

Ms Cholnoky told our magazine that shoppers prefer special flavours from Maspex Olympos Kft.’s small-sized glass bottle products: besides the classic peach flavour, the most popular versions are cactus, mango, watermelon and sour cherry-apple. This year’s new flavour combinations are raspberry-mint and lemon-mint. The Topjoy Vitamin product range was launched in 2018, targeting health-conscious consumers. These fruit juices contain beta carotene and vitamin C and E. They are available in 0.3-litre PET bottle packaging in peach, raspberry and strawberry flavours, and in 1-litre carton format in peach and raspberry variants.

Ms Soós is of the opinion that the fruit juice market is less and less seasonal. She added that carton and PET packagings continue to dominate – glass bottles are coming up but they still only have a 3-percent share in total sales. As the on-the-go segment is getting more important, Sió-Eckes Kft. launched the 0.25-litre PET-bottle version of Hohes C products last year, and they also gave the 0.5-litre SIÓ portfolio an overhaul. Mr Matskási revealed that mixed flavours are very popular nowadays, what is more, they also motivate new shoppers for trying the products.

László Torbán
sales director
Szikrai Borászat

Mr Torbán spoke to us about the trend of low-sugar, low-carb and low-calorie fruit juices. When it comes to added vitamins, Q10 and aloe play a key role. Mr Kozma’s view is that the majority of Hungarian shoppers prefer sweet flavours, but demand is surprisingly great for sour flavours too. The battle of brands is good for the category of 100-percent fruit juices. From Garden Juice Kft.’s products those smaller than 0.5 litre are the best-sellers.

Réka Soós informed us that as shoppers are becoming more health-conscious, demand is on the rise for high-quality fruit drinks, low-calorie and high fruit content products. Shoppers are constantly on the lookout for new, exciting flavour combinations and packaging solutions.

This April Coca-Cola Magyarország put Cappy Smoothie and Cappy+ products on the market. Zoltán Matskási told: the Cappy range is backed with a 360-degree marketing support. In the juice category the focus is on trendy segments, e.g. products with added vitamins and minerals, smoothies. Réka Soós told that probably the biggest success for Sió-Eckes Kft. this year had been the revamped SIÓ Light range – these products combine the best taste with low calorie content. 2019 will also bring many new innovations from the company. In marketing campaigns they are using new contents and channels, a good example of this is DIY blogger Anita Csorba.

Small-sized Topjoy products perform very well sales-wise too – Anna Cholnoky revealed that these juices are special because there is a message in each product cap, altogether there are more than 400 different messages. As for the Maspex Olympos Kft.’s Kubu brand, marketing work is done segment by segment, so classic nectars, 100-percent Kubu fruit purées and lighter-composition Kubu Play products are supported separately – we learned from Vilmos Várkonyi.

Mihály Kozma believes that regular renewal is important in every area, e.g. packaging, product size, flavours and marketing tools. Garden Juice Kft. advertises products with the slogan ‘Drink a fruit’. Erika Balogh informed us that the majority of Biopont Kft.’s marketing work is done online, communicating product advantages and composition to the conscious buyers of organic vegetable and fruit juices. Péter Hajdú shared the news with us that Rivan-Nova Kft. plans to launch a new, four-ingredient product this autumn, called Immun Testőr. The brand’s ‘face’ is actor Iván Kamarás. //