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McDonalds and Innocent ?


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Stirrin’Stuff was asked to do a children’s demo at the Royal Highland show yesterday and as it was early in the day, I had time to show go.The Golden Arch was there with a child friendly stand full of kids and Scottish farmers. McDonalds are putting emphasis on preference to purchase from local suppliers.The freebie (for children) was a tomato seed in a wee flower pot..

I was told by a Mr McDonald that Innocent is going to do a trial partnership – any ears close to ground on this one?I can't believe it or will Innocent soon be luvin it??

P.S the demo was using Ava strawberries. Look out for these berries they have small white confetti style petals, and they are quite delicious.

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Stirrin’Stuff was asked to do a  children’s demo at the Royal Highland show yesterday and as it was early in the day, I had time to show go.The Golden Arch was there with a child friendly stand full of kids and Scottish farmers. McDonalds are putting emphasis on preference to purchase from local suppliers.The freebie (for children) was a tomato seed in a wee flower pot..

I was told by a Mr McDonald  that Innocent is going to do a trial partnership – any ears close to ground on this one?I can't believe it or will Innocent soon be luvin it??

P.S the demo was using Ava strawberries. Look out for these berries they have small white confetti style petals, and they are quite delicious.

http://www.ap-foodtechnology.com/news/ng.a...onalds-smoothie

Which says:

One suggested innocent should rename itself 'just a little bit tainted Smoothies' and argued a point echoed by several contributors that: "While I can wholeheartedly see the good reason for trying to get kids/people in general to eat more healthily - if that is the case, they really shouldn't be in McDonalds in the first place."

Innocent themselves have this to say: http://innocentdrinks.typepad.com/innocent...er_or_no_1.html

we even held a meeting for the whole company one lunchtime to get people's thoughts on whether we should or not. And the result was we decided that making our kids smoothies available in McDonalds was the right thing to do

I guess putting some proper food into a McDonald's Happy Meal has to be an improvement, but you still aren't going to find me in a McDonald's any time soon.

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Innocent founder Richard Reed talks about the issue with Katie Derham on a foodradio.com podcast click.

Thank you Andy, I shall listen to the interview and thank you to Duncan for that info too. Perhaps Innocent may have good influence and suggest big fat chips (less surface area to absorb fat) and then maybe, totally salt free chips, although I gather that you can request these already. Duh, who has time to dare to be different in a long queue but I might get one of the kids to try this one out in Dundee on a busy day.

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who has time to dare to be different in a long queue but I might get one of the kids to try this one out in Dundee on a busy day.

Since you raise the point, the McD's delivery system is actually quite efficient when going off-piste. I spent many weekends of my youth in the aforementioned Dundee McDonalds with a friend who didn't want gherkin, lettuce, tomato (in sauce or fruit form) or indeed anything else to disturb the synergistic perfection between burger and bun. Neither the staff nor the fellow queue members had a problem with this: it just meant he had to lurk around the till for a fraction longer while the kitchen zapped his "special".

As for Innocent, I guess you could say they're guilty by association. But then, is anyone really surprised that a company selling medicine bottles of mashed-up banana for not short of £2 would indulge in another means of profiteering?

Edited by naebody (log)
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isn't this whole "big corporate bad" schtick getting tired yet?

it's a business, that does what it does.

I agree.

Of course Innocent and McDonalds are quite different companies, but they are both targeting the mass market.

You can stick your head in the sand and tut-tut McDonalds, or you can face the fact that millions of people go there, and getting tasty, healthy drinks on their food trays instead of sugar-laden soft drinks has to be a good thing. If Innocent makes money out of the venture, good for them. As it is, they donate 10% of their profit to support the countries where they source their fruit, so I’d imagine that these struggling economies will be more than delighted to increase their exports as well as the level of donation they receive.

It will be interesting to see if McDonalds offers Innocent smoothies at the same price as the soft drink options (the product cost must be substantially higher for Innocent). Now that would be progress.

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What Innocent and McDonalds want to do with their own brands is up to them.

It's an interesting choice however for Innocent to make having worked so hard to differentiate themselves from the mass market unhealthy food and drink sector. they've put a lot of effort into presenting themselves as a different sort of company so McDonalds seems an odd partner.

Having put yourself up on a pedestal means that there could be some sort of consumer/brand backlash - look at the don't-be-evil-let's-censor-results-for-China Google palaver.

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Speaking to a few school canteen managers they mentioned that they are currently being flooded with cheap innocent smoothies to prepare for a full0on assault on school kids in september. they said that they loved it because the costing was so much cheaper than the retail versions.

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Speaking to a few school canteen managers they mentioned that they are currently being flooded with cheap innocent smoothies to prepare for a full0on assault on school kids in september. they said that they loved it because the costing was so much cheaper than the retail versions.

Excellent news. I for one am quite happy to pay the retail price if it means they force their smoothies down the schoolkids throats.

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Speaking to a few school canteen managers they mentioned that they are currently being flooded with cheap innocent smoothies to prepare for a full0on assault on school kids in september. they said that they loved it because the costing was so much cheaper than the retail versions.

Excellent news. I for one am quite happy to pay the retail price if it means they force their smoothies down the schoolkids throats.

This is great. The price point does seem to be a bit of a barrier, they have run quite a few 2 for 1 offers and price promotions. I presume the quality will be the same and the economies of scale will allow for a lower price point.

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there's a precedent, McDonalds also have a decent stake in pret a manger too.

33%, in fact. Bought in 2001 for £50 million as Pret was making its first attempt to take America and McDonalds was chucking money around in search of the next Big Mac.

Now that the latter's new management has steadied the ship and is getting shot of "non-core" investments, while the former is taking another run at the States autonomously, it would not be a huge surprise to see McD's sell its holding within the next year or so.

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I absolutely despise my local Tesco express. DESPISE. But I occasionally buy a "This Water" by Innocent on my way to the tube there......

Hating this Tesco does not affect my opinion of Innocent at all, simply being sold there doesn't undermine its deliciousness!!

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