Britvic acquires plant-based drinks business Plenish

Britvic has announced the acquisition of plant-based drinks business Plenish.

The company said the transaction will strengthen its offer in the high-growth plant-based milks and organic juice categories.

Founded in 2012, Plenish has grown from the UK’s first cold-pressed juice company, hand-making organic drinks in founder Kara Rosen's kitchen, to one of the UK’s fastest growing plant-based drinks brand whose organic milks, juices and shots are sold nationwide.

“Plenish is a fantastic addition to Britvic’s stable of market-leading products, and I am delighted to welcome them to our business,” Simon Litherland, Britvic chief executive, said.

“In only a short time, Plenish has built a hugely impressive brand offering a fantastic range of products that cater to the growing demand for healthy and nutritious juices and plant-based milks. At Britvic, we have a long history of building successful brands and we see tremendous potential in Plenish that we look forward to realising in the years ahead.”

Kara Rosen, a native New Yorker who moved to the UK, set up Plenish after looking for alternative solutions to deal with a recurring health issue. Failing to find cold-pressed juices free of sugar in the British market, she decided to make her own juices and nut milks using mainly green vegetables from organic origin.

“I started Plenish nine years ago in my kitchen to help make it easy and delicious for people to improve their health and make a positive impact for the planet,” Rosen said. Our plant-based drinks are still made like I originally made them at home-- with best in class ingredients sourced from sustainable, organic farms and no additives.”

“I'm so excited for Plenish to join forces with Britvic, who I've long admired as a brilliant builder of brands and shares similar values, particularly around healthier people and planet. Together we can reach more people in more places with products and programmes that help you feel good, made in a way that you can feel good about.”

Britvic said the acquisition is part of its strategy of building a portfolio of soft-drinks brands for every consumer occasion and accessing new spaces in the soft drinks category. With the non-soya plant-based milks market growing more than tenfold over the past decade and plant-based milks set to achieve retail sales values of over £500m by 2024, the segment is fast becoming a mainstream category, the company noted.