Smoothie makers tread familiar path to lucrative deal
Level 3 Advanced
smoothie  a blended, chilled sweet drink made from fruit,
see http://www.innocentdrinks.co.uk/things_we_make/
1 Key words
Match the keywords from the article with their meanings.
1. lucrative criticize loudly
2. strive make from nothing
3. stake interfere
4. adamant money-making
5. pioneer try hard
6. donate be the first to do something
7. rail against make money
8. niche share
9. create from scratch value of goods sold
10. prosper give voluntarily
11. meddle determined
12. turnover easy
13. plain sailing small specific market
2 Company quiz
Skim-read the article to find out what these ethically aware companies produce and which global
corporation they belong to.
ethically-aware company what it produces sold out to / bought out by ...
� Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2009
NEWS LESSONS / Smoothie makers tread familiar path to lucrative deal / Advanced
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Smoothie makers tread familiar path to lucrative deal
Level 3 Advanced
food group McDonald s in 2001. The Body Shop
Smoothie operators Innocent tread
 whose late founder, Dame Anita Roddick,
familiar path to lucrative deal
had often railed against the big corporations
Like other niche brands, Innocent must convince
running the beauty business  sold to the French
customers it hasn t sold out
cosmetics group L Or�al in 2006.
Chris Tryhorn and Mark Sweney
6 The reason that these niche operators choose
7 April, 2009
to sell up, apart from making millions from
businesses they have created from scratch, is
1 For a company that strives  to do business in a
that they need the power of the big companies
more enlightened way  and even has a halo
if they want to grow further. Innocent is using
in its logo  to go into business with one of the
Coca-Cola s investment to increase its presence
world s corporate giants presents a real danger
in Europe.
that such a deal could look like a pact with the devil.
Sweet returns
2
The founders of Innocent, the ethically-aware
7 Craig Sams, the founder of the organic chocolate
smoothie business that yesterday sold a stake of
company Green & Black s, said his company had
between 10% and 20% of the company to the US
prospered since it sold up to Cadbury in 2005.
drinks group Coca-Cola for Ł30m, are adamant
 Overall it s worked fantastically well, said Sams,
that their ideals and eco-friendly sentiments
who remains in place as president and continues
will not be crushed as a result of the deal with
to offer advice to Green & Black s owners.
a company best known for its less than healthy
 They have had the resources to really support
fizzy drinks.
the brand and take it to places. It s all very
well to say if we spent half a million pounds on
3  Every promise that Innocent has made, about
marketing we could increase sales by Ł2m  first
making only natural healthy products, pioneering
you have to have the half a million pounds.
the use of better, socially and environmentally-
aware ingredients, packaging and production
Brand identity
techniques, donating money to charity and
8 Sams advised Coca-Cola not to put its name
having a point of view on the world will remain,
over the Innocent product range. Reed said there
co-founder Richard Reed yesterday.  We ll just
was little danger of Coca-Cola meddling with
get to do them even more. The founders will
the Innocent brand.  They absolutely buy into
continue to lead and run the company, we will be
the brand, the people, the system. It s a minority
the same people in the same offices making the
investment in Innocent, which will remain a
same products in the same way.
standalone company.
4 Innocent joins a long line of companies that have
9 Innocent had a difficult birth ten years ago.
started small and built a loyal following on the
The three founders  Reed and his Cambridge
back of a values-led approach, only to sell up to
University friends Adam Balon and Jon Wright
the kind of businesses which they might once
 had come up with the idea on a snowboarding
have defined themselves against.
holiday in February 1998 and tried out their
smoothies at a music festival later that year,
Sell-outs
using Ł500 of fruit.
5 Ice-cream maker Ben & Jerry s, was one of
the first to sell up to a corporation, when it was
10 The company now sells two million smoothies
bought for Ł175m by the consumer goods
a week and their turnover is expected to be
group Unilever in 2000. Four years later it
Ł105m to Ł110m this year. Despite Innocent s
admitted:  We are beginning to look like the rest
remarkable rise over the past ten years, not
of corporate America. British sandwich chain
everything has been plain sailing. Last year it had
Pret A Manger sold a minority stake to the fast
to fight off competition from two rival products,
� Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2009
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Pepsico s Tropicana and Nestl� s Boost, which The Body Shop  L Or�al
caused annual sales to fall for the first time. Founded on an ethical basis by Anita Roddick,
Although its share of the UK smoothie market the company was sold to L Or�al in 2006.
fell as low as 50%, it has recovered strongly to Roddick said at the time:  Having L Or�al come
reach 83%, Reed said. in and say  we like you, we like your ethics, we
want to be part of you, we want you to teach us
things  it s a gift.
Pret A Manger  McDonald s
Green & Black s  Cadbury Schweppes
Pret was founded in 1986. It claims to avoid
Set up in 1991 by Craig Sams and his wife
additives, uses recycled packaging and tries to
Josephine Fairley, the company produced
buy organic. A third of the company was sold to
organic and Fairtrade chocolate. In 2005 it was
McDonald s in 2001.
bought out by Cadbury Schweppes.
� Guardian News & Media 2009
Ben & Jerry s  Unilever
First published in The Guardian, 07/04/09
All-natural ice cream company founded in 1978
by Jerry Greenfield and Ben Cohen. Bought by
Unilever in 2000.
3 Find the information
Skim-read the article to find the answers to these questions.
1. What does Innocent produce?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
2. What is their logo?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
3. What key business practices and policies make Innocent different to other companies?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
4. Where and when was the company founded?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
5. Where did the founders meet?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
6. What was their initial investment?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
7. What is their predicted turnover for 2009?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
8. In paragraph 1, who is the devil and who is the angel?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
� Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2009
NEWS LESSONS / Smoothie makers tread familiar path to lucrative deal / Advanced
Extra info
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Smoothie makers tread familiar path to lucrative deal
Level 3 Advanced
4 Language: Behind the headlines
Decide what the idioms mean and then explain what the article headline means.
1. A smooth operator is ...
a. ... a clean-shaven businessman.
b. ... a person who accomplishes tasks with efficiency and grace.
c. ... someone who removes lumps from products.
2. To tread a path means ...
a. ... to build roads.
b. ... to move to a rural area.
c. ... to take a particular course of action.
5 Discussion
Do you think that companies that have built up their businesses due to their reputation of being
eco-friendly and ethically-aware can justify selling a stake in the company to global corporate giants?
6 Webquest
Research one of the companies in task 2. Find out what has happened since they sold stakes to a global
giant. Have there been any changes to their product range, their work ethics, their share prices, etc?
� Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2009
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Smoothie makers tread familiar path to lucrative deal
Level 3 Advanced
KEY
1 Key words 3 Find the information
1. lucrative money-making Suggested answers:
2. strive try hard 1. smoothies / blended fruit drinks
3. stake share 2. a halo
4. adamant determined 3. They use only natural healthy products, they use
5. pioneer be the first to do something better, socially and environmentally aware
6. donate give voluntarily ingredients, packaging and production techniques,
7. rail against criticize loudly and they donate money to charity.
8. niche small specific market 4. ten years ago at a music festival
9. create from scratch make from nothing 5. at Cambridge University
10. prosper make money 6. Ł500 worth of fruit
11. meddle interfere 7. Ł105m to Ł110m
12. turnover value of goods sold 8. Coca-Cola is the devil and Innocent is the angel.
13. plain sailing easy
4 Language: Behind the headlines
2 Company quiz
1. b
2. c
ethically-aware what it sold out to / bought
company produces out by ...
Innocent smoothies Coca-Cola
Ben & Jerry s ice cream Unilever
Pret A Manger sandwiches McDonald s
The Body Shop cosmetics L Or�al
Green & Black s chocolate Cadbury Schweppes
� Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2009
NEWS LESSONS / Smoothie makers tread familiar path to lucrative deal / Advanced
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CAN BE DOWNLOADED