Following the successful launch of Coca-Cola No Sugar in Australia, Coca-Cola Australia has today announced it will complete the phase out of Coke Zero beginning from August 1.
Coca-Cola Australia Marketing Director Lucie Austin said Australians had overwhelmingly said ‘Goodbye to Coke Zero’ and ‘Hello to Coca-Cola No Sugar’ in its first year in market.
“We said that we would let people decide and we are pleased to say the results are in – Australians have decided that Coke No Sugar is it,” Ms Austin said.
“Australians have embraced Coke No Sugar – which from day one was carefully crafted to taste even more like Coca-Cola Classic, but without the sugar.
“It is no surprise that people are preferring it over Coke Zero – just as we have seen where we have launched this new recipe around the world.”
In development at the company’s US headquarters for more than five years, the Coca-Cola No Sugar recipe was designed as the next generation of Coca-Cola without sugar.
“The new recipe for Coke No Sugar was intended to replace Coke Zero in Australia – and is known as Coke Zero Sugar in other markets,” Ms Austin said. “Coke No Sugar marked the latest step in the evolution of our sugar-free Coke recipes that began with Diet Coke in 1982 and continued with Coke Zero in 2006.”
“Not only did we want it to taste more like Coke, we wanted the experience of drinking Coke No Sugar to be as close as possible to the refreshment of ‘The Real Thing’. We think it’s the closest we have ever come to the taste of classic Coca-Cola.”
Ms Austin said Coke No Sugar had eclipsed expectations since it launched in Australia in June last year.
“We can reveal that close to 3.5 million Australians have enjoyed a Coke No Sugar since launch and many of them are now regular drinkers,” Ms Austin said.
“We are also seeing that the rapid growth of Coke No Sugar is helping to expand the low and no sugar drinks category overall.”
The phase out of Coke Zero, which is already well underway, will continue throughout August and is due to be complete by September.
The launch of Coke No Sugar is part of Coca-Cola’s commitment to reducing sugar, with the company recently signing up to an industry-wide pledge to reduce sugar by 20% across its portfolio of sales by 2025.
Strange that they say no sugar is outselling zero. In our shop zero out sells no sugar at about 5 to 1. This is both in cans and 1.25l bottles. I know they want to remove zero from their product line just a pity they try and introduce all these other fancy flavors instead of keeping a higher selling line.