Lipton & Eléphant cold infuse
Keeping our cool in a challenging market
In 2019, the tea business in France was facing a challenge. Fast-paced, on-the-go lifestyles meant more people were swapping their cuppa for a bottle of water – a change caused in part by the explosion of flavoured bottled waters being launched.
Health trends had been a factor too, with a significant group of Gen-Z customers choosing drinks with caffeine or sugar less often.
And as concerns grow for the planet, we saw a move away from single-use plastic, with more and more people opting to simply carry a bottle of water with them from their home.
The ekaterra innovation? Lipton & Eléphant Cold Infuse
Launched in 2020, Lipton Cold Infuse is a range of big pyramid tea bags of herbal infusions you can drop into your own chilled water bottle.
Initially launched in four flavours, it’s sugar free, caffeine free, and calorie free. All the ingredients are natural, and the packaging is sustainable too.
Within the first year, more than 1.2 million new buyers were choosing cold infuse drinks, with a definite skew towards younger tea drinkers.
And with such great growth, our colleagues at Lipton extended the range, introducing a new on-trend taste, Mint & Lime.
At ekaterra, it was clear that cold infuse drinks would be a big opportunity. So we encouraged Eléphant – our other tea brand in France – to get in on the action as well.
Not wanting to steal share from Lipton, Eléphant launched three new products focused on wellness. ‘Boost’, ‘Detox’ and ‘Relax’ appealed to three of the most popular needs in the cold infuse herbal market.
By innovating and working together this way, our Lipton and Eléphant brands allowed ekaterra to become the market leader in this young segment, fending off challenges from rival brands Clipper and Twinings.
Cool plans for the future
We’d attracted new, and often younger tea drinkers, without any direct impact or conflict between our two brands.
So, what’s next? The team have big ambitions. Innovative new flavours have already launched, including Lipton’s Peach & Raspberry, and Eléphant’s Digestion Mint & Grapefruit. Lipton’s branding and packaging has also been updated, and there are strong marketing campaigns lined up for both brands.