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Blossom Hill puts the emphasis on fizz for fruit wine re-brand

Published:  05 December, 2016

Treasury Wine Estates (TWE) is re-naming its Blossom Hill Fruit Bloom range in order to stress bubbles over fruit.

Investment has been funnelled into the sparkling range which will be known as Blossom Hill Spritz.

The ingredients won't change, but the name and packaging have undergone a refresh in order to better match the name and the product, "namely a slightly bubbly, refreshing, lighter proposition, compared to others in the market".

The changes continue on from a variety of initiatives launched by TWE to align and refresh the supermarket stalwart after buying the brand from Diageo at the end of last year.

TWE said it also wanted to align the range with the master brand, which was given a £2m marketing budget during the summer.

Blossom Hill is currently battling it out for supremacy in the fruit wine category with Echo Falls - the other key player in the fruit wine market - which released its Fruit Fusion range in 2014.

"This repackaging and renaming of Spritz means we are now well-placed to take our leadership position in the US wine category forward into the fruit wine segment," Caroline Thompson-Hill, head of marketing UK/I & Western Europe for Blossom Hill, said.

"Extensive consumer research has given us an overwhelmingly positive response to the new design, calling out its great on-shelf stand out, strong quality perception, as well as highlighting the fruity and lightly bubbly proposition."

In the year to July 2016, Blossom Hill held onto its spot as the second best selling wine brand by value in the UK (IRI Reports).

Despite dropping 15% from £243.2m in 2014/2015 to £207.9m in 2015/2016, the brand came in at number two behind Hardys which once more managed to hold onto the top spot.

Both brands retained domination at the top of the list, despite seeing a dip in value sales compared to the previous year.

The brand sports the lowest average bottle price on the list at £4.93 per bottle.

Blossom Hill Spritz will be a focal point for brand investment over the coming 12 months.

The expressions have also been changed to reflect consumer preference to individual ingredients being "called out" in the name.

According to the company, consumer research led to the renaming of Hints of Elderflower to Elderflower & Lemon.

In the same way, Hints of Summer Fruits became Raspberry and Blackcurrant.

The rebranded products are due to reach the UK supply chain in February 2017.

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