Frucor Suntory News Q2 - 2022

New customer partnership: Pita Pit

On 1 March 2022 Frucor Suntory proudly began an exclusive beverage partnership with Pita Pit NZ.

The agreement sees the Frucor Suntory range available across 87 restaurants, including Pepsi, Pepsi Max, Mountain Dew, 7Up, Gatorade, Suntory Boss Coffee, NZ Natural, H2go, Just Juice, Ribena, McCoy, V Energy & Allganics brands.

Pita Pit CEO, Duane Dalton shares, “This exclusive partnership will empower us to continue to offer our customers fantastic beverage options that complement our menu offerings: that suit any occasion, budget and diet.”

“Together, we make it easier for Kiwis to choose nutritious, tasty, authentic and fresh food that tastes great and is good for you.”

Food service is a particular focus for growth for Frucor Suntory’s On-The-Go division which also looks after the petrol, convenience and leisure sectors.

New Zealand Head of On-The-Go, Justin Ramsay explains the focus on food service as an opportunity for Frucor Suntory to demonstrate the expertise the team has built over the years, sharing the wide

range of products that cater for changing consumer needs. “For us, it’s not about rolling out the same solution to every store, we take the time to listen to what the customer wants, consider their menu, their space, their customers and their future growth potential when designing our partnership agreements.

“Consumer needs continue to change; we leverage industry insights and expertise from across the Suntory Group to lead the way.

“At Frucor Suntory, our people are connected by a hunger to make drinks better – from our product portfolio to our sustainable packaging solutions and the customer experiences we create. We’re excited to explore the potential with Pita Pit.”

This exclusive partnership will empower us to continue to offer our customers fantastic beverage options that complement our menu offerings: that suit any occasion, budget and diet.

Duane Dalton – CEO, Pita Pit

Pepsi and Better Burger #BetterWithPepsi

We’re thrilled to have kicked off a five-year partnership with Better Burger restaurants. The franchise is renowned for offering great tasting burgers and delivering a fun burger experience to customers – a match made in heaven for Pepsi Max!

In the first weeks of our relationship our team were able to deliver a bespoke campaign for Better Burger to drive consumers in-store after a long period of absence due to COVID lockdowns. The campaign featured local influencers and showcased how delicious Better Burgers are always better with Pepsi Max. The imagery and purchase instances that followed highlighted the success of the campaign and got the partnership off to a great start – converting loads of consumers to Pepsi Max along the way.

The response to the social campaign is another example of how consumers are choosing Pepsi, and in particular Pepsi Max when out and about. In 2021 we took the Pepsi Max Taste Challenge on the road across New Zealand asking Kiwi cola drinkers to challenge their taste buds in a blind taste test. We celebrated coming out on top with 51% of Kiwis preferring the taste of Pepsi Max, that contains absolutely no sugar, when compared to the full sugar version of the market’s highest selling Cola.*

In addition to partnering on combo activations and driving awareness, we worked with Better Burger to make the change over as seamless as possible. We worked together to install new equipment, supporting the first orders through and encouraging everyone in our team to get in store for a Better Burger!

“Just wanted to say a quick thank you for how this partnership has started. Appreciate the effort from you all in getting us going again in what could have been a challenging year. Confident that this summer promo will go well and looking forward to more stores and more Pepsi in 2022.”

Josh Harre Operations Manager, Better Burger

Hoyts + Pepsi = success

Over the past 12 months the cinema industry has been greatly impacted by COVID as with all other businesses.

We have focused on how we can build on our current partnership with Hoyts by implementing crew incentives and further support throughout this period.

Together, we’ve designed a standout activation and branding in all Hoyts cinemas which make movies fun and expand the feeling of occasion when people are able to escape and enjoy a night out.

Ensuring our on-going success, we hold fortnightly partnership meetings with the team at Hoyts to align blockbuster forecasts with promotions and new product releases driving awareness and sales with consumers.

Coming up we look forward to launching Frozen Mountain Dew Passionfruit Frenzy to the frozen beverage range. Frozen beverages are a popular cinema staple, we’re thrilled to be able to expand the selection available.

We’ll always explore innovative solutions and new ideas with our customers that excite consumers and bring them back time and again – it’s what we do. We’re hungry to make drinks better, growing our customers business and ours.

We’ll always explore innovative solutions and new ideas with our customers that excite consumers and bring them back time and again – it’s what we do.

Hearing from the Frucor Suntory Team

Over the summer we’ve been focusing on support. Supporting our teams to navigate how they can work safely in market during a pandemic, supporting our business to ensure business continuity across our supply chain and of course customers as they battle supply chain constraints and team shortages.

We’re thrilled that throughout this incredibly busy time we’ve seen the industry come together as a team to ensure that we’re all still able to operate and inspire consumers with new choices and making their favourites available to them. We’ve seen a really positive up swing and heightened support for Pepsi MAX in the past few months. The Pepsi MAX Taste Challenge travelled New Zealand and demonstrated that Kiwi’s really do love the taste of Pepsi Max (51% chose the taste of Pepsi Max*) –proving what we already knew to be true!

The No Sugars Given campaign was designed to get the Gen-Z audience to reappraise Pepsi MAX and highlight that it contains zero sugar – something that research indicated needed reminding. In the fun, summer inspired campaign, Pepsi used its creativity and spectacular imagery to capture the attitude of Gen-Z, its target audience – highlighting insta-worthy moments. Showing up where the consumers are, the campaign was well supported with billboards, street furniture, bus shelters as well as social and digital channels.

Pepsi MAX really hits at the heart of what we are trying to achieve with our hunger to make drinks better – a low sugar, great tasting and sustainable product. I am delighted to continue to work with our long-standing partners, as well as working with our newer partners such as Hoyts, Pita Pit and Better Burger to celebrate great tasting food and beverages.

BetterWithPepsi

At the same time, we continue to be delighted by the exploding success of Suntory BOSS Coffee in both New Zealand and Australia. The recent exclusive event in Auckland ‘Tokyo House’ took the audience on an immersive Japanese experience complete with smells, sights and of course tastes of Japan!

Suntory BOSS Coffee launched the RTD coffee category in New Zealand, and is the leading brand with 91% share. Since its launch in 2019 it has scanned out RSV $8.5 million and 2.6 million cans

A highlight of the investment Pepsi is making to remind consumers that it’s a powerhouse in the cola market is the much talked about halftime show at the last Superbowl! What a great event to be linked to.

Each BOSS flavour launch has been highly incremental with our most recent launch BOSS Double Espresso outselling BOSS Latte, with strong activation delivering a halo effect on the brand, existing range +17% vs. LY.**

Brad Erceg Sales Director NZ

*50.6% of 15,096 participants chose the taste of Pepsi Max in blind taste tests against full sugar Coca-Cola across New Zealand from 25.03.21 to 26.05.21

Consumer trend focus: Self care

The past two years have been a time of self-reflection and reset. Forced downtime, working from home, and greater anxiety about the future have been a catalyst to make people more aware of the importance of their physical health and emotional wellbeing. As a result, consumers are seeking a better balance of working, exercising, spending time with family and friends, and hobbies. At Frucor Suntory we’re keen to understand what the impact of the last two years is having on consumer buying behaviour and the choices they’re making. To do this, we commissioned a study to explore and learn directly from the consumer.

How does this trend impact the future of drinks?

In times of stress and uncertainty, consumers will increasingly look to quick fixes to help with tiredness and stress management. Drinks which deliver instant gratification in the form of a treat or energy boost are well positioned to help consumers ease everyday stresses.

Greater focus on physical health will lead to increased interest in drinks that offer specific health benefits (e.g. immunity, digestive health) and /or reduced sugar. We recently commissoned a study that identified half of all packaged drink consumers agree they are ‘definitely interested’ in packaged drinks which are low- or no-sugar.

Although alcohol can deliver stress management benefits, continuing focus on physical health means there is opportunity for growth in healthier alternatives to alcohol. This encompasses a wide spectrum of products from ‘zero proof’ beers and wines, through to drinks in other categories which can deliver to the same occasion (e.g. premium sparkling waters, juices and soft drinks).

Consumers are seeking a better balance of working, exercising, spending time with family and friends, and hobbies.