Barr Soft Drinks has made another foray into the energy drink market with the launch of Pwr-Bru.
A four-strong range rolls out from 28 August in outers of 12x500ml cans, RSP £1.40. Cans price-marked at £1.19 will also be available.
The range consists of the Original Irn-Bru flavour as well as three fruity variants. All four have distinctive names – ‘Origin’ Original, ‘Diablo’ Cherry, ‘Maverick’ Berry and ‘Dropkick’ Tropical – and are non-HFSS and levy free.
A £3m launch investment will target 18–24-year-olds, using social media, brand influencers, sampling, outdoor posters, point of sale materials and a field sales drive. A limited number of cans will also find their way into the public domain this month to create shopper demand before the product is even in chillers.
Jonathan Kemp, Commercial Director at Barr Soft Drinks, said: “Pwr-Bru is, without a doubt, the biggest launch of the year for the energy market. The energy market in Scotland is a fast-growing sector, delivering one-third of total soft drinks category growth, however only 25% of shoppers currently buy energy brands so there is still huge growth potential.
“Irn-Bru Energy delivered +£8.5m in category growth, and all our research was telling us that shoppers loved the unique Bru essence in an energy format, but they wanted us to go one step further with flavour and appearance. Pwr-Bru is the brand to unlock incremental growth by offering something truly different, delivering an energy drink like no other brand can.”
In consumer testing, 98% of big can energy drinkers said they would buy Pwr-Bru and more than 85% said they would make a repeat purchase of all flavours.
“We’re confident that these four eye-catching, great-tasting new products will re-energise the category and drive incremental sales for retailers,” Kemp concluded.
