Sunny Delight's exponential late-1990s rise hit the skids when a young fan turned orange. Now rebranded and in new bottles, Sunny D is moving out of the shade, says Des King

Sunny Delight launched back in 1998 and virtually overnight created the category for chilled drinks aimed at kids. It quickly clocked up sales in excess of £160m every year; ranking it as the UK's 12th top-selling grocery product. Yet, like the banks in more recent times, its downturn was equally as dramatic. A Saatchi ad starring a fridge-raiding snowman turning bright orange as a result of slurping down the drink sounded alarm bells. Then a four-year-old in Rhyl with a 1.5-litre-a-day habit coloured up likewise.

The resultant adverse publicity sparked off a hangover from which the drink has suffered ever since; the tall poppy casualty of a panicky fear lest we become what we consume. Although the product has gamely hung about the chiller cabinet, sales last year were down to £11.5m. Now, however, following a relaunch (or perhaps re-relaunch) of Sunny D in May, the Sunny Delight Beverages Company (SDBC) - who acquired the brand from Procter & Gamble in 2005 - is banking on life imitating art again; this time in their favour.

With a new recipe - no additives and lots more fresh juice - a new pack, and a new promotional campaign (‘improved by mums; approved by kids'), SDBC is on a mission to regain the top spot in competition against a clutch of health-conscious alternatives that have filled the gap they left behind a decade ago. Naturally, they're hoping that the future will be their orange. But as any brand that's offended consumer sensibilities in the past will know to its cost, that's going to be a big ask, acknowledges Richard Baragwanath, Sunny D commercial manager at UK manufacturer and filler Gerber Juice.

A long road
"We know that we're not going to get back up to the heady heights of the late 1990s overnight. It's going to be a long process, but the start point is about making sure that the public understands that this is a brand in which it can have 100% trust," he says.

The first stage, Baragwanath says, was to reduce the sugar level, making Sunny D the first product in the category to have an amber traffic light, and to up its juice content. "We always knew that was a stepping stone to where Sunny D is now: a 70% juice drink with the lowest GDA in its category for sugar content".

Packaging, too, has been a key element within the new makeover. The clarity and transparency of Esterform's PET bottles have replaced the more opaque HDPE used previously, and sizes have been scaled down to one litre and 330ml, both with screw-caps. To facilitate the change, Gerber installed two bespoke Oystar Hamba filling machines and switched suppliers to Esterform from the previous HDPE blowmoulder.

Design agency Elmwood, meanwhile, was called upon to revamp the design and it concentrated on the brand's essential reflection of Californian surf culture for a wraparound label. This has itself been upgraded by supplier Systems Labelling's high-definition seven-colour UV flexo print, superseding the previously used water-based solvent inks.

New wave
Elmwood's underlying remit has been to dispense with the sense of atonement that has hitherto coloured Sunny D's rehabilitation process, says account director Sarah Wade. "The ‘no artificial content' story is your ticket to the game; it's the basic proposition that any brand has to aspire to. We've focused instead on the drink's unique surf culture appeal that no one else in the category can offer."

The design team hasn't had it all its own way though. They've clearly had to listen to an echo of past nervousness: lack of artificial content is twice stressed on the front of the pack. Even so, it's a long way removed from the previous clumsy attempts at reassurance, and the more arresting for it.

But as far as Baragwanath is concerned, the past is decidedly another country. He talks proudly of the new incarnation of Sunny D having pre-empted recent FSA requirements for beverages in the category to contain less than 8% sugar per 100ml, and is confident that once mums - the brand's traditional gatekeepers - pick up the product it'll compare well with anything else in the cabinet.

There's a new blackcurrant version - possibly to tempt Ribena -loving taste-buds - and the promise of additional flavours in the pipeline. All in all, Sunny D exudes an eager to please, health and well-being resonance wrapped up within a premium 38gsm one-litre bottle. The message is that it's funky, has the same great taste, but is full of goodness.

Upbeat about future prospects, Richard Baragwanath is predicting a sales uplift of 25% during the next financial year. With SDBC coy about disclosing volumes currently shipped, it's anyone's guess how many extra bottles of Sunny D that adds up to. It may not be a '98 vintage perhaps, but it's more than likely enough to send a chill reverberating through the rest of the category.