Coca-Cola launches premium iced tea in UK with £4m campaign

Coca-Cola European Partners has announced the launch of the globally successful, premium iced tea brand Fuze Tea in the UK – a fusion of the flavours of fruits, botanicals and tea, with two low sugar variants.

Already established in 40 markets and one of the fastest growing brands in The Coca-Cola Company portfolio, Fuze Tea will launch simultaneously across Western Europe and Central and Eastern Europe from January 2018.

The expansion of Fuze Tea into new markets demonstrates Coca-Cola’s strategy to offer consumers more choice, by introducing a succession of great tasting new category drinks.

Fuze Tea is a unique fusion of fruit flavours, botanicals, tea extracts and other ingredients which deliver a fresh, contemporary tea taste, offering a premium alternative within the iced tea category. It initially launched in 2012 in 14 international markets and saw accelerated growth to billion-dollar status in less than three years.

Blends include Black Tea Peach with a touch of hibiscus and Green Tea Mango with a hint of chamomile. These great tasting blends were developed at The Coca-Cola R&D centre in Brussels, to match key occasions, deliver new choice and appeal to evolving consumer preferences.

The tea extracts in Fuze Tea come from 100% sustainably sourced tea leaves, contributing to Coca-Cola’s global aim to sustainably source 100% of its key agricultural ingredients and raw materials by 2020. Fuze Tea is also low in calories – between 14 and 19 calories per 100ml depending on the flavour – and sweetened with stevia in response to consumers’ increasing demands for different products.

The two variants will be available in 400ml PET on-the-go bottles from the middle of January and 4 x 400ml PET bottle multipacks in March as part of a phased launch. At approximately 4gm of sugar per 100ml Fuze will be Soft Drinks Tax exempt.

The launch is supported by a £4m marketing campaign across TV, print, and digital and social channels and in-store sampling targeting millennials which are the largest iced tea consumer group.[1] The campaign titled ‘Serve yourself a little me time’ encourages consumers to take a moment to unwind in their busy lives, and refresh with a Fuze Tea.

Simon Harrison, Operational Marketing Director GB at Coca-Cola European Partners, said: ‘Consumer tastes are changing, and we know people are looking for a greater number of options and choice in their drinks. The launch of Fuze Tea is a fantastic opportunity for our business to provide new, more sophisticated flavours to more people in more places. We’re moving quickly as a company to deliver great tasting products that consumers will love.

‘Ready-to-drink ice tea is an important, fast-growing category which is currently worth £47million in GB and has grown by 12% in the past year alone[2]. We believe the time is right for us to broaden the reach of our expanding portfolio and work with our retail and wider partners to take advantage of this significant opportunity for growth’.

Available flavours:

Black Tea Peach and Hibiscus
Green Tea Mango and Chamomile

The tea extracts used in Fuze Tea comes from farms that meet the requirements of Coca-Cola’s Sustainable Agriculture Guiding Principles (SAGP). All farms that supply tea for Fuze Tea have third-party certification to demonstrate that they meet at least one of five independent and internationally-recognised standards.

All Fuze Tea drinks combine approximately 4gms of sugar per 100ml with steviol glycosides, a zero-calorie sweetener extracted from the leaves of the stevia plant. It is the latest ingredient we’re using to reduce the sugar in some of our drinks, because we know that many people want the choice of great-tasting beverages with fewer calories. As a result, Fuze Tea drinks are low in calories and have between 14 and 19 calories per 100ml depending on the flavour.