Italian innovation questioned

There was a lot of soul searching at Zenith’s Italian beverage industry conference in conjunction with Assobibe last week. Some speakers and delegates lamented a lack of innovation.

Companies did too little. Retailers didn’t support them. Consumers didn’t respond. Government discouraged everything by putting up taxes.

Well, I saw some significant innovation at the conference and at the Tuttofood trade show held at the same time.

There were the usual new suspects from premium waters to coconut waters and energy drinks, but there were many other interesting developments too.

I noted two emerging trends:

• more premium adult soft drinks, such as from Lurisia and Tomarchio
• strong iced tea entries, such as SanThé and Thè Rocchetta.

I was also encouraged by some thinking that would be new in any country:

• Café Zero Menta Shock
• Sanpellegrino’s Incontri in orange fig and lemon mint
• Sanpellegrino’s Sanbitter Emozioni with spicy flavours
• Schweppes Aperitivo.

The question is not whether it’s there. The question is whether it will work.