FMCG Innovations and Trends by Sophia Nadur

The new "sweet spot" for soft drinks today After many years' marketing/innovating brands for global food & drink companies (including Coca-Cola and Unilever), I opted to launch a beverage #startup in order to respond quicker/better to evolving health & wellness trends. After reviewing numerous consumer, retailer & market research data and chatting with folks up and down the country on what they were looking for in a healthier drink while testing prototypes, it is clear that consumers are looking for 3 things these days from their beverage choice, namely (i) less of the "bad stuff", (ii) more innate, natural functionality, and (iii) something that can be "daily habit forming". Being able to deliver on all 3 consumer "wants" is in my view the "sweet spot" for a soft drink today. The essence of this "sweet spot" is shown here: A retailer response that would make Marie Antoinette proud Getting to...

65% of high-potential start-ups fail as a result of conflict among co-founders or between founders & other members of the management team.  In a  Financial Times  article, founders - including Tg Green Tea's co-founder Sophia Nadur, discuss why agreeing a ‘pre-nup’ can avoid a cocktail of conflicts. https://www.ft.com/content/2e5f512a-88df-11e7-afd2-74b8ecd34d3b

Tg Green Tea co-founder, Sophia Nadur, in Singapore discussing how to harness the goodness of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurveda wellness ingredients in creating beverages that folks want. Read her interview with Gary Scattergood, Editor-in-Chief at William Reed Business Media Ltd, Food Asia, in NutraIngredients Asia. http://www.nutraingredients-asia.com/Manufacturers/Functional-beverages-in-Asia-Start-ups-need-to-redress-the-health-balance For more info, please connect with me via LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophianadur/

"I am Fan Yusu" : A #wechat story about a migrant worker's life would have not ruffled feathers in Britain in late 1700s during the Industrial Revolution but I think it will spur positive change in an increasingly reflective China. http://www.whatsonweibo.com/fan-yusu-beijing-migrant-workers-writing-takes-wechat-storm/ http://www.drinktg.com/about-us

I am pleased to be presenting at the Food Vision Asia conference in Singapore 26th April 2017, on the topic of "East meets West meets East. Tapping plant wellness for new beverage segments" which will also showcase Tg green teas  - considered a leading beverage platform for translating ancient TCM wellness traditions into mass-market drinks. East meets West meets East. Tapping plant wellness for new beverage segments People instinctively know the value of consuming plant-based food and drink; they feel it’s good for their health and for the planet, its animals, climate and the environment.  In recent years, however, increased availability of highly processed products, largely marketed by Western companies, has broken the connection with indigenous plant-based diets for Asia’s millennial consumers.  At the same time, on the other side of the world the West is experiencing a fundamental consumer shift towards vegetarian, vegan and other plant-based formulations. S...

The global ready-to-drink tea market reached 37 billion liters in 2016: up 40% since 2011, and market consultancy Zenith Global predicts this impressive growth is set to continue with global consumption expected to reach 45 billion liters by 2021 (growing 7% per annum). Increased consumption has been driven by consumers’ rising health awareness, with RTD teas offering an attractive alternative to carbonated soft drinks. In Asia – by far the biggest market for RTD teas – functional benefits are also a key characteristic of the market. RTD teas will continue to evolve with exotic flavors and more sophisticated offerings. But the category will also face increased scrutiny over its health positioning, with some RTD teas containing as much sugar as carbonated soft drinks. Tg green tea, a new British brew, is set to take on global behemoths in the race to healthify the category. www.drinktg.com

Kantar continues to report folks manage to eat on average just over 3 fruits & vegetables a day despite years of encouraging folks to aim for 5 a day. Now, researchers from Imperial College London are urging folks now to up fruit & veg intake to 10 per day [link to research press release ]. 10 a day. Researchers risk folks doing little more than throwing in the towel in despair, especially in the short term. In any event, looking just at fruit & veg's impact on cardiovascular health is too narrow a research focus in my view.  It would be more helpful if researchers looked at a broader basket of food & drink especially green tea , whole grains, spices and certain nuts. This might give us a better chance at improving overall health & wellbeing! Sophia Nadur www.drinktg.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophianadur/

(c) 2012 Convergence Alimentaire blog image I cut my FMCG marketing teeth at Unilever and ended my full-time global food & drink industry career at Kraft/Mondelez. I now run a healthier drinks startup business alongside a global innovation consultancy where I work as an "extrapreneur" supporting companies wanting to remake their portfolios to better fit emerging consumer needs for healthier products......so I am perhaps in a unique position to give a point of view.  If you are Dutch or British, you feel closer culturally to Unilever and few folks living here in the UK will have forgotten Kraft's poor treatment of people & assets post Cadbury's acquisition. However, the reality is that the vision and values of both companies are not so dissimilar and both are facing the same fundamental shifts in consumer behaviour & needs in relation to "big FMCG/CPG" brands in both developed and the "developing" world. Is Warren Buffett (a Kr...

"Consumers want to eat more healthfully, but they can't do it alone. They need help from food & drink manufacturers to formulate products with good-for-you ingredients. They need help from retailers to stock right-priced healthful assortments."  Nielsen 2016 Global Health and Ingredient Sentiment Survey. In North America, " Groundhog Day " is the day when the groundhog is said to come out of its burrow at the end of hibernation. If the animal sees its shadow—i.e. if the weather is sunny—it goes back into its hole, which signals 6 weeks more of winter weather. If it's cloudy and he doesn't see his shadow, spring is not far away! "Groundhog Day" has another, more colloquial, meaning. When someone says " It's like Groundhog Day " today, they mean the day is one in which people say the same things and do the same things over and over. I had a " Groundhog Day " moment earlier this week while waiting on a train ...

Hua  (my co-founder) and I have been crowdfunding on  Tesco Backit  for the past few weeks. It's been a great opportunity to share with folks who already know and love our innovative drink concept.....and loads of folks who never heard of Tg green tea - or us -before. The crowdfunding platform itself is new -  the first of its kind by a global retailer (Tesco) -  and focused on supporting emerging food & drink brands raise funds to scale up and get ready to list (hopefully) in a Top 5 global retailer! The campaign closes on  7th November  so please allow me to make a short, direct appeal to you to support our crowdfunding campaign. With every pledge we are able to deliver our drinks to more and more cafes, delis, workplaces and charities all across Britain - and to ensure sales support is on hand to fulfill orders once more folks have sampled our drinks. Please may I ask you to make a pledge of £25, £50, or £100 today.  We will say "tha...

My mission to fight for better food & drink on store shelves  drove me to create Tg. Getting the drink in-store with Tesco in the UK is just the start. This crowdfunding campaign has stirred up strong interest by another major retailer as well as a number of cafe chains. Enquiries have come in from the US, France, Germany, the UAE, China, Japan, Chile, the Netherlands, and the Caribbean regarding selling Tg in those markets. But I cannot make Tg a success on my own. I need your help which is why I am here, asking you to make a campaign pledge. Bob Beveridge , a former colleague at Mars, experienced NED & Chartered Accountant, made a sizeable pledge very early in the campaign. He then asked to try out Tg green teas. He thought the drinks were delicious and something really new and different (after doing his own in-store and other research). He was so moved by Tg's mission that he reached out to offer his help as an advisor and ...