our new minority investor

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.

 

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 consumers. 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 a innocent. 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 richardr@innocentdrinks.co.uk with any thoughts or questions.

Comments

[Sadhbh Goggins]

I'm sorry to see Innocent drinks are teeming up with Coca-Cola. I understand Innocent won't change their business practice, but Coca-Cola are well known for their atrocious human rights abuses in developing countries, not least being their gigantic consumption of drinking water in areas already extremely short of potable water such as India and Africa and their contamination of groundwater and soil, destroying the livelihoods of thousands of people. You may as well take money from a drug baron and say, "It's ok, we won't sell drugs with it".

[Juliet at innocent]

Hello Sadhbh

Sorry that you're cross. But we're excited about the deal, it will mean that we can get more natural, healthy drinks to more people across Europe and every promise we've made about our company and ethics will still be kept. It's still our business so we get to choose what happens with our products and how we grow, the investment Coca-Cola has made is a minority stake between 10-20%.
While we're aware of the accusations you've referred to, after taking considerable time getting to understand their business we believe that they are a responsible business who are out to do the right thing and while not perfect (no company is) when they make a mistake they fix it and learn from it. We think that every business can learn something from another – a good case in point is the recent carbon measurement project that Coca-Cola have been working on; we did our first foot printing exercise back in 2007 and it’s when bigger companies get involved that major differences can be made. We always appreciate our drinkers getting in touch so if you have more thoughts or questions please feel free to email Rich on richardr@innocentdrinks.co.uk.

Bye for now
innocent x

[Paul Daly]

Hi guys I've very sorry to hear you are teaming up with Coca Cola, given the history of their bottling subsidiaries in South America as well as the noted issues by Sadhbh. I cannot, now, in good conscious continue to purchase your products for myself and my two kids. It's been great for the last number of years, I especially recall with fondness one of your summer parties in central London. Best of luck and I hope this brings you happiness.

Your ex customer
Paul

[Conor]

I'm tired of being told by innocent and others that I don't see "the big picture". My family have businesses, I'm not an idiot, I understand the need for capital and investment. But would you take money from anyone so long as they were hands-off? How about the Burmese Junta? Robert Mugabe? George Bush? I doubt it. No matter what you say, it IS important who you allow to fund you. Even if they don't have a controlling stake, they can still influence you. And you're already talking about the possibility of them being your suppliers in the future.

This is such a kick in the guts. I have never really cared about a company before, mainly because I hadn't found one that seems to match my principles. Then you go along and make a deal with a corporation that is at the top of my "avoid at all costs" list. Sorry, I have to follow my conscience and will be encouraging others to do the same.