Coca Cola Snaps Up Stake in Smoothie Maker Innocent

British fruit and smoothie drinks maker Innocent Drinks is selling a minority stake to Coca-Cola for £30m ($44m) to fund its expansion across Europe, it was announced today.

The deal gives the world’s biggest soft drinks maker a 10% to 20% stake in the company.

Co-founder Richard Reed played down suggestions that its new US stakeholder would influence the running of Innocent, saying that the original three founders would continue to run the company.

“We will be the same people, in the same offices, making the same products in the same way,” Reed said.

The deal follows a decision by Coca-Cola to publish corrective advertisements in Australia, where regulators ruled that the company could have misled consumers with ads saying its products won’t make them fat or rot their teeth.

Innocent, which operates in 13 European countries and reported a turnover of £100m last year, did not rule out further deals with Coca-Cola.

By staff writer