Internationale Partnersuche

Innovation & Technologie Anfrage

Innovation in flavoured sparkling water products

Country of Origin: United Kingdom
Reference Number: TRUK20180723001
Publication Date: 23 July 2018

Summary

A large UK manufacturer of soft drinks is searching for novel ways of differentiating sparkling water through new technology concepts, which potentially could come from the the following elements: flavour, water, bubbles or packaging. Industry and academia developing such solutions, incl. in early stage, are sought for technical cooperation, licensing, and commercial agreements with technical assistance.

Description

The UK arm of an international manufacturer of non-alcoholic beverages is searching for novel enabling technologies to differentiate flavoured sparkling water products. The move away from traditional sodas has focused on the goodness of water and the use of natural flavours (e.g. citrus) with minimal calories, but consumers are now demanding greater tasting products and are looking for brands with a compelling reason for purchase. The company wishes to deliver the next generation of products in this category, and is therefore actively searching for innovative technologies to enable them to differentiate in this crowded sector.  The consumer’s growing need to understand where the ingredients come from, how they were processed and what benefit can be derived from the product, enables the client to utilise new technologies in a way previously not possible.  An example of this is in craft alcoholic beverages, where the source, process and founder story is often a primary reason for success. Therefore, the company is keen to find innovative ingredients, new processing technologies and product concepts to enable a step-change in the flavoured sparkling water market.

Early stage developments will be considered with a view to long term partnership. The company has resources for both further development and market launch.

The company’s products are sold in volume worldwide, thereby providing an excellent route to accelerate the introduction of a new innovation into this market. Also, they have manufacturing and supply chain partnerships for solutions not amenable for in-house manufacturing.  

The company has excellent relationships with global ingredient suppliers, and is aware of the currently available ingredients. They are therefore interested in the next phase of flavoured water.

Interested parties are encouraged to send a brief non-confidential description of their proposal(s). A co-operation with industry or academia will depend on the stage of development and may include technical cooperation, licensing, commercial agreement with technical assistance.

Expertise sought

The innovation could come from any of these elements:

•	Water;

•	Flavours: are there unusual or alternative sources of flavours, or different forms (peels, whole fruit), or novel infusion/extraction processes;

•	Bubbles;

•	Packaging. Can the packaging or dispensing come in a new way to improve freshness or the consumer experience.

Requested partner

Type of partner sought: industry and academia

- Specific area of activity of the partner: research into beverages, water, flavours, bubbles. Also, research and products in the field of consumer acceptance.

- Task to be performed by the partner sought: industry and academia are invited to send non-confidential descriptions of their proposals.