Reacting to the growingly health conscious and sophisticated consumer through quality and natural ingredients. Take a look at the planned congress programme.

26th September 2018

08:15 Registration and refreshments

08:50 Chair’s opening remarks

09:00 Incorporating the value of sustainable beverage packaging to appeal to the mindful consumers

• Evaluating all viable options from glass, can, plastic to balance sustainability, price and appeal to the informed consumer
• Managing consumers awareness of the impact of the beverages industry to highlight the need for innovation through alternative methods
• Addressing the viable opportunities in all areas of manufacturing and production for the next generation of sustainable packaging
• Creating a closed-loop recycling scheme to create a sustainable product
• Assessing how to target create easier recycling through biodegradable alternatives to appeal to environmentally conscientious consumers

Speaker: Nick Brown, Head of Sustainability, Coca-Cola European Partners

09:30 Session reserved for PureCircle

10:00 Creating agility inside a large corporation to ensure constant innovation 

• Sustaining product pipeline whilst shortening product lifecycle to ensure constant growth
• Addressing limitations in supply infrastructure to make cost effective smaller innovative batches
• Balancing master brands with smaller innovation to continue brand development whilst appealing to the changing consumer
• Including product development from a wide range of sources to deliver a technical roadmap for new products to enter the market
• Ensuring flexibility and speed to respond to changes in the market whilst adhering to internal regulation hurdles

Speaker: Will Whittaker, Head of Liquid Development, Britvic Soft Drinks

10:30 Morning refreshments and networking

11:00 Examining if the 30% of 18-26 year olds that are alcohol free will give rise to more innovative non-alcoholic options

• Normalising non-alcoholic fixtures at bars and retailers to remove stigma around non-alcoholic alternatives
• Building the pricing and quality strategies necessary to expand and sustain this new category
• Exploring how non-alcoholic drinks are driving innovation in regards to herb and botanical flavor trends
• Accepting the challenge to reposition and create healthier and less calorific alternatives to alcoholic beverages
• Creating theatre around non-alcoholic drinks to give credibility to your product to increase consumption
• Giving consumers choice by creating the same experience through innovation in non-alcohol alternatives to give ‘mouth burn’ feel

Speaker: Ben Branson, Founder, Seedlip Ltd

11:30 Searching for the next generation of Stevia to decrease sugar content in all beverages

• Discussing whether there is a difference between natural sugar or sweeteners for the health conscious consumer
• Overcoming economic viability for alternatives to sugar whilst maintaining the taste factor
• Considering investment, regulatory barriers and availability of alternative ingredients to introduce feasible options
• Challenging perceptions of Stevia to address if it will ever become widely publicly accepted in the use of beverages
• Finding natural flavours and sweeteners that don’t force consumers to choose sugar and artificial ingredients

Speaker: Cheryl Walker, Senior Analytical Technologist – Development, Britvic Soft Drinks

12:00 Delving into the disruption in the high sugar sector to appeal to the health aware population 

• Considering opportunities for new brands to disrupt in the wake of the ban from major retailers in March to sell high sugar energy drinks to under 16s
• Highlighting the +7.9% growth in the energy drinks sector as the highest growth sector showing its commercial potential (compared with +1.2% growth for juice)
• Providing low sugar options which can rival the established players as consumers are becoming increasingly aware of ingredients
• Exploring if there is a need to reformulate, to compromise on sugar content or to stay the same to retain loyal customers
• Evaluating the impact of the sugar tax and the effect it’s had on people’s perception of the industry

Speaker: Dieter Deceuninck, Global Director Strategy & Insights, Danone

12:30 Session reserved for Sponsor

13:00 Lunch and networking

14:00 Appreciating consumers right to have a choice of sugary drinks to avoid public backlash

• Understanding if the consumer has changed their drinking habits in the wake of the sugar tax to ensure relevant reformulation or alternative innovation
• Incorporating the need to keep full sugar options to avoid disgruntled customers
• Exploring if natural sugar is any better than added sugar to avoid confusing the consumer
• Addressing if the sugar tax has driven billions of calories of sugar out of peoples diets
• Considering the change in serving size and the move away from sharing bottles to smaller individual beverages to fit into the active and disposable society

Speaker: Duncan O’Brien, Founder, Dalston’s Christopher N Banks, Chair, Cracker Drinks Co Ltd Sukhi Sindhu, Director, DRINKmaple

14:30 Session reserved for TAIYO

15:00 Focusing on the growingly aware consumer to ensure healthy products whilst maintaining quality taste

• Ensuring mouth feel aspect isn’t lost when replaced with alternatives to sugar
• Harnessing the 42% of consumers that proactively seek products to improve their health to increase revenue
• Growing reluctance from the consumer for substituting natural sugar for sweetener driving the need for alternative options
• Highlighting the growing trend of combining sweet with savoury flavours to reduce sugar needed whilst ensuring enjoyable taste
• Assessing the benefits of rebranding to create a new brand to appeal to the healthier consumer

Speaker: Paul Isherwood, Head of Technical & Quality, The SHS Group Drinks Division

15:30 Afternoon refreshments and networking

16:00 Session TBC

Speaker: James Shillcock, Founder, Vivid

16:30 Innovation spotlight: 3 disruptor companies discussing their journey so far
Addressing the necessary journey and innovation required to break into the market

• Highlighting how to create a strong brand despite limited resources
• Preparing for the challenges of small scale production and limiting unnecessary risks
• Designing the necessary budget plan to create an accessible price point
• Sourcing the right ingredients to ensure product quality
• Promoting continual innovation of your product to ensure long term future

Speaker: Luke Montgomery-Smith, Co-Founder, Wild Fizz Kombucha Pedro Miguel Coelho, Chief International Officer & COO, Sunlover Hugh Duffie, Director, Sandows

18:00 Chair’s summary and close of conference

27th September

08:15 Registration and refreshments

08:50 Chair’s opening remarks

09.00 Speaker Hosted Roundtables

Interactive roundtable sessions offer a unique opportunity to come together with your peers to share best practice and develop solutions to critical challenges facing the industry as a whole. Hosted by industry experts and each focused on a single issue, roundtables are an exciting, interactive way to build your personal network and learn from the experience and expertise of others.

Each roundtable session lasts for 45 minutes, and delegates may attend up to 2 roundtables

RT 1 Should retailers stop accepting plastic to force packaging innovation from companies
Speaker: John Brennan, Category Director – Grocery, Impulse, BWS, Tesco

RT2 Discussing the future trends for beverages and full progression into adultification of non-alcoholic alternatives
Speaker: Paul Hiskens, Head of Digital and E-commerce, Coca-Cola European Partners

RT 3 Maintaining premium credentials when growing your product to the mainstream
Speaker: Jason Sennitt, General Manager – Merchant’s Heart, L.R. Suntory

RT 4 Highlighting the difference in innovation between east and west to discover varying trends
Mohamed Badaoui Najjar, East Europe Region Head, Beverage R&D, PepsiCo (pending)

RT 5 Maintaining craft magic whilst expanding business opportunities to remain true to brand values
Speaker: Darryl Burton, Managing Director, Peter Spanton Drinks

10.30 Morning refreshments and networking

11:00 Session TBC

Speaker: Hans Von Bochove, VP Public Affairs Europe, Coca-Cola European Partners

11:30 Addressing innovation for how beverages are served to add value

• Establishing benefits from the perfect serve to increase customer engagement in non-alcoholic alternatives
• Discussing the potential of beverage subscription services to give little cost or risk to the consumer to sample a selection of new products
• Analysing various packaging options to incorporate quality or cost factors to appeal to different target markets
• Creating premiumisation to gain market share through quality rather than against traditional large volumes sold
• Exploring innovate options into how your drinks are displayed in anticipation for queue-less stores

Speaker: John Brennan, Category Director – Grocery, Impulse, BWS, Tesco

12:00 Session reserved for sponsor

12:30 Focusing on the growingly aware consumer to ensure healthy products whilst maintaining quality taste

• Ensuring mouth feel aspect isn’t lost when replaced with alternatives to sugar
• Harnessing the 42% of consumers that proactively seek products to improve their health to increase revenue
• Growing reluctance from the consumer for substituting natural sugar for sweetener driving the need for alternative options
• Highlighting the growing trend of combining sweet with savoury flavours to reduce sugar needed whilst ensuring enjoyable taste
• Assessing the benefits of rebranding to create a new brand to appeal to the healthier consumer

Speaker: Anna Hagemann Rise, Communications Director, Fazer Lifestyle Foods

13:00 Lunch and networking

14:00 Exploring innovation trends across the industry to deliver insight for future decisions

• Delving into the high growth sub categories within non-alcoholic beverages to see where the key growth opportunities lie
• Showcasing the power in the strength of the healthy hydration movement to relate to your consumers
• Winning the war against sugar by finding the right balance between product reformulation and consumer demand
• Capitalising on alcohol avoidance by tapping into new premium consumption occasions for non-alcoholic beverages
• Uncovering emerging opportunities for beverage innovation in the future

Speaker: Dr Melanie Felgate, Senior Consumer Insight Analyst, Global Data

14:30 Case Study CO-RO, Incorporating the right mindset into your company for innovation to flourish

• Addressing the challenges of moving from a traditionally rigid corporation into an innovative company to encouraging the right principles and environment to foster innovation for successful progression of exciting products
• Developing a key philosophy to ensure successful cross functional communication from the creative innovation end through to the structured office to maintain flexibility
• Designing a tangible business plan to ensure successful production from developing ideas to end product
• Following the CO-RO journey and overcoming the obstacles for sparking continuous innovation

Speaker: Lee Taylor, EVP Innovation, CO-RO S/A

15:00 Session reserved for sponsor

15:30 Afternoon refreshments and networking

16:00 Showcasing the innovation from adultification in the soft drinks industry to develop new products

• Opportunity inside a growing sector to create new and exciting non-alcoholic products to give choice to the consumer
• Adding new depths of flavours to appeal to the changing taste pallet of the public
• Looking outside of sweeteners and emergence towards natural only products
• Exploring formulation of ‘unsweet’ soft drinks with no sweeteners or sugar to challenge taste perspectives
• Fostering innovation to create products for both everyday consumption and special occasions to appeal to the alcohol free adults

Speaker: Rubén González, CEO, Raw Superdrinks

16:30 Identifying the importance of branding for smaller companies to create an engaging platform

• Utilising social media to create a lifestyle for consumers to buy into to create brand awareness
• Exploiting the unique, agile and innovative nature of disruptor brands to combat lack of capital
• Highlighting the challenge of getting noticed by the consumer to increase impulse driven sales
• Challenging the large corporations through agility to establish yourself as a competitor
• Creating the change towards less sugar, better ingredients and sustainability to ensure attention from consumer

Speaker: Joe Benn, Co-Founder, Ugly Drinks

17:00 Looking at the opportunities from the decline in consumers buying traditional sugary soft drinks

• Highlighting the increasing fragmentation of the market and creating room for innovative products
• Responding to the increase in adult population of non-alcoholic drinkers and their relevant taste buds to ensure appealing to the growing sophisticated consumer
• Examining the high growth categories as customers are becoming more conscious about, what are they consuming to give rise to potential innovation
• Unlocking incremental parts of the market through innovation to increase revenue potential
• Appreciating that 48% of consumers are actively choosing drinks with low or no sugar resulting in a shift of purchasing decisions

Speaker: Sukhi Sindhu, Director, DRINKmaple

17:30 Chair’s summary and close of conference