Source: Beverage daily.com
Sugar tax knocks Coca Cola Classic, but Coca Cola Zero Sugar up by 50% in Great Britain. The soft drinks industry witnessed a change in sales trends following the imposition of sugar tax in Great Britain with consumers shifting for sugar-free products. Coca Cola Europe announced, in October 2018, that Coca Cola Classic volumes declined by 1% over the last 3 months, caused mainly by the introduction of sugar tax in Great Britain. But Coca Cola Zero Sugar volumes grew 18.5%. In UK, for example, Coca Cola Zero Sugar volumes were up 50% over the quarter.
UK’s sugar tax on soft drinks:
The UK introduced Soft Drinks Industry Levy on April 6th 2018. The two-tier levy has a lower rate for added sugar drinks containing 5g of sugar per 100ml or more, and a higher rate for those containing 8g of sugar per 100ml or more. Beverages under 5g threshold do not pay the levy. With 10.6g sugar per 100ml, Coca Cola Classic attracts the higher levy rate; but Coca Cola Zero Sugar and Diet Coke are exempt from the levy.
WET produced drinks with no or reduced added sugar and no artificial sweeteners:
WET has successfully developed an innovative water and drinks technology that enables the production of no or reduced added sugar drinks while keeping quality flavour. The produced WET drinks (e.g. lemon lime multi-vitamin and red fruits drinks) contained <0.1g sugar/100ml and Orange sports drink contained 2.4g sugar/100ml. WET technology and method for water and drinks was partly funded by Innovate UK grants. Innovate UK is part of UK Research and Innovation, a public body funded by the UK government. For more information, visit https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/innovate-uk.
