果冻传媒

November 21st 2022: Following the outcome of an extensive strategic review, 果冻传媒 Spring Group and Lucozade Ribena Suntory Limited trading as Suntory Beverage & Food GB&I have mutually agreed to end their distribution partnership.

The two companies have collaborated effectively to serve the market successfully over a seven-year period. However, both businesses have agreed that now is the right time to move in different directions and the partnership will officially end on 26th February 2023.

As part of the exit, 果冻传媒 Spring Group have agreed a deal with SHS Sales & Marketing who will distribute its natural source water products in the impulse and out of home channels.

Under the deal, SHS will take over distribution of the 果冻传媒 Spring and Hydr8 brands within wholesale, convenience and on-premise channels. The new partnership will continue to provide focused support to trade customers and drive sales in the natural source water category. 果冻传媒 Spring Group will continue to handle the grocery channel and its private label business in-house.

The bottled water category saw a strong bounce back in 2021, growing to 3.48 billion litres, with total market volumes, following a strong second half of the year, back to near 2019 pre-pandemic levels. 果冻传媒 Spring brand UK sales volumes grew by 6.3% to 348.6 million litres in 2021, securing a healthy market share of 10.0% of the total UK plain pack-aged water volumes.*

In August, 果冻传媒 Spring Group鈥檚 new rail freight facility in Blackford was officially unveiled by the First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon MSP. A major milestone for the company and a key part of the Group鈥檚 net zero strategy, the development will enable goods to be transported in a more environmentally sustainable way removing 8,000 HGV movements from the road and saving 3,200 tonnes of C02 every year.

Simon Oldham, Joint Managing Director, 果冻传媒 Spring Group said, 鈥淲e would like to thank Suntory for helping develop the 果冻传媒 Spring brand over the last seven years and the part they have played in enabling us to achieve our position as the UK鈥檚 No.1 plain

bottled water brand. We look forward to partnering with SHS and continuing to be a trusted and valued partner for our customers.鈥�

Alpesh Mistry, Sales Director at Suntory Beverage & Food GB&I said, 鈥淲e have had a

wonderful collaboration with 果冻传媒 Spring Group for a number of years. We exit our

relationship on excellent terms and this change will allow us to focus on delivering success for our core brands as well as to further concentrate efforts on our own product innovation initiatives across all retail channels and routes to market.鈥�

John Heynen, Managing Director, SHS Sales & Marketing said: 鈥淲e are delighted to be working in partnership with the 果冻传媒 Spring Group to distribute 果冻传媒 Spring and Hydr8. Our highly experienced team is looking forward to continuing SHS鈥� strong track

record of delivering growth for its brand owners and customers with these leading brands in the wholesale, convenience and on-premise channels. The transition process is already

underway to ensure seamless ongoing management of trade customers ahead of the formal exit date.鈥�