Wales’ award-winning water and soft drinks manufacturer Radnor Hills has risen to the challenge of the Covid-19 pandemic with a series of product and customer innovations.
The company opened its first shop on Amazon as well as its own online store to enable it to deliver its wide range of products direct to the doors of customers.
It led to a six-figure growth in online sales in the first four months of lockdown.
Chris Butler, Export Manager for Radnor Hills, based in Powys, mid-Wales, said: “It has been a difficult time for lots of businesses, including ours.
“But we are an agile business and we quickly realised that there was an appetite from our consumers to buy direct from us if they couldn’t get to a traditional bricks and mortar store.
“We discovered that there’s a cult following for some of our ranges and our customers were delighted to be able to buy in bulk or as multi-packs direct from us for the first time.
“Radnor Fizz is a school compliant range and we’ve had parents buying it direct from us during lockdown to give some familiarity of school with their children’s home lunches.
“Best sellers for online have also included Radnor Splash and Radnor Infusions, both of which are healthy and sugar free.
“Online is a key part of our future strategy now as it gives us that gateway to our customers, who have responded with great sales.
“We have also invested heavily in more retail ready multi-packs as we are seeing a growth in demand in the convenience store sector and have a number of new listings lined up.”
The company has also seen a massive increase in Tetra Pak sales as a result of schools needing to supply pre-packed lunches and drinks to their children.
As a result of the increase, Radnor has installed a Tetra Pak robot to help it to keep on top of orders. (video of the robot in action available)
The company also launched a new range of non-alcoholic seltzers, called Radnor Infusions in exclusive partnership with Weight Watchers reimagined as one of their Tier 1 rewards in their reward platform WellnessWins™.
Radnor only sources the best ingredients they can find and blends them with their own source of beautifully lightly sparkling Welsh spring water to create the Infusions range.
Infusions, which recently won a Highly Commended in The Grocer New Product Awards, has no artificial preservatives, sugar or sweeteners.
