innocent drinks

Turns out, having a sense of humor isn’t just good for wowing your mates at pub quizzes—it’s also essential for building a thriving workplace. At innocent, we’ve been blending chuckles into our culture for years. From our 'Guide to Eternal Meeting Happiness' to job descriptions demanding smoothie-drinking prowess, we reckon we’ve mastered the art of not taking ourselves too seriously. Our SJ recently sat down with Sam Forsdick to talk all about our culture, so if you want to know a little more about why we gave our Joe £1000 to learn the art of butter churning, give it a read.    

IT'S NATIONAL CAREERS WEEK If there’s something, we’re proud of, other than making seriously top-notch smoothies, its inspiring young people in our local communities to explore careers in FMCG.    But how?    Smoothie Lab    365 days ago we thought we'd show off all things innocent at the Museum of Brands. We know it was that long ago because we still have the same cold.    We set up a Smoothie Lab inside to let secondary school students have a go at making their perfect drinks and pitching them to a panel of Dragons. At least that's what we call Helen and Pete when they're not around.  From profits to marketing to standout packaging, they create products worthy of a spot in our office fridge.    Ignite Stars work experience programme    That’s the one where we let 14-year-olds run loose in our office for a week. In 5 days, they learn all about finance, packaging design, market insights, product development, and selling their product to a panel of strangers.    Sending our lot out to schools to deliver smoothie making sessions    That’s right, we’ve developed an educational lesson pack to enable our lot to head into schools to deliver “make your own smoothie” sessions. Teaching young ones, the basic principles of nutrition by allowing them to make and workout the nutritional values of their smoothies.    Check out their ideas below. Turns out school kids don’t have LinkedIn. Lucky them. So we’re going to brag on their behalf.  

WE STARTED A DOGGIE CLUB.   Our Laura had a lightbulb moment when she noticed there's plenty of people around the London office who wished they had furry friends and those that struggle to find care for theirs.   She asked us if she could start a club connecting dog owners to people who wanted to provide a bit of temporary care and get some company in return. We said yes. Obviously.   Fast forward a few months to when Laura spent Christmas with Matrix. Our CFO’s dog.   Why are we telling you this?   1. It was Walk Your Dog Day on Saturday and there’s not enough dog content on LinkedIn these days. 2. Dogs get a lot of likes and we’re trying to fluff our numbers for our mid-year review. 3.We wanted to shout about the fact that at innocent, we try to let our people do good and have a little bit of freedom to go after the things they’re passionate about.*   Oh, and we also want you to head down to this link, click apply if you see a role that's right for you, and then start an office scrabble society. (https://lnkd.in/gfeMW-v)   *Within reason. We got a bit stricter after what happened with Karina and the office indoor ski club.

Devon.  Home of the Jack Russell.  A place where the cream comes before the jam on a scone.  And the home of LOVE Food CIC. A community-based organisation running activities to help with food poverty, reduce food waste, help people eat better, and bring the whole community together. We’re chuffed to be working with the legends at Hubbub and Maresa Bossano at LOVE Food CIC who share our mission of getting more fruit and veg into you lot. Together, we're launching "Ready, Steady, Veg," a series of fruit and veg-focused cooking sessions taking place at LOVE Food CIC, St Thomas Community Food Hub in Exeter. Over 300 portions of fruit and veg will be enjoyed by the local community throughout the sessions. After the sessions end, Hubbub will be giving out recipe books across their community fridge network. Making great, tasty, and nutritious food, just that little bit easier. Big thanks to Steve Race who popped in to support a lunch time session last week.

Did you know that today is World Random Acts of Kindness day? We didn’t either. Well, not until yesterday when our boss asked us what we planned to post for it. So we did what we do best. Panic and get our kind co-workers to do our job for us. Have a read of their top innocent kindness moments. And pretend you didn’t notice we forgot the ‘random acts’ bit.

GLOOMY JANUARY IS FINALLY OVER. Here’s some ideas to help you recover this February. Win the Lottery. Spend some time in the now empty gyms. Give your career a little extra oomph with a brand-new job. And while we might not have the winning lotto numbers, we do have an office gym and plenty of career opportunities across finance, marketing, supply chain, technology, and plenty of entry-level commercial roles too. Check out the video below to see why the grass is greener at innocent. No, really. We put some in just to make sure. Have a look at what we've got on at the moment on our career's page: https://lnkd.in/gfeMW-v

WE LET 14 TEENAGERS RUN LOOSE IN OUR OFFICE.   Not on the stairs though, safety first. Obviously.   Last year, we teamed up with a local school to give Year 10 students a 5-day work experience as part of our Ignite Stars programme.   We wanted to give them a glimpse into the world of FMCG, innocent, and where they might see themselves in the future.   They had one task. Create a brand new innocent drink to grow our revenue.   Without any previous experience, they learned all about finance, packaging design, market insights, product development, and selling their product to a panel of strangers. Not sure any of our lot could pull that off, to be honest.   We think work experience doesn't have to stop at making a cup of tea in your uncle's office. It's a great chance for both the students and our people to learn. After all, how well do you really know your stuff until you've explained it to a 16 year-old?   So, as you're getting back in the groove of things this January, have a look down below at some new ideas that you may or may not be seeing on shelves in the future.

HERE’S A LIST OF PERFECT PAIRINGS Santa and his sleigh. Paul Hollywood and soggy bottoms. innocent and fruit and veg. We’re surprised we made it to the end of the year without getting flagged for over-posting about fruit and veg. Always ones to tempt fate, we thought we’d wrap up 2024 with, you guessed it, one last post about fruit and veg. The true spirit of the season is about giving back and spreading joy. And if there’s one thing, we’re joyful about, it’s all the incredible work of our charity partners in helping to get more fruit and veg to people.   A special shout out to Alexandra Rose Charity, UKHarvest and Petits Frères des Pauvres in France. Together we've helped give 625,500 portions of fruit and veg to those who need it the most. We’re still on a mission to get to a billion portions by 2030, so we will be back with even more fruit and veg news in the new year. Until then, rest up and have a merry one.  

This month, we're looking at our brand new UK and Ireland Category Development Lead, Kayleigh.   She's such a high flier that we might just start telling people our smoothies let you soar through the skies.   As a kid she wanted to work with dolphins and whales, and now she's treading even rougher seas in the chilled juice market. Making sure we balance what's right for us, the customers, and most importantly, our drinkers.   If you want to know a little bit more about what it's like to work in Category Management at innocent, or if you have no idea what that is, then click on the link below: https://lnkd.in/gfeMW-v

WE TOOK SOME FRUIT AND VEG TO PARLIAMENT   It’s not every day you get to stroll into parliament with enough cauliflower, beetroot and pineapple to set up your own market stall. But that’s exactly what we did yesterday in partnership with Alexandra Rose Charity.   We were there to champion fruit and veg for all and raise awareness with politicians and policy makers about the incredible work Alexandra Rose Charity are doing to improve access to fruit and veg through their Rose Vouchers for Fruit & Veg project. Rose Vouchers are given out to families every week, helping them to afford fresh fruit and veg from local markets for them and their children.   We were lucky enough to have Hassan on hand, from Strawberry Hill Fruiterers on Shepherd’s Bush Market, he is one of the brilliant traders who participates in the Rose Voucher's project and knows first-hand how important vouchers are in helping lower-income families get their 5-a-day.     A shout out to Steve Race for hosting the room for us.