Scotland-headquartered A.G. Barr has been advertising and marketing, promoting and distributing Rio on an unique licence foundation by way of its Increase Drinks division since 2021 (Increase Drinks was acquired by A.G. Barr final yr).
It has now acquired the Rio model from Corridor and Woodhouse Restricted, an unbiased brewer and pub firm, for £12.3m ($15m).
Rio is a ‘scrumptious mix of 11% actual fruit and juice (orange, guava, apricot, mango and passionfruit) in flippantly glowing water’. The drink is gluten-free, dairy-free and appropriate for vegetarians and vegans.
The model was lately reformulated from 10g sugar per 100ml to underneath 4.5g per 100ml, bringing it in underneath the brink of the UK’s sugar tax (Smooth Drinks Business Levy). It additionally presents a no added sugar model with 17 energy per 330ml can.
Rio joins A.G. Barr’s portfolio of well-known UK manufacturers similar to IRN-BRU, Rubicon, FUNKIN and Increase. In December the corporate additionally gained full possession of MOMA Meals, a barista-focused oat drink model.
“With a model constructing enterprise mannequin, and following the Increase acquisition, we’ve moved rapidly to safe the long-term place of the Rio model inside our wider portfolio,” says A.G. Barr.
“Whereas an necessary contributor to the beforehand introduced ongoing margin rebuild program, the transaction shouldn’t be anticipated to have a cloth impression on the Group’s earnings for the present monetary yr ending 28 January 2024.”
