innocent drinks : all about us

In April 2009 Coca-Cola made a minority investment in our business, paying £30M for a stake of between 10-20%. This page shows a letter written by the founders on the date that the investment was announced, explaining the reasons for doing the deal, plus a few FAQs that people emailed in at the time - these are answered by Richard via video (one of our founders) with text versions of the same answers below the video clips.

We blogged about the deal here and here - both posts also dealt with some of the commonly asked questions. As ever, if you still have questions, feel free to email us at hello@innocentdrinks.co.uk and we'll endeavour to answer any query that you might have.

Monday 6th April 2009

Hello.

Over the next few days you may read in the press about Coca-Cola making a minority investment in innocent, and we wanted to tell our drinkers and veg-potters about the deal and why it’s a great opportunity for innocent.

Basically, we’re dead excited about the investment. The funds raised allow us to do more of what innocent is here to do – get natural, healthy stuff out to as many people as possible. And the money raised is going into the business to fund our European expansion, so we can get innocent out to more places (none of the cash is being paid out to the shareholders; that desert island will just have to wait).

The three of us who set up the business will continue to run and manage innocent. We will be the same people making the same products in the same way. Everything that innocent stands for, remains in place – to only produce natural, healthy stuff; to push hard for better quality, more socially and environmentally conscious ingredients; to find more efficient and environmentally friendly ways of producing and packaging our drinks; to support charities in the countries where our fruit comes from; to have a point of view on the world, and to not take ourselves too seriously in the process. In fact, this deal will simply allow us to do more of these things.

As we said, Coca-Cola is a minority investor. They have a small stake of between 10-20%, which they paid £30M for. We chose Coca-Cola as our minority investor because as well as providing the funds, they can help us get our products out to more people in more places. Plus, they have been in business for over 120 years, so there will be things we can learn from them. And in some small ways we may be able to influence their thinking too.

innocent is ten years old this year. We sold 24 smoothies on our first day, back on 28th April 1999. This week, we will sell approximately 2 million. It’s taken a lot of hard work and not a small degree of luck to get us this far, but fundamentally the thing that has made it all possible has been the support of our retailers, suppliers, the media, and most importantly, you – our drinkers. So, as the next chapter for innocent unfolds, and as we step up our mission of getting natural, tasty healthy things to eat and drink to more people, we want to say a sincere thank you to everyone who has ever bought an innocent smoothie. Without you, we’d just have an expensive fruit crushing hobby.

Thanks and bye for now.

Adam, Jon and Richard
Co-founders
innocent

PS As always, we’d love to hear what you think, so email hello@innocentdrinks.co.uk with any thoughts or questions.

Why did you have to raise funds - couldn't you just have stayed as you are?		Why did you choose Coke as your investor?
How much do Coke now own?		Does this mean that some of the profits from innocent now go to Coke?
Do you really think you are going to be able to influence Coke's thinking?		Who is now running innocent and what will Coke's involvement be?
Isn't this deal against all that you stand for?		Are you now going to change the way you talk and act as a business?
Why did you raise funds, couldn't you have stayed as you are? We raised money to make the most of the opportunity we have in Europe. We are on sale in several countries on the continent, and there is a lot of demand for our healthy drinks, but we have been coming under increasing pressure from big brands such as Chiquita and Tropicana (owned by Pepsi) who have launched against us. Without the funds to invest in these markets, we would simply lose the fight. And then that would leave us open to those brands coming after us in our home market of the UK. We want to move forward as a business and the funds raised will allow us to do so.
Why did you choose Coke as your investor? Several reasons. One is we liked the people we met from Coke - they were smart and honest. Secondly, Coke were prepared to invest the money with no unpleasant conditions attached (we spoke to lots of other possible investors and it was amazing how many wanted to put conditions on their investment - one said they would invest the money, but we would have to stop our donations to charity. Another said we would have to let them have control of the business.) Thirdly, Coke can help us with our mission to get our healthy drinks out to as many people as possible, by introducing us to customers in Europe and maybe helping us with distribution. And with the deal we remain a standalone business with Adam, Jon and Richard continuing to lead it in the same way as before. Overall, the deal brings security and opportunity to the business, and allows us to step up our mission of getting more healthy drinks out to more people.
How much do Coke now own? Coke own a minority investment of between 10 and 20%. The only reason we have not said the exact number is because we don't want to make it too easy for our competitors to work out the value of the business. It is worth saying that all the money stays in the business to fund our growth, the money is not being paid out to shareholders.
Does this mean that some of the profits from innocent now go to Coke? No. There are no plans to pay dividends to Coke. If the business makes money then the profit will stay in the business, with the exception of the 10% that is donated to charity each year.
Do you really think you are going to be able to 'influence their thinking'? Obviously we are not going to revolutionise their business, but they have already followed our lead on carbon measuring and they are keen to understand our 100% recycled plastic bottle, which is exciting. Plus, Cadburys have recently announced that they are going Fairtrade on their main Dairy Milk chocolate, something that would not have happened without their relationship with Green and Blacks, so sometimes the tail can wag the dog.
Who now is leading innocent? Adam, Jon and Richard, the people who set up the business, continue to run and lead the business. We are the same people making the same product in the same way. No change.
Isn't this deal against all that you stand for? No. We wouldn't have done the deal if that was the case. The deal will in fact allow innocent to do more of what we've always said we're here to do; make natural healthy products, to get those products to as many people as possible, to push for more sustainably grown ingredients and packaging, and to support charities in the countries where we source our fruit. This deal will let us do more of these things not less. We respect that some people hold strong views about Coca Cola, but we did a lot of due diligence on them as business before signing this deal and while they are not 100% perfect (and no company is) they are a sound business full of decent, ordinary people.
Are you going to change the way you talk and act as a business? Again absolutely not. We are exactly the same people doing things in exactly the same way. We'll continue to keep making the same healthy products in the same way we have always done with the same values. We are going to keep talking in the same way that we have always spoken, because that's how we naturally talk. There will be no changes.