Published on August 31, 2022
Blended and pressed with fresh fruit. No nonsense.
There is no messing about with Cawston Press. Made from the love and understanding of their people to create feel-good drinks.
Originally called ‘Cawston Vale’, it started off with the sole focus of selling apple juice. The fruit pressing journey began 30 years ago with a lot of apple trees. Instead of taking short cuts, Cawston Press have taken time to make their drinks but have kept it simple to create delicious drinks as natural as possible because they believe that nature knows best. They know the good ingredients that only need pressing to get the good stuff. All the sweetness is natural with no added sugar, sweeteners or concentrates. They have now grown from a small brand selling apple juice to a multimillion pound business and believes a focus on quality products and new flavours can help it take on the giants of the soft drinks industry. Their award-winning drinks conjure up a nostalgic taste of summers past. They use only the finest ingredients inspired by British kitchen gardens, which are picked at harvest time so they are brimming with flavour. Simple, clean and trusted ingredients with absolutely no artificial nasties added.
We think the opportunity is keeping customers in the market by offering them something of quality.
The brand’s co-founder and current marketing boss, Mark Palmer, explains that they needed to move away from being a “small juice brand” to one that honed in on quality – a message, he says, the brand could push as it does not use concentrates, instead opting for pressed fruit and vegetables. They took their brand even further by launching their sparkling drinks in 2014 with two different flavours at 250,000 cans each. Palmer described this as “utterly terrifying”. However, they saw a gap in the market as fizzy drinks often contain very little real fruit – they decided this needed to change. Therefore, all of their sparkling drinks are full of pressed fruit , for example their Cloudy Sparkling apple is made with Jonagold, Gala and Braeburn apples and there is approximately one and half apples in every can.
The business seemingly made the right decision. Three years on, the brand has six fizzy variants and sold more than 10 million cans in 2016. Cawston Press’s retail sales value stands at £21m, with the sparkling range making up half its business. The business has also doubled in size in the last 18 months – as has the size of the team.
Despite its rapid growth in recent years, Palmer believes it is “just getting started” and is continually looking for ways to improve its soft drinks distribution by showing up in the “right” places, such as in restaurants, pubs, coffee shops, leisure centres and newsagents. They are also looking to expand into other markets such as the US and France, and will “generally ramp up its marketing”. They are also pushing towards becoming a great alternative to alcohol. Palmer explains that “If you look at the data around what people are consuming these days, one in four millenials is not drinking – so what on earth are you drinking if you don’t drink alcohol? Consumers will demand better quality non-alcoholic drinks, which is why we focus on good ingredients”. Check out the Cawston Press range today with DWUK and get stocked up with fantastic soft drinks for all ages.
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About the author
Chloe Lewis
Chloe looks after all copywriting and proof-reading for Drink Warehouse UK, working with the Marketing team to deliver educational content to all our customers. She has spent many years in the hospitality sector, moving from behind the bar to now helping venues to stock their own. You can find more from Chloe about beer, cider, spirits, wine, non-alcoholic, soft drinks and RTDs all over our blogs, website, social media and Set The Bar magazine.
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