Food and Drink Industry 11 – 17 May: Ft Dash Water, Maritime Transport, CCEP and Beyond Meat
- Dash Water has partnered with Pink Lady to launch a new sparkling Pink Lady Apple flavoured water.
- Maritime Transport has introduced the first electric HGV into Coca-Cola Europacific Partners’ British logistics network.
- Beyond Meat continues to face sales pressure, particularly in foodservice, as it attempts to reposition itself around plant protein rather than meat mimicry.
Familiar Flavours Return As Dash Water And Pink Lady Build On Apple Nostalgia
Dash Water has turned to one of the UK’s most recognisable apple brands for its latest product launch, teaming up with Pink Lady to create a new Pink Lady Apple flavoured sparkling water.
The collaboration brings together a London drinks brand known for low-calorie, no sugar and no sweetener flavoured waters with an apple variety that has built an unusually strong emotional connection with shoppers over several decades.
Pink Lady apples trace their origins back to Western Australia in the early 1970s, when John Cripps crossed Golden Delicious with Lady Williams to create a new variety.
According to the business, the best of these apples were later branded Pink Lady. Over time, other related varieties, all linked to the original Cripps Pink, were licensed under the Pink Lady brand. However, only apples meeting the brand’s quality standards are sold with the distinctive Pink Lady heart-shaped sticker.
Since entering the United Kingdom market in the early 1990s, Pink Lady has become one of the country’s most popular apple varieties. Its familiar taste, crisp texture and recognisable branding have made it a fixture in supermarkets, lunchboxes and family kitchens.
That heritage is central to the new Dash collaboration. In a market where consumers are still navigating economic pressure, category volatility and a general sense of uncertainty, nostalgic food and drink cues are becoming increasingly valuable.
Familiar flavours can offer reassurance, while still leaving room for brands to modernise the experience.
A Modern Sparkling Twist On A 1990s Staple
Dash’s co-founder described the launch as a response to the way consumers gravitate towards familiar products during uncertain times, particularly those they have loved for years and associate with something reassuringly real.
Pink Lady apples, the co-founder noted, have been a staple since the 1990s, instantly recognisable, consistently crisp and loved by millions. Dash’s role, in this case, was to take that legacy and give it a modern sparkling format.
The company has positioned the drink around simplicity. The message is clear, Pink Lady apples already have a flavour people know and trust, so the task was not to overwork it. Dash Pink Lady Apple is designed to showcase that apple taste in a clean and refreshing way, without sugar or sweeteners.
The new product is currently available via the Dash Water website and TikTok Shop, where customers can purchase a 12-pack of 330ml cans for £12.79. It is also set to roll out across Tesco stores nationwide from June.
The Pink Lady Apple flavour joins Dash’s existing range, which already includes Lime, Orange, Raspberry and Grapefruit. As with the rest of the collection, the new drink is low in calories and free from sugar and sweeteners.
Maritime Transport And CCEP Test Electric Freight In Soft Drinks Logistics
While Dash and Pink Lady are focusing on flavour, familiarity and brand collaboration, Maritime Transport and Coca-Cola Europacific Partners are addressing a very different pressure point in the food and drink sector, the decarbonisation of logistics.
Maritime Transport has introduced the first electric HGV into CCEP’s British logistics network.
The move is designed to show that soft drink payload deliveries can be handled using electric HGVs, offering what CCEP describes as a practical road map for decarbonising the UK soft drinks industry.
The Mercedes-Benz eActros 600 is operating from CCEP’s Wakefield site, Europe’s largest soft drinks plant. The vehicle is being used for multi-drop deliveries to convenience and wholesale customers as part of a live trial.
Since entering service in January, the electric HGV has reportedly travelled more than 7,000 miles. Maritime Transport and CCEP estimate that it has saved 12.43 tonnes of CO2e compared with a diesel equivalent.
For a sector that depends heavily on national distribution, frequent deliveries and reliable cold or ambient logistics networks, that is a significant test case.
Soft drinks manufacturing does not end at the bottling line. The real operational challenge is moving high-volume products efficiently while reducing emissions across the wider value chain.
A Supply Chain Trial With Wider Industry Implications
CCEP’s logistics director said the business is continuing to invest across its operations to build a more sustainable and resilient supply chain. Initiatives such as the electric HGV trial are seen as important to delivering against its long-term commitments.
By working with expert partners such as Maritime, CCEP believes it can strengthen its capabilities and make meaningful progress towards its wider sustainability ambitions.
The initial deployment is part of a broader planned rollout of 56 electric HGVs across Maritime Transport’s network. The company will continue working with CCEP to assess how electric HGVs can be scaled more broadly.
The expansion will be supported in part through the government-backed Zero Emission HGV and Infrastructure Demonstrator programme. The initiative also forms part of Maritime’s wider investment in decarbonising road freight through Maritime ZERO, its zero-emission road transport division.
Maritime Transport’s deputy chief executive described the trial as an exciting next step in the company’s relationship with CCEP. Having already worked together across road and rail for several years, introducing an electric HGV into live service is viewed as a natural progression.
The company is also using the trial to assess how the vehicle performs in real operating conditions, where it delivers the greatest value, and how it could support wider decarbonisation ambitions over time.
Beyond Meat Continues To Wrestle With A Difficult Plant-Based Market
Beyond Meat is facing a very different industry challenge, one rooted not in logistics or flavour nostalgia, but in consumer trust and category fatigue.
The plant-based business has experienced significant pressure in recent years, with falling revenues, declining sales and growing scepticism around the plant-based meat category. Little more than a month ago, the company reported a difficult 2025, shaped by low sales and weakening consumer confidence in the category.
In response, Beyond Meat has started repositioning itself less as a meat mimicry brand and more as a plant-protein company.
This shift includes products such as Beyond Ground, which places greater emphasis on protein content rather than direct imitation of meat. It also includes Beyond Immerse, a range of high-protein drinks.
However, these newer products are not yet widely available to the broader public, meaning the company remains heavily exposed to the same plant-based meat pressures that have affected performance in recent years.
Falling Volumes Show The Scale Of The Challenge
Beyond Meat’s latest figures show that the turnaround will not be simple. The volume of products sold dropped by 19.5% in the quarter, although this was partially offset by a 5.4% increase in net revenue per pound.
The weakness was particularly visible in foodservice. Volumes in US foodservice fell by 31.8%, while international foodservice sales declined by 32.6%. Burger and chicken alternative products were especially weak in this area.
The company has also seen reduced points of distribution in the United States, reflecting a broader decline in the popularity of the plant-based category.
There were, however, some more encouraging signs. Retail performed significantly better than foodservice, and international retail sales increased by 0.3%. That modest growth was partly driven by improved demand and broader distribution in European markets.
Beyond Meat also reported a gross margin of 3.4%, compared with negative 10.1% in the same period a year earlier. The improvement was partly linked to lower manufacturing expenses.
The company’s CFO, Lubi Kutua, expects net revenues to sit in the $60 million to $65 million range in Q2.
Beyond Meat Looks To Protein Drinks And Functional Nutrition
Despite the continued pressure on sales, Beyond Meat is pushing forward with its repositioning plan. Its high-protein drinks range, Beyond Immerse, is currently only available through the company’s website, but is expected to launch in New York this summer with drinks distributor Big Geyser.
The drinks have been designed partly with GLP-1 users in mind, aiming to sit across four functional drink categories, protein drinks, fibre drinks, vitamin drinks and electrolyte drinks.
This is a significant strategic shift. Functional drinks are generally less controversial than plant-based meat alternatives and may offer Beyond Meat a way to rebuild relevance with consumers who are more interested in health, protein, weight management and convenience than direct meat replacement.
However, chief executive Ethan Brown has made clear that Beyond Meat does not intend to retreat from its core plant-based meat category. The company appears to be betting that if consumers are drawn in through less divisive categories, such as functional beverages, they may become more receptive to its wider plant-based portfolio.
Impact On Food Manufacturing And Production
These developments point to a food manufacturing and production sector that is being forced to adapt on several fronts at once.
For manufacturers, the Dash and Pink Lady collaboration shows the value of brand licensing, flavour familiarity and low-intervention product development. Rather than creating entirely unfamiliar flavours, brands can use trusted ingredients and emotional associations to develop products that feel both new and safe to consumers.
For large-scale producers such as CCEP, the electric HGV trial highlights how manufacturing efficiency is now inseparable from distribution sustainability.
Production sites are no longer judged only by what happens inside the factory. The emissions profile of the journey from plant to customer is becoming part of the manufacturing story.
For Beyond Meat, the challenge is more structural. The company’s improved gross margin suggests that manufacturing costs are being brought under better control, but lower volumes show that operational efficiency alone cannot solve a demand problem.
In plant-based manufacturing, the next phase may depend on better product positioning, more credible health-led messaging and a clearer reason for consumers to return to the category.
Conclusion: A Sector Searching For Trust In Different Forms
Taken together, the latest moves from Dash Water, Pink Lady, Maritime Transport, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners and Beyond Meat reveal a food and drink industry trying to build trust in different ways.
Dash and Pink Lady are leaning into the comfort of a familiar flavour, using nostalgia to make a modern sparkling water feel instantly recognisable. Maritime Transport and CCEP are building trust through operational progress, proving that lower-emission logistics can be tested in the real world, not just discussed in sustainability reports.
Beyond Meat, meanwhile, is attempting to rebuild trust with consumers who have become more cautious about plant-based meat. Its shift towards plant protein and functional drinks may give the brand a new route into the market, but its falling volumes show that the road ahead remains difficult.
The common thread is adaptation. Whether through flavour, freight or reformulation, food and drink businesses are having to respond to a consumer and commercial environment that is more demanding, more volatile and less forgiving than before.
The winners will likely be those that can combine innovation with credibility, giving consumers something new without asking them to abandon what they already know and trust.
News Credits:
Dash expands line-up with low-calorie Pink Lady flavour
Electric truck saves 12.43 tons of CO₂ for Coca-Cola
Beyond Meat prepares for drinks launch as losses begin to slow
Things you may also like: