2010 to 2019

‘IRN-BRU GETS YOU THROUGH’ 2012 TV CAMPAIGN

The next chapter in IRN-BRU’s advertising history was inspired by Scots’ irrepressible character.
This campaign celebrated Scots’ ability to bounce back from tough situations with determination and by having a sense of humour about whatever life throws at them.
Each of the three new 30-second adverts brings to life the campaign mantra ‘IRN-BRU gets you through’, and takes a tongue-in-cheek look at how a taste of the nation’s best-loved soft drink can reinvigorate you and give you the strength to cope with even the most cringe worthy ‘nightmare’ scenarios.

£6m 'LOVE THE EXOTIC' MARKETING CAMPAIGN

Rubicon, launched a massive £6 million ‘Love the Exotic’ nationwide marketing campaign which featuring the brands biggest ever TV advertising campaign.
Two new 30-second commercials, broke in May 2012 and ran for three months.

NEW GROUND BROKEN WITH RUBICON FROZEN PRODUCTS LAUNCH

Our most ambitious NPD initiative ever took place in March 2012 when we extended Rubicon, the UK’s number one exotic juice drink brand, into a completely new category - the UK’s £800 million ice cream market. The, new range of Rubicon ice cream and ice lollies comprised of 4 x 110ml push up lollies, 2 x 750ml tubs and a 4 x 80ml multi-pack.

IRN-BRU SUPER LEAGUE

IRN-BRU renewed its sponsorship deal with Sky and the RFL during January 2012 and continues to be the ‘official soft drink of the Super League’ and ‘IRN-BRU sponsors Super League on Sky Sports’ for the 2012 Super League season. This is the fourth year of the IRN-BRU sponsorship deal.

The opening games of the new Super League season kicked off on 3rd February 2012 where current title holder Leeds Rhinos faced Hull KR and newcomers to the Super League Widnes Vikings faced the Wakefield Wildcats.

To kick off a Phenomenal new season, IRN-BRU’s new hard hitting sponsorship idents for Super League coverage on Sky Sports were transmitted during Widnes opening game.

To support the season IRN-BRU has also launched the 500ml Big Rugby Can at a Phenomenal 49p price mark.

FIERY IRN-BRU

In the autumn of 2011 IRN-BRU launched its FIRST EVER limited edition: Fiery IRN-BRU.

The product had all the traditional taste of IRN-BRU but with a fiery kick to the drink. A dramatic launch staged in Glasgow's George Square (Monday 19th September 2011) saw former A G Barr Chairman Robin Barr pull the first ever bottle of Fiery IRN-BRU from a blazing furnace, in scenes reminiscent of IRN-BRU's legendary 'made in Scotland from girders' past. Assembled fans were then given a first taste of fire directly from Mr. Barr himself.

The limited edition fizz was available from 26th September 2011 and became one of the hottest products in Scotland

BRU-JET SENDS SALES SKY HIGH

BRU-JET is IRN-BRU's biggest ever instant win on-pack promotion with 100 seats on the BRU-JET to be won by consumers.

BRU-JET will whisk the lucky winners away for an all inclusive, week-long holiday in the sun-drenched island of Tenerife.

The promotion will appear on a number of IRN-BRU SKUs including 2ltr and 500ml PET  bottles and multi-packs of 9 and 18 x 330ml cans.

BRU-JET taking to the skies from Glasgow Airport on October 16 2011, during half-term week.

NEW BRAND POSITIONING MAKES IT CLEAR FOR STRATHMORE

Barr launched a major brand re-positioning in June 2011. A new look for Strathmore was introduced alongside a new pack design with the new brand message ‘Strathmore – A source of clarity’.

New, eye-catching labels highlight Strathmore’s authenticity as a major Scottish water brand where it is sourced from the Vale of Strathmore on the East coast of Scotland. The labels, feature Glamis Castle which lies at the heart of the Vale of Strathmore, rooting the brand in a ‘real place’.

New pack sizes included 750ml and 330ml PET

Robin Brings Back One of His Favourite Flavours

Barr's Appleade made an eagerly anticipated appearance on Scottish shop shelves from May 2011, all thanks to former Chairman, Robin Barr.

Robin championed the development and launch of the sparkling apple drink at Barr's as it is one of his favourite flavours! Throughout the 20th century Barrs has produced fizzy apple drinks under a variety of different names including Cider Champagne which was produced in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Following the successful launch of Barrs Cherryade with consumers, Barrs wanted to make more classic flavours available to families, offering them more choice! Appleade was launched in 330ml cans, and 2 litre bottles and was the fifteenth flavour in the Barr Range.

IRN-BRU Summer Activity 2011

IRN-BRU's national £3 million media programme has been spearheaded with a lively new TV campaign. The 60 second seaside escapade is a dazzling mix of live action and animation set to a soundtrack from pop star Paolo Nutini and his fast-paced hit, ‘Pencil Full of Lead’. In it, a young couple has some fun by putting their heads through two seaside cardboard cut-outs. The cut-outs come to life in the shape of a buxom young woman and a seven stone weakling of a man and leads to a riotous chain of events as the couple try and outwit each other to get their hands on a can of IRN-BRU!

Rubicon Light

SFL Tops for Teams

IRN-BRU will invest £70,000 in youth football with an exciting new initiative, Tops for Youth Teams. Until 7th May 2011, people across Scotland can return their IRN-BRU plastic bottle tops to help their local SFL club grab a larger share of the cash.  It’s simple - the more bottle tops a club collects, the more money they receive.  Every club will get a share of the investment, and the team with the most tops gets a whopping £10,000. Regular collection updates will be published online at www.phenomenalfooty.com

Diet IRN-BRU Changes to IRN-BRU Sugar Free

From January 2011 Diet IRN-BRU changed its name to IRN-BRU SUGAR FREE./p>

The name change to SUGAR FREE did not mean a change to the secret recipe of Diet IRN-BRU which remained exactly the same. The introduction of IRN-BRU SUGAR FREE was supported by a heavyweight marketing campaign to create huge consumer awareness of both the name change and the new re-design of all IRN-BRU SUGAR FREE packaging.

A 4 week multimedia campaign which included digital started on 14th February in Scotland with a great new set of IRN-BRU TV adverts for SUGAR FREE together with a 2 week outdoor campaign running on 6 sheet posters and bus sides across Scotland.

IRN-BRU sponsors the Charity Award at the Great Scot Awards

IRN-BRU, teamed up with The Sunday Mail and event sponsor, Morrisons to sponsor the Charity Award at the Great Scot Award's 20th anniversary. Every year, hundreds of Scots give up their precious time to help others and The Sunday Mail's Great Scot Awards aims to recognise and thank them for their efforts.

The Charity Award, is an award dedicated to those who raise money for those less fortunate than most.   IRN-BRU also collected 5p from every 500ml IRN-BRU bottle sold in Morrisons supermarkets throughout Scotland and donated the money raised to the Great Scot's Charity Award winner.

Martin Steele, IRN-BRU's Senior Brand Manager, announced this year's winner of the IRN-BRU Charity Award as Spirit Aid, a charity founded by actor David Hayman in 2001 dedicated to supporting children and young people in Scotland and around the world. The charity is committed to alleviating the suffering of children and young people whose lives have been devastated by war, poverty, genocide, ethnic cleansing and all forms of abuse. Spirit Aid relies solely on donations and the goodwill of its supporters.

League Sponsors Make a Phenomenal Towel Delivery to SFL Clubs

Over 1000 of the limited edition towels produced for a national consumer promotion, designed in the drink's iconic blue and orange colours, were sent to SFL clubs throughout Scotland. Players from First Division leaders Raith Rovers were among the first teams to receive their delivery of towels

IRN-BRU's Ginger Boot Award

IRN-BRU introduced an exciting new goal scoring initiative, the Ginger Boot for the start of the SFL 2010 / 11 Season.

The prize of a pair of Nike Ginger coloured boots will be won by the top goal scorer each month throughout the season with a bespoke Ginger Boot trophy presented to the season's top goal scorer at the end of Season Awards

ROCKSTAR Launched 2 UK Firsts

ROCKSTAR launched two new products ROCKSTAR Recovery 500ml can and a 1lt PET range during July 2010.  

ROCKSTAR Recovery is the UK’s first non-carbonated energy drink. It targets the specific consumer need of recovery.

ROCKSTAR Recovery is formulated with all of ROCKSTAR’S usual energy giving ingredients plus electrolytes and a refreshing still lemonade flavour which makes it ideal for re-hydration and thirst replenishment.

At the same time ROCKSTAR launched a 1 litre PET range. The range was available in two of the brands most popular flavours – ROCKSTAR Original and ROCKSTAR GUAVA.

ROCKSTAR also introduced a new packaging design in June 2010 to deliver an even more vibrant and appealing brand presence across the range.

KA launches Fruit Punch

KA, the most consumed flavoured carbonate in the African and Caribbean communities in the UK launched KA Fruit Punch, a brand new taste from the Caribbean, from the beginning of June 2010.

KA Fruit Punch became the 6th flavour in the range and the first new flavour launch for the KA brand in over 20 years. The other KA flavours in the range are KA Black Grape, KA Karibbean Kola, KA Pineapple, KA Mango and KA Strawberry.

A.G.Barr p.l.c is a public limited company registered in Scotland.
Registered number: SC5653. Registered head office: Westfield House
4 Mollins Road, Westfield Ind estate, Cumbernauld, G68 9HD.

NEW PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN BARRS AND FALKIRK WHEEL

The Falkirk Wheel and A.G.Barr re-opened the attraction's family play park following an extensive refurbishment supported by AG Barr's community fund. The park - which contains climbing frames, scramble nets and slides all built on a specialist safety playing surface - was originally built in 2003 with funding from AG Barr as part of the biggest ever community investment that the company has ever made in its support of the Falkirk Wheel project.

HELP US MAKE SCOTLAND MAGIC AT FOOTBALL

IRN-BRU, appealed to the men and women of Brazil to help us create the next generation of Scottish football legends. BRUzil: Road to 2034' was a simple yet potentially revolutionary idea: to unite Scots and Brazilians in the summer of 2010 to forever enhance the Scottish footballing gene pool...creating phenomenal future players for the world' biggest football tournament in 2034.

BARR'S NEW PREMIUM 330ml GLASS BOTTLE RANGE

Barr's launched a new premium range of 330ml glass bottles in the on-premise sector in early May 2010. IRN-BRU re-launched its Regular and Diet variants in a new premium up-sized 330ml glass bottle to replace its existing 275ml pack size. At the same time Barr's Originals, a range of premium quality traditional carbonate flavours, launched a new premium 330ml glass bottle for on-premise in 4 variants: zingy traditional lemonade, cream soda with a hint of raspberry, dandelion & burdock and fiery ginger beer.

IRN-BRU GETS ANIMATED

A new 60 second IRN-BRU advert was screened throughout April, May and June in Scotland, introducing audiences to a maverick IRN-BRU Pied Piper and a cast of animated animals, who dance to his merry tune through country lanes and villages, demonstrating his phenomenal animal magnetism after taking a swig of the iconic drink!..but all is not what it seems... IRN-BRU Head of Marketing Adrian Troy said of the new advertising campaign - which will also be screened in cinemas across Scotland - 'it's IRN-BRU advertising at its edgy and entertaining best. We wanted this new campaign to reflect the phenomenal qualities and appeal of IRN-BRU, and the power that the drink has to lift peoples moods and brighten their day'.

Financial Results - 12 months to 30th January 2010

Key Points

• Profit on ordinary activities before tax and exceptional items increased by 20.8% to £27.9m (2009 – £23.1m).
• Turnover increased by 18.7% to £201.4m (2009 - £169.7 million).
• Like for like sales, stripping out the impact of the Rubicon acquisition and the 53rd week in 2008/09, increased by 10.6%.
• Basic earnings per share (pre-exceptional) 53.29p an increase of 20.5%.
• Proposed final dividend of 16.85p per share to give a proposed total dividend for the year of 23.1p per share, an increase of 10.0% over the previous year.

IRN-BRU to join packaging and food waste revolution

A.G. Barr announced on Thursday 4th March 2010 that it had joined a UK-wide
scheme to reduce household food waste and cut product and packaging waste
in the grocery supply chain.
The company signed up to Courtauld Commitment 2, a voluntary waste
reduction agreement for major grocery retailers and brand owners, supported
by Zero Waste Scotland.
Working with Zero Waste Scotland, A.G. Barr took substantial steps to
reduce the amount of packaging used across it's range of products from
IRN-BRU packaging to bottles of Strathmore Spring Water.
Barr’s set out to reduce PET plastic use in bottles produced at its
Cumbernauld factory by 8% - a saving of 375 tonnes of PET a year, or enough
to make 18 million 500ml bottles – and by the end of March 2010 all
Strathmore Spring Water PET bottles contained 25% recycled plastic (rPET).

Picture from left to right:
Roger White CEO A.G.Barr p.l.c.
Richard Lochhead Scottish Environment Secretary
Iain Gulland, Director of Zero Waste Scotland