Soft Drinks

It has been described as a “signature deal” but the UK’s largest coffee shop chain Costa Coffee being sold to the world’s largest beverage company Coca-Cola came as a shock to many in the sector last week.

easyCoffee looks at larger sites and kids' zones as 80% of customers 'dine in'.

Product Bulletin this week... Tropicana and Good & Proper Tea.

Drink-led pubs and bars in London outperformed the rest of the sector and the country in July, according to the latest Business Tracker from CGA, Coffer Peach and RSM.

Product Bulletin… New Larazade in partnership with Tomb Raider… Fentimans stars at Great Taste awards... Pepsi brings back taste challenge…Carabao launches first TV ad campaign….

Tart hits £250,000 crowdfunding target.... Brits drink two litres of sugary drinks a week.....EU worker advice....Star Pubs & Bars partners with UCC....Caffe Nero and Greggs report positive sales

Tropicana rebrands and launches two new flavours....Zummo London launches new juicing machines

In this week's Product Bulletin... Good & Proper launches Iced Tea range... Teapigs ready with plastic-free tips... Purdey's meets energy needs.

In Other News... UCC receives SCA Premier training status... Gather & Gather's Barista of the Year.... PT Toffin dedicates new showroom to Victoria Arduino.... Tired soft drinks category needs innvoation, says Mintel... Football and heatwave great for pub sales in June.

Product Bulletin... Aurelia Wave from Nuova Simonelli officially launched... Britvic Ireland's Club Zero boosted... Turkey's tea exports grow.

Iced drinks sales across the £6.4bn specialised coffee shop sector reached £370m in 2017 and are set to grow by 18% in 2018, according to the latest Allegra World Coffee Portal’s study on the UK’s ‘burgeoning’ iced and blended drinks market.

Kombucha is forecast to be the health drink of 2018, with sales of the low sugar health tea 'exploding on the Australian market' - an increase of 700% over the last two years'.