Ribena and Lucozade were today sold to the Japanese for £1.3bn — the price of 2.3 billion cartons of the blackcurrant drink.
GlaxoSmithKline, Britain’s biggest drugmaker, put the drinks up for sale in February as part of chief executive Sir Andrew Witty’s push on healthcare brands and vaccines.
“Glucozade”, first manufactured by Newcastle chemist William Owen in 1927, has become the second-biggest soft drinks brand in the UK last year, according to retail analyst Nielsen.
David Redfern, chief strategy officer at GSK, which is facing claims of corruption at its Chinese business, said: “Lucozade and Ribena are iconic brands that have made a huge contribution to GSK, but now is the right time to sell them as we increase the focus of our consumer healthcare business and execute the delivery of our late stage pipeline of pharmaceuticals and vaccines.”
Comments