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Capri-Sun ( , ) is a brand of juice concentrate–based drinks manufactured by the German company Wild and regional licensees. Rudolf Wild invented the drink in 1969 and introduced it in
West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...
as Capri-Sonne (a name retired in favor of the English name in 2017). It has come to be sold in over 100 countries, with licensees including
Kraft Foods Kraft Foods Group, Inc. was an American food manufacturing and processing conglomerate (company), conglomerate, split from Kraft Foods Inc. on October 1, 2012, and was headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. It became part of Kraft Heinz on July ...
in the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
(as Capri Sun) and Coca-Cola Europacific Partners in parts of Europe. It is one of the most popular juice brands in the world; , roughly 6 billion pouches are sold per year globally. Since its launch, Capri-Sun has been packaged in laminated foil vacuum Doy-N-Pack pouches, with which the brand has become strongly associated. In the United States, these pouches predated the advent of Tetra Brik, in an era when fruit juice was usually sold in large containers. The pouch design has stayed largely the same, but changes in some markets have included transparent bottoms and paper straws, while other container types have been introduced for some products. Capri-Sun is available in varying ranges of flavors in different countries, targeting different national flavor profiles. Globally, its best-known flavor is Orange. Capri-Sun's main products are high in
sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecul ...
content, although lower than many competitors. Characterizations of the juice drinks as " all-natural" have led to conflict in several countries between consumer advocates who highlight the high sugar content and low juice percentage and Capri-Sun and its licensees, who have generally maintained that the term correctly describes the ingredients. Disputes over sugar content and "all-natural" status have led to two lawsuits in the United States and the removal of the brand's main line from
Tesco Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in the United Kingdom at its head offices in Welwyn Garden City, England. The company was founded by Jack Cohen (businessman), Sir Jack Cohen in ...
shelves in the United Kingdom. In France, Capri-Sun has figured prominently in rap songs and has been noted as a drink of choice in poor areas. Capri-Sun is often marketed to children, which has earned it a negative award from the consumer advocacy group
Foodwatch Foodwatch is a European advocacy group that focuses on protecting consumer rights as they pertain to food quality. The organization was founded in October 2002 in Berlin by former Greenpeace executive director Thilo Bode. , the organization is a ...
. In the United States, Kraft and its former parent company, the tobacco conglomerate Philip Morris Cos. ( Altria), have successfully marketed Capri Sun using strategies developed for selling cigarettes to children.. See also summaries ("tobacco executives, barred from targeting children for cigarette sales, focused their marketing prowess on young people to sell sugary beverages in ways that had not been done before") and ( e Kool-Aid kid program was modeled after a tobacco marketing strategy designed to build allegiance with smokers' said Nguyennbsp;... The tobacco company also purchased Capri Sun and Tang and used similar child-centric marketing strategies to push sales"). American parents often misidentify Capri Sun as healthy, and it is one of the most favorably rated brands among Generation Z Americans.


Brand history


Origins and global overview

Rudolf Wild founded Rudolf Wild & Co. (better known as Wild) in
Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...
, Germany, in 1931. After World War II, Rudolf Wild created Libella, which, according to Rudolf's son
Hans-Peter Wild Hans-Peter Wild (born 16 June 1941) is a German-born Swiss businessman and lawyer. Wild is the owner and chairman of Capri-Sun a fruit juice manufacturer based in Zug, Switzerland. Until 2014, he was the majority shareholder in the company Wild ( ...
, was Germany's first branded beverage with a fruit-juice base. Libella was successful, and Wild pursued several other ventures, including Capri-Sonne, which was developed in the 1960s. Restrictions on color additives at the time in West Germany led to less visually appealing soft drinks, incentivizing opaque packaging. Rudolf Wild & Co. engaged with Thimonnier, a French company that primarily manufactured sewing machines, for rights to use their patented pouch design and pouch-making machines. According to Hans-Peter, Rudolf Wild & Co., they did not obtain exclusive rights to Thimonnier's patents but bought all of their machines to make the pouches. After initial issues with spoilage and stains were resolved, the product debuted in
West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...
in 1969. The name references the Italian island of
Capri Capri ( , ; ) is an island located in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the Sorrento Peninsula, on the south side of the Gulf of Naples in the Campania region of Italy. A popular resort destination since the time of the Roman Republic, its natural beauty ...
, a fashionable yet affordable vacation destination for Germans of the 1960s. Capri inspired many other product names around the same time and place, such as the Ford Capri,
Capri pants Capri pants (also known as three quarter legs, or capris, crop pants, man-pris, clam-diggers, flood pants, ankle pants, jams, highwaters, or toreador pants) are pants that are longer than shorts, but are not as long as trousers. ''Capri pants'' ...
, and Langnese Capri ice cream; it was branding that appealed to, and represented,
bourgeois The bourgeoisie ( , ) are a class of business owners, merchants and wealthy people, in general, which emerged in the Late Middle Ages, originally as a "middle class" between the peasantry and Aristocracy (class), aristocracy. They are tradition ...
indulgence. At the initiative of Hans-Peter Wild, champion boxer
Muhammad Ali Muhammad Ali (; born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer and social activist. A global cultural icon, widely known by the nickname "The Greatest", he is often regarded as the gr ...
began promoting the brand in 1978. SiSi-Werke, the Wild subsidiary responsible for Capri-Sonne, said that the deal included one product crate a week for four years. The endorsement—in which Ali said Capri-Sonne was, like him, "the greatest of all time"—led to a significant increase in sales. By 1982, Capri-Sun was sold in 23 countries, in 19 of which it was the most popular fruit juice. Availability rose to 52 countries by 1991. Capri Sun
GmbH (; ) is a type of Juridical person, legal entity in German-speaking countries. It is equivalent to a (Sàrl) in the Romandy, French-speaking region of Switzerland and to a (Sagl) in the Ticino, Italian-speaking region of Switzerland. It is a ...
(renamed from SiSi-Werke in 2018) is organized and headquartered in Germany and is a subsidiary of Swiss companies Capri Sun AG and Capri Sun Group Holding AG and of German company Wild. When Rudolf Wild & Co. went public in 2009, Hans-Peter Wild excluded Capri Sun AG from the offering to avoid losing control of it. Wild licenses the brand to different companies, which bottle Capri-Sun in 18 countries; Wild subsidiary INDAG supplies the various bottling plants. Another subsidiary, Pouch Partners, which has served as Capri-Sun's pouch supplier, was sold to
CCL Industries CCL Industries, Inc., is an American-Canadian company founded in 1951. It describes itself as the world's largest label maker. It is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, and is an S&P/TSX 60 Component. CCL consists of five divisions – CCL L ...
in 2023 and rebranded as CCL Specialty Pouches. In 2009, Capri-Sun's global sales of 1.106 billion liters of absolute volume (243 million imp gal; 292 million U.S. gal) ranked third in the world among fruit juice brands, after Tropicana and
Minute Maid Minute Maid is an American brand of drink, beverages, usually associated with lemonade or orange juice, but which now extends to soft drinks of different kinds, including Hi-C. Minute Maid is sold under the Cappy (juice), Cappy brand in Central E ...
. At that time,
per capita ''Per capita'' is a Latin phrase literally meaning "by heads" or "for each head", and idiomatically used to mean "per person". Social statistics The term is used in a wide variety of social science, social sciences and statistical research conte ...
consumption in the United States and Germany was around 6 Capri-Sun pouches per year, while the French island of
Réunion Réunion (; ; ; known as before 1848) is an island in the Indian Ocean that is an overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France. Part of the Mascarene Islands, it is located approximately east of the isl ...
—a major Capri-Sun exporter where the juice sells for the same price as water—had the highest per capita consumption at 9.6. , Capri-Sun sells an estimated 6 billion pouches per year globally. , ''
Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...
'' reports sales in more than 100 countries, netting roughly $500 million per year.


Europe

After initial poor sales under
RHM Foods RHM plc, formerly Rank Hovis McDougall, was a United Kingdom food business. The company owned numerous brands, particularly for flour, where its core business started, and for consumer food products. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and ...
, Coca-Cola Schweppes Beverages took over production of Capri-Sun in the United Kingdom in 1994.
Coca-Cola Enterprises Coca-Cola Enterprises was a marketer, producer, and distributor of Coca-Cola products. It was formerly the anchor bottler for Western Europe and most of North America. Coca-Cola Enterprises' products included Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Coke Zero, ...
(CCE), which bought Coca-Cola Schweppes in 1997, began selling the drink in France in 2007. As the number of children in Germany aged 6 to 12 decreased, SiSi-Werke developed a resealable spouted pouch aimed toward older demographics, which debuted in Germany and the United Kingdom by 2009. By 2014, CCE was selling Capri-Sun in France, Ireland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom; its successors Coca-Cola European Partners and Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP) continued selling the brand. In Ukraine, Capri-Sun is licensed to . In France, 213 million pouches were sold in 2016, a 24% increase from the previous year. Sales increased another 20% to 250 million the next year. In February 2017, SiSi-Werke announced that it would rename ''Capri-Sonne'' to ''Capri-Sun'' in Germany, the last country to have retained the original name. The brand faced some criticism for the change, some of it lighthearted in tone; they did not rule out reintroducing the name later. Three months later, Capri Sun Group's CEO reported no negative impact on sales. Starting in 2018, Capri Sun Group began assuming direct control of more of its distribution, starting with Switzerland, Austria, the Middle East, China, and Poland. Citing a desire to be more "agile and responsive", in 2023 it announced an end to its agreement with CCEP (covering Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom), with a gradual transition to begin in March 2024. It hired an additional 70 employees for the CCEP transition.


North America


1979–1991: Shasta Beverages

In 1979, Shasta Beverages (then a part of
Consolidated Foods The Sara Lee Corporation was an American consumer-goods company based in Downers Grove, Illinois. The Sara Lee name was used of a number of frozen and packaged foods, often known for the long-running slogan "Everybody doesn't like something, ...
) began to license the drink from Wild in the United States under the name ''Capri Sun''. After two promising test runs in Buffalo, New York, and
Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...
, Georgia, Shasta began a rolling expansion, starting with the Midwestern and Southeastern United States in 1980 and 1981. When Shasta introduced the product in the United States, its single-serving packaging was unusual in contrast with the cans that dominated the fruit juice market. Despite initial issues on the rollout, the packaging was light, durable, blunt, long-lasting, freezable, and insular. The patented design, trademarked under the name Doy-N-Pack and exclusively licensed by Shasta from Wild, soon faced a competitor in aseptic "brick packaging" like Tetra Brik. Both proved popular in stores, and Doy-N-Pack would usher in the use of pouches for single-serving food and beverage containers in the United States.. . single serve bottom gusseted standup pouch with its attached overwrapped straw would re-invent the way we and a generation of children thought about and accepted pouch packaged products in our everyday lives ... As mentioned, this single product market success, more than any other, pushed the market forward". Shasta intended the product for children around 7 to 12; its marketing director for new products told a journalist, "Adults have a mental block about putting the straw in—they try to be careful, and it just doesn't work." Instead of general advertising, Shasta's marketing placed image spots in kids' magazines such as ''
DuckTales DuckTales refers to: Film and television * ''DuckTales'' (1987 TV series), original TV series ** '' DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp'' * ''DuckTales'' (2017 TV series), reboot TV series Video games * ''DuckTales'' (video game) ...
'' and '' Sports Illustrated for Kids'', building brand loyalty based on promotional offers,
word of mouth Word of mouth is the passing of information from person to person using oral communication, which could be as simple as telling someone the time of day. Storytelling is a common form of word-of-mouth communication where one person tells others a ...
, and child-oriented package design. Early marketing emphasized the product as all-natural, a designation that was met with some criticism. By 1982, it had a 10%
market share Market share is the percentage of the total revenue or sales in a Market (economics), market that a company's business makes up. For example, if there are 50,000 units sold per year in a given industry, a company whose sales were 5,000 of those ...
where it was available and was aiming for a 15–20% share against competitors Hi-C and
Hawaiian Punch Hawaiian Punch is an American brand of juice currently manufactured by Keurig Dr Pepper, originally invented in 1934 by A.W. Leo, Tom Yeats, and Ralph Harrison as a topping for ice cream. It was started from an original syrup flavor titled Leo's H ...
, which were about half its price. Most of Capri Sun's early market share gains came at the expense of small brands. In 1983, the Capri Sun brand brought Shasta $28 million in sales. In 1985, Sara Lee (the former Consolidated Foods) sold Shasta to National Beverage. Capri Sun Inc., a dedicated subsidiary, was established to market Capri Sun in the 1980s, headquartered in San Mateo, California, with factories in nearby
Fresno Fresno (; ) is a city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County, California, Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley (California), Central Valley region. It covers a ...
and in Granite City, Illinois.


1991–present: Kraft Foods

In December 1991, Kraft General Foods announced a buyout of Capri Sun Inc. for $155 million ($ million in ), making it part of General Foods USA. Kraft's acquisition of Capri Sun was expected to strengthen the former's share in the juices and drinks market and increase the latter's marketing power. The acquisition covered marketing rights in the United States (extending to
Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...
), Canada, and Mexico, the former two of which Kraft retains rights in . Kraft's parent company, Philip Morris Cos. (later renamed Altria), had been barred from marketing cigarettes to children, but had accrued significant experience in selling to young people before the ban was implemented. To make use of this expertise, they acquired sugary drink brands, including Capri Sun, Kool-Aid, and Tang. The campaign they created emphasized flashy colors and beach scenes, evoking a bright and fun-seeming " California cool"; later, they would switch to a sporty theme. In 1994, Philip Morris added Capri Sun to Lunchables, prepackaged lunch sets for schoolchildren. By 2006, marketing techniques had gone online as well, including a website where children under the age of 13 could submit photos for a chance to win a vacation for their families or send Capri Sun–themed greeting cards. These techniques were extremely successful: by 1996, Capri Sun was selling 26% more each year than the last, and sales had risen to over $230 million from around $100 million in 1991. This rise was also attributed to improvements in manufacturing efficiency. In 2008, Capri Sun went from projecting a 5% drop in sales to a 17% increase because of a "Respect the Pouch" campaign aimed at 6–12 year-olds. A 2019 review in ''
The BMJ ''The BMJ'' is a fortnightly peer-reviewed medical journal, published by BMJ Publishing Group Ltd, which in turn is wholly-owned by the British Medical Association (BMA). ''The BMJ'' has editorial freedom from the BMA. It is one of the world ...
'', which criticized the health effects of marketing sugary drinks to children, found that the marketing techniques introduced by Philip Morris were still in use, even after Kraft became independent of it in 2007. In the 2020s, Capri Sun has been noted for its marketing to parents. In 2020, Kraft used the Granite City plant to manufacture pouches of filtered water labeled "we're sorry it's not juice", donating 5 million pouches to
schools A school is the educational institution (and, in the case of in-person learning, the building) designed to provide learning environments for the teaching of students, usually under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of ...
in the Granite City area and
Chicagoland The Chicago metropolitan area, also referred to as Chicagoland, is the largest metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. state of Illinois, and the Midwest, containing the City of Chicago along with its surrounding suburbs and satellite cities ...
. The accompanying ad campaign, according to ''
Ad Age ''Ad Age'' (known as ''Advertising Age'' until 2017) is a global media brand that publishes news, analysis, and data on marketing and media. Its namesake magazine was started as a broadsheet newspaper in Chicago in 1930. ''Ad Age'' appears in ...
'', was targeted towards parents in the area who were concerned about
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
safety restrictions shutting down drinking fountains. In 2022, the company released an advertisement more directly targeted at parents in light of new regulations, starring a character named "Juicio". The character, modeled after the male leads of
romance novel A romance or romantic novel is a genre fiction novel that primarily focuses on the relationship and Romance (love), romantic love between two people, typically with an emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending. Authors who have contributed ...
s (such as those modeled by Fabio), appears onscreen in-character for long enough to try and disinterest children viewers and then changes tack to pitch Capri Sun to the adults still watching. This was not their first foray into marketing to parents: under Philip Morris Cos., Capri Sun slightly changed the formula to include juice concentrate, which allowed them to include "Natural fruit drink. No artificial flavors." on the packaging.


Africa and Asia

In 1980, Capri-Sun established a factory in Nigeria. the brand is licensed there by Chi Limited, a
Coca-Cola Company The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational corporation founded in 1892. It manufactures, sells and markets soft drinks including Coca-Cola, other non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups, and alcoholic beverages. Its stock is lis ...
subsidiary. A second African factory was established in Viana, Angola, in 2013. In 2012, SDU Beverages of India agreed to produce Capri-Sun there, with distribution rights in Bangladesh, the Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. SDU has produced pouches from a factory in
Hyderabad Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...
since 2014. In L'Étang-Salé on Réunion, a French island in the Indian Ocean, Grand Sud Productions has operated a factory since 2004, which also distributes to Madagascar, Mauritius, Mayotte, and Tahiti. By 2016, the factory had produced more pouches than either Angola or India. Capri-Sun products first became available in China in 2005 but did not spread beyond the
Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...
area until 2015, when
Reignwood Group Reignwood Group () is a Chinese investment company owning brands and companies in China, the rest of Asia, the UK and the US. It was founded in 1984 by Chanchai Ruayrungruang (aka Yan Bin), a Thai-Chinese businessman. Reignwood's businesses inclu ...
partnered with Capri-Sun to expand nationwide. Their factory in the Beijing Yanqi Economic Development Area has a capacity of 650 million pouches per year. According to ''
China Daily ''China Daily'' ( zh, s=中国日报, p=Zhōngguó Rìbào) is an English-language daily newspaper owned by the Central Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party. Overview ''China Daily'' has the widest print circulation of any ...
'', Capri-Sun sold 80 million pouches in China in 2015. Agthia Group began producing Capri-Sun in the United Arab Emirates in 2009, also selling to the rest of the
Gulf Cooperation Council The Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (), also known as the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC; ), is a Regional integration, regional, intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental, political, and economic union comprising Ba ...
, excluding Saudi Arabia. Agthia discontinued their sale of Capri-Sun in 2020.


Products


Contents

A Capri-Sun executive told ''China Daily'' in 2016 that they produce 27 flavors worldwide. The best-known flavor globally is Orange. In the United States, an initial roster of Apple, Fruit Punch, Lemonade, and Orange has expanded to include Mountain Cooler, Pacific Cooler, Strawberry Kiwi, Tropical Punch, and Wild Cherry. Options vary by country: In France , for instance, the only flavors in the main line are Classic (orange) and Red Multifruit and Yellow Multifruit organic ("") flavors; Orange, Tropical, Blackcurrant, and Cherry are sold in the United Kingdom ; and the Chinese market has Orange, White Grape, Pear, and Peach Apple. Flavor profile also varies: German fruit flavors are riper than French ones. Flavors in China, Mexico, and the United Arab Emirates are sweeter than those in Europe, which Capri-Sun says is to cater to local tastes; likewise, Hungarian cherry flavors are more sour than elsewhere.
Flavor notes
In addition to the main line of juice concentrate–based beverages, American Capri Sun products have included four no-added-sugar lines—100% Juice, Fruit Refreshers, Fruit & Veggie Blends (previously Super V), and Organic—and Roarin' Waters, a line of
flavored water Enhanced water is a category of beverages that are marketed as water with added ingredients, such as natural or artificial flavors, sugar, sweeteners, vitamins and minerals. Most enhanced waters are lower in calories than non-diet soft drinks. Pe ...
s. The United Kingdom has its flavored water line, Fruity Water (sold in Mango Passionfruit and Blackcurrant). A "No Added Sugar" version debuted there in 2015, in 2020 becoming "No Added Sugar Nothing Artificial" through use of
stevia Stevia () is a sweet sugar substitute that is about 50 to 300 times sweetness, sweeter than sugar. It is extracted from the leaves of ''Stevia rebaudiana'', a plant native to areas of Paraguay and Brazil. The active compounds in stevia are ...
as a sweetener; in 2023, Capri-Sun began replacing it with "Zero Added Sugar", which contains
sucralose Sucralose is an artificial sweetener and sugar substitute. In the European Union, it is also known under the E number E955. It is produced by chlorination of sucrose, selectively replacing three of the hydroxy groups—in the C1 a ...
. Fruit Crush, another no-added-sugar line, is sold in France in Apple Strawberry and Tropical flavors. Capri-Sun squash (concentrated syrup) is sold in the United Kingdom and Germany. Sisi-Werke introduced an organic variety of the drink in 2011. A 2009 comparison of various flavored drinks published by the
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health is the public health school at Harvard University, located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. It was named after Hong Kong entrepreneur Chan Tseng-hsi in 2014 following a US$350 ...
classified Capri Sun Strawberry Kiwi in the least healthy tier, alongside all of the other surveyed fruit punch and fruit juice drinks. Drinks in this tier, which had a classification requirement of more than 12 grams (2.9 teaspoons) of
sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecul ...
per 12 fluid ounces (.35L), were recommended for consumption only "sparingly and infrequently". At 34 grams (8.1 tsp) of sugar, the drink's sugar content was the lowest in the fruit drinks category. Capri Sun Lemon Lime, a sports drink with 20 grams (4.8 tsp) of sugar per 12 ounces, was also placed in the least healthy tier. In 2015, facing declining sales, Kraft switched the main Capri Sun line from
high-fructose corn syrup High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), also known as glucose–fructose, isoglucose, and glucose–fructose syrup, is a sweetener made from corn starch. As in the production of conventional corn syrup, the starch is broken down into glucose by enzy ...
(HFCS) to regular sugar and switched the Roarin' Waters flavored water brand from HFCS and sucralose to sugar and stevia, dropping the sugar content from 30g per 12 ounces to 26g. In 2022, Capri Sun cut the sugar content of its pouches by just under half by adding monk fruit concentrate. The same year, CCEP changed the composition of some of its Capri-Sun flavors to be compliant with the United Kingdom's new rules on food high in fat, salt, and sugar. In January 2007 a Florida woman, backed by the
Center for Science in the Public Interest The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) is a Washington, D.C.–based non-profit watchdog and consumer advocacy group. History and funding CSPI is a consumer advocacy organization. Its focus is nutrition and health, food safety ...
, filed suit against Kraft for deceptive packaging, alleging that its usage of HFCS made its claimed "all-natural" status inaccurate. Kraft announced a day later that they would cease labeling Capri Sun that way as part of a planned reformulation and repackaging, replacing the words with "no artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives".
Tesco Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in the United Kingdom at its head offices in Welwyn Garden City, England. The company was founded by Jack Cohen (businessman), Sir Jack Cohen in ...
, the largest supermarket chain in the United Kingdom, announced in 2015 that it would stop selling Capri-Sun pouches with added sugar, as part of an initiative that also affected competitors
Ribena Ribena ( ) is a brand of blackcurrant-based soft drink (both uncarbonated and carbonated), and Squash (drink), fruit drink concentrate designed to be mixed with water. It is available in bottles, cans and multi-packs. Originally of England, Engl ...
and
Rubicon The Rubicon (; ; ) is a shallow river in northeastern Italy, just south of Cesena and north of Rimini. It was known as ''Fiumicino'' until 1933, when it was identified with the ancient river Rubicon, crossed by Julius Caesar in 49 BC. The ri ...
; ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' characterized the move as an unprecedented action against branded sugary drink suppliers. In January 2023, a
class action A class action is a form of lawsuit. Class Action may also refer to: * ''Class Action'' (film), 1991, starring Gene Hackman and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio * Class Action (band), a garage house band * "Class Action" (''Teenage Robot''), a 2002 e ...
was filed in the United States, disputing the "no artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives" tagline in light of Capri Sun apple juice's incorporation of
citric acid Citric acid is an organic compound with the formula . It is a Transparency and translucency, colorless Weak acid, weak organic acid. It occurs naturally in Citrus, citrus fruits. In biochemistry, it is an intermediate in the citric acid cycle, ...
.


Packaging

Capri-Sun drinks are stored in
laminate Simulated flight (using image stack created by μCT scanning) through the length of a knitting needle that consists of laminated wooden layers: the layers can be differentiated by the change of direction of the wood's vessels Shattered windshi ...
foil pouches made of
aluminum Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has ...
,
polyester Polyester is a category of polymers that contain one or two ester linkages in every repeat unit of their main chain. As a specific material, it most commonly refers to a type called polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Polyesters include some natura ...
, and
polyethylene Polyethylene or polythene (abbreviated PE; IUPAC name polyethene or poly(methylene)) is the most commonly produced plastic. It is a polymer, primarily used for packaging (plastic bags, plastic films, geomembranes and containers including bott ...
, usually in volume. The distinctive Doy-N-Pack pouches were developed by Rudolf Wild & Co. in collaboration with Thimonnier. The pouches have become a key part of Capri-Sun's brand identity, and their advent in the United States, where Tetra Brik packaging had yet to debut, played a major role in popularizing stand-up pouches. In the United States, the pouches, sold in packs of 10, were initially double the price of their 46-US-fluid-ounce (1.4 L) competitors, but over time stand-up pouches have become cheaper than alternatives. The Doy-N-Pack patents expired in the 1990s. Around 1998, stand-up pouches overtook aseptic "brick" packaging as the more common format for food and beverages. Capri-Suns were introduced with plastic-wrapped plastic straws. After England banned single-use plastic straws in 2020, Capri-Sun introduced paper straws to its pouches in the United Kingdom, a move it said was environmentally friendly. Capri-Sun drew some criticism for the straws' inability to pierce the pouch in opening the drink and the still-existing plastic wrapping on the straw, which Capri-Sun said was required under British law. SiSi-Werke attempted to secure trademarks for eight of its pouch designs in the European Union (although not the original pouch shape), in the context of fruit drinks and fruit juices. The
European Court of Justice The European Court of Justice (ECJ), officially the Court of Justice (), is the supreme court of the European Union in matters of European Union law. As a part of the Court of Justice of the European Union, it is tasked with interpreting ...
, which has consistently rejected trademarks based on product shape, rejected the request in 2006. The shape is trademarked in Germany, where SiSi-Werke has won multiple court cases defending it. Capri Sun GmbH has filed some lawsuits in the United States to defend its trademark on the pouch design, securing a $650,000 licensing fee from Faribault Foods in one case. In 2017, Capri Sun GmbH sued the pouch manufacturer American Beverage, claiming that the pouches it supplied to SunnyD and 23 other brands constituted trademark infringement. In April 2022, U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer found conflicting evidence for Capri Sun GmbH's claim that the pouch design was regularly associated with Capri Sun by consumers. The parties reached a settlement-in-principle in October 2023 on the eve of the trial. After a series of instances in which mold was found in its pouches, Kraft in 2014 introduced clear bottoms, both to assuage concerns about mold and emphasize the lack of artificial colors, which internal research showed most consumers were unaware of. Occasional mold reports have continued, including in a viral 2021
TikTok TikTok, known in mainland China and Hong Kong as Douyin (), is a social media and Short-form content, short-form online video platform owned by Chinese Internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which may range in duration f ...
in which a father shows the mold through a pouch's clear bottom. Kraft stresses that the mold is naturally occurring, and may arise due to small punctures. Kraft permanently reverted to foil bottoms in 2022, citing supply chain issues. The same year, Kraft recalled over 5,000 Wild Cherry pouches after discovering some were contaminated with cleaning supplies. The packaging of Capri-Sun has been the subject of scrutiny. In 2015, U.S. environmental activist groups started a campaign to make Kraft rethink its packaging of Capri Sun, claiming that the packages are not easily
recycled Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. This concept often includes the recovery of energy from waste materials. The recyclability of a material depends on its ability to reacquire the propert ...
, resulting in 1.4 billion pouches littered annually. Capri Sun pouch recycling is done by TerraCycle, founded in 2001, but according to environmental groups, only 2% of pouches are recycled this way. In Germany, Capri-Sun purchases a recycling guarantee from the aluminum industry (which does the recycling), getting a Green Dot on every pouch and box of pouches. A 2001 essay by Niklas Maak, however, termed Capri-Sonne the "antichrist of the environmentalists" in 1980s Germany for its 12% juice content, as well as the packaging materials. "More waste is not possible for of aqueous liquid", he wrote. In addition to the well-known Doy-N-Pack pouch, Capri-Sun comes in other packaging in various markets. Products targeting older demographics have included a resealable pouch with spout and safety cap, and in the United States a 16.5-US-fl-oz (0.5 L) aluminum "
bottle can A bottle is a narrow-necked container made of an impermeable material (such as glass, plastic or aluminium) in various shapes and sizes that stores and transports liquids. Its mouth, at the bottling line, can be sealed with an internal Stoppe ...
" manufactured in Japan by . The squash lines are sold in one-liter plastic bottles.


Impact


Health and public perception

At the same time that Philip Morris Cos. and Kraft marketed Capri Sun to children, child obesity rates in the United States began rising, a phenomenon attributed in part to the rise in sugary drinks consumption across the board. Food industry advertising, including the marketing of sugary drinks to children, has been linked to adverse effects on diet. A 2013 online poll from
Foodwatch Foodwatch is a European advocacy group that focuses on protecting consumer rights as they pertain to food quality. The organization was founded in October 2002 in Berlin by former Greenpeace executive director Thilo Bode. , the organization is a ...
, a European consumer protection group, resulted in Capri-Sun receiving a "Golden Windbag" award for perceived deceptive advertising to children. Capri-Sun denied that its advertising was targeted towards children. Parents who respond to surveys tend to overrate the health value of Capri Sun and underestimate its harmful additives. A 2015 study in '' Public Health Nutrition'' on American parents' attitudes towards sugary drinks found that 36% of surveyed parents with children between the ages of 2 and 17 rated Capri Sun as "somewhat" or "very healthy"; 48% say that they gave the drink to their children in that age group. Black and Hispanic parents were significantly more likely to rate Capri Sun as healthy than white parents, and the rating was higher than sugary fruit drinks as a category, which only 30% of parents gave the same rating. Regarding Roarin' Waters, 39% rated the same, but only 16% said they give their children a drink. Hispanic parents were significantly more likely than white parents to rate the product as healthy, although black parents were not. Roarin' Waters was one of a few products to be rated less healthy than its category overall; 48% rated flavored water drinks as healthy. The study concluded that those parents may have selected Capri Sun Roarin' Waters because they considered it a healthier option. A 2021 survey published in '' Pediatric Obesity'' found that most parents with young children correctly guessed that the Fruit Punch and Roarin' Waters flavors had added sugar, but a majority did not accurately guess that Roarin' Waters contained non-nutritive sweeteners. Only 3.1% of respondents who looked at the front packaging of Roarin' Waters correctly assessed that it contained no juice, and that number increased to a slight majority for those who viewed an information panel about the drink. Niklas Maak criticized the trend of Capri-branded items in West Germany at the time it was launched, terming it a flashy way to sell poor-quality products, and specifically criticized the Capri-Sonne packaging as difficult to handle and use. In 2015, author Josephine Lébard noted Capri-Sun's popularity, along with that of SunnyD, in Clichy-sous-Bois, a
banlieue In France, a banlieue (; ) is a suburb of a large city, or all its suburbs taken collectively. Banlieues are divided into autonomous administrative entities and do not constitute part of the city proper. For instance, 80percent of the inhabitant ...
near Paris—indicative of the drink's broad popularity in poorer areas in France. A representative of Coca-Cola France told ''Slate.fr'' in 2018 that 87% of families with children under 15 recognized the Capri-Sun brand. A 2021 report from the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Health found that the average black child in the United States between the ages of 6 and 11 viewed an ad for Capri-Sun 21 times in 2018; for a white child in the same age group, that number was 11. A 2022 Morning Consult survey of American Generation Z adults ranked Capri Sun in 17th place out of over 4,000 on a list of their most favored brands, rated favorably by 77% of respondents. Capri Sun was also one of the brands with the largest differential between Gen Z and older peers; the brand's favorability rating with Gen Z was 16 percentage points higher than the U.S. adult population at large, 19th highest in the brands surveyed, and 7 percentage points higher than the Millennial (Gen Y) respondents, for 16th place.


Reception

A 2022 review of fruit punch drinks in the ''
Marin Independent Journal The ''Marin Independent Journal'' is the main newspaper of Marin County, California. The paper is owned by California Newspapers Partnership, which is in turn mostly owned by MediaNews Group.
'' gave Capri Sun All Natural Fruit Punch two of four stars, noting its lower sugar content compared to other listed sugary drinks but criticizing its taste as "watery" and not evocative of the fruits depicted on the label. Marnie Shure of '' The Takeout'', reviewing Capri Sun fruit punch after the addition of monk fruit, wrote that the sweetness had now become the primary flavor, rather than notes of actual fruit as before, and assessed a perhaps 5% increase in tartness, but complimented the lack of aftertaste she associated with most sweeteners. Chad Eschman of ''VinePair'' reviewed Capri Sun flavors as they relate to creating mixers; reviews included positively rating the combination of
gin Gin () is a distilled alcoholic drink flavoured with juniper berries and other botanical ingredients. Gin originated as a medicinal liquor made by monks and alchemists across Europe. The modern gin was modified in Flanders and the Netherlands ...
and Pacific Cooler as tasting like a large white gummy bear and negatively rating the combination of
tequila Tequila (; ) is a liquor, distilled beverage made from the blue agave plant, primarily in the area surrounding the city of Tequila, Jalisco, Tequila northwest of Guadalajara, Jalisco, Guadalajara, and in the Jaliscan Highlands (''Los Altos (Jal ...
and Tropical Cooler as "we've made a huge mistake". A 2017 review of "your kids' lunch box favorites" by Brooke Jackson-Glidden and Cooper Green in the ''
Statesman Journal The ''Statesman Journal'' is the major daily newspaper published in Salem, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1851 as the ''Oregon Statesman'', it later merged with the ''Capital Journal'' to form the current newspaper, the second-oldest in Orego ...
'' noted the Capri Sun Strawberry Kiwi's 13 grams of sugar, praising its moderately sweet taste and small size. Green commented that it was "definitely not the best flavor of Capri Sun." ''
The Daily Meal The Daily Meal is a food and drinks website. Launched in October 2010, it was the first site launched by Spanfeller Media Group, founded by former Forbes.com CEO Jim Spanfeller. In 2016, The Daily Meal, along with Spanfeller Media Group, was ac ...
'' in 2021 (before the monk fruit change) faulted the 13 grams in Fruit Punch and 20 grams of fruit sugar in 100% Juice Fruit Punch, calling it a "red flag" and ranking Fruit Punch among the unhealthiest juice boxes. The publication further criticized the lack of
Vitamin C Vitamin C (also known as ascorbic acid and ascorbate) is a water-soluble vitamin found in citrus and other fruits, berries and vegetables. It is also a generic prescription medication and in some countries is sold as a non-prescription di ...
in either. Roarin' Waters faced early criticism for its sugariness and lack of juice.
Gannett News Service Gannett Co., Inc. ( ) is an American mass media holding company headquartered in New York City. It is the largest U.S. newspaper publisher as measured by total daily circulation. It owns the national newspaper ''USA Today'', as well as severa ...
's Kim Painter characterized it as "a reduced-calorie fruit drink, apparently made for children who expect all drinks, even water, to be sweet", while James Lileks of the Minneapolis ''
Star Tribune ''The Minnesota Star Tribune'', formerly the ''Minneapolis Star Tribune'', is an American daily newspaper based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. As of 2023, it is Minnesota's largest newspaper and the List of newspapers in the United States, seventh- ...
'' wrote that his daughter thought it tasted like Easy Mac. ''The Daily Meal'' also ranked Roarin' Waters (all flavors) on its list of unhealthiest juice boxes, citing its lack of juice and its 8 grams of sugar. They granted that it may be an option for children who do not drink enough water and concluded, "It's not bad for you ''per se'', but you may be better off diluting real juice with water."


In popular culture

Capri-Sun in Europe has sponsored a number of athletic endeavors, including holding
naming rights Naming rights are a financial transaction and form of advertising or memorialization where a corporation, person, or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, object, location, program, or event (most often sports venues), typical ...
to the cycling team previously known as IJsboerke in 1981 and 1982. A number of
French rap French hip hop or French rap (, ), is the hip hop music style developed in French-speaking countries. France is the second largest hip-hop market in the world after the United States. History Beginning of French hip hop: the 70s and 80s By 198 ...
artists, including Jul and Timal, have referenced Capri Sun in their songs. Rappers BoyBandit and Edinho have both written songs called "CAPRI-SUN". Nicolas Santolaria of ''
Le Monde (; ) is a mass media in France, French daily afternoon list of newspapers in France, newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average print circulation, circulation of 480,000 copies per issue in 2022, including ...
'' described Capri-Sun as "the new ostentatious elixir of French rappers and gangsters". Humorist Alexandre Majirus connected the trend to a broader phenomenon of
1990s File:1990s decade montage.png, From top left, clockwise: The Hubble Space Telescope orbits the Earth after it was launched in 1990; American jets fly over burning oil fields in the 1991 Gulf War; the Oslo Accords on 13 September 1993; the World ...
nostalgia in rap. A Coca-Cola France representative told '' Slate.fr'' that they were not working with the rappers and neither supported nor opposed the trend. Naps's "" (2017) originally depicted hiding drugs in a Capri-Sun pouch; the brand name was removed after Capri-Sun sought to have the video taken down.. Laemmel does not specify whether the removal was at the request of CCEP or Wild. , the
Guinness World Record ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, listi ...
for the fastest time to drink a Capri-Sun is held by Fayis Nazer of India, at 8.02 seconds. When the record was created, Guinness established a benchmark time at 18 seconds, but no one officially attempted to take the title until 2021, when Declan Evans of England completed the task in 16.65 seconds. The record has changed hands multiple times; Guinness says it has received over 100 applications for the title since the video of a successful attempt by André Ortolf of Germany went viral.


Notes


References


Citations


Sources


Academic sources

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News coverage

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Trade publications

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Reviews and opinion pieces

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Other independent sources

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Sources connected to Capri-Sun

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External links

* {{The Coca-Cola Company Coca-Cola brands German drinks Juice brands Kraft Foods brands Products introduced in 1969