innocent drinks

In the limelight this month, our Werdah.   Someone so passionate about living well, she's co-founded a triathlon charity to help others do the same.   Now we're no couch potatoes, but the only triathlons we can finish have a starter, main, and dessert. Which is why we're extra proud of Werdah in getting to run across France with a certain flame in her hand. It's a pretty big deal if you ask us.     If you want to know more about how she got there, her role at innocent, and top tips for carrying open flames, then have a read down below:

Some people say money makes the world go around. We might say it's fruit and veg. But most people would agree that parents deserve a mention too.   Well, it was Parent's Day yesterday. So we thought we'd shout about all the great work our wonderful PEARent's and Carer's Affinity Group have done. All to make sure that parents at innocent get the best deal possible and focus on what really matters. Mushing veg, changing nappies, and learning all about Peppa.   Here's a big one. We have one approach for any parent to be, you can take up to 52 weeks to look after your child, with the first 16 weeks of that fully paid. And unlike the governmental policy, we're not asking anyone to share leave or pay. So both parents can be there for those first few baby steps.   We know that having children isn't a one size fits all for everyone. That's why we offer 8 days of leave for every fertility treatment cycle. With surrogacy and adoption leave too.   But the last thing on any expecting parent's mind should be paperwork. So we've created a few handy guides for our people to use on top parenting tips, the parental leave process, and a guide for our managers.   And when you've been away for a while, it can feel a little scary coming back. So all our parents are encouraged to take a staggered approach back to work, where you do 80% of your work in the first two weeks, and 90% in the two weeks after that. All at full pay.   Our returning parents are introduced back in our company updates, get assigned a buddy, and can rely on the support of the PEARent's group to share all the ups and downs of being a new parent.   Even as they grow up, parenting doesn't slow down. So a lot of parents at innocent like to flex their working hours around school pick-ups and drop-offs, as well as all those important school plays, sports days, and the days when they're feeling under the weather.   So thank you to all parents, and to our PEARents and Carers group for making the lives of parents at innocent that little bit easier. And have a look down below for a cure to any Monday blues.

WE’VE GOT OLYMPIC TORCHBEARERS AMONGST US    We’re chuffed because some of our lovely lot were picked to be Olympic torchbearers this year.  A huge congratulations to these remarkable individuals. They were chosen from more than 480 colleagues who applied to become a torchbearer, sharing inspiring stories and demonstrating how they embody the Olympic values. Here's some photos for you to grin at, we've already got them up on the fridge. 🔥 Carles Xavier Riera Velasco 🔥 Hanna Smith  🔥 Keven Hassan   🔥 Werdah Hussain   🔥 Mayya Marinova 🔥 Pierre-Alexis DRONIOU 🔥 Nicolas Marotte  

Have you lovely lot ever wondered what the journey of a innocent juice or smoothie is, before it ends up in a bottle, on a shelve, or in your hands? Here's one to watch if you have.

It's that time of the year again where everyone's got their rackets out. And strawberries and cream are doing the rounds.   Now we aren’t experts with a racket, but we are always on the ball. And we know a thing or two about strawberries. So here we are serving you lovely lot some facts.    🍓 The average strawberry has 200 seeds, and they're the only fruit with seeds on the outside. Because of this, strawberries aren't true berries, like blueberries or grapes. They're actually part of the rose family.     🍓 Strawberries are a source of fibre, vitamin C, manganese and folate.    🍓 Louisa Handley, RNutr (AfN), our nutritionist, wouldn’t let us skip the fact that they aren’t heart-shaped for nothing. They are a known symbol of love. Rumour has it that if you split a strawberry in half with your crush, it makes you fall head over heels in love. 👀

We believe the lovely lot that work here should be able to bring their best and most natural selves to work. Which is why a big focus for us this year has been on intersectionality. Whether it's gender, race, class, religion, or sexual orientation, these things shape us into the people we are today. But just because we are similar in one way, doesn’t mean we have the same experiences overall. It's important to chat about and celebrate those differences to make sure we don't bundle everyone together. Our Proud Bunch, our LGBTQIAplus affinity group, are the legends leading the conversation about our different experiences with all our other affinity groups. So for this year’s Pride Month, we’ve been waving both well known and less recognised flags in our windows. Like the diversity flag, which is there to represent LGBTQIAplus people of colour, and the disability pride flag, for gay and queer people with disabilities or who are neurodiverse. We’ve hung them proudly to show that everyone is welcome and supported at innocent. We know we’re not the experts. We wanted to talk about intersectionality because we want the people that work here, and even those that don’t, to feel able to be their best natural self. We loved seeing London come to life this weekend for Pride, Happy Pride, you lot.

Over the past few months we've been shining a light on people who've worked with us for a while. Even before smoothie bottles were invented and all we had were soup spoons, ladles, and our hands. Well, this week's in the limelight takes us to our Tom. Someone who's a bit fresher to Fruit-Towers and doesn't like to brag too much. So we thought we'd do that bit for him.   When he's not out on a cold rainy Tuesday with the innocent footie team. He's out making dashboards so dazzling, that he landed himself our Best Newcomer award. So for you lot just starting out, or wanting to make a change, check out what Tom has to say. And see if you fancy something new.

👨 🌾 1,991,318 👩 🌾 that's the number of lives across 46 countries that the foundation has proudly impacted over the past 20 years. Together with incredible partners on the ground, they strive to combat child mortality caused by malnutrition and empower smallholder farming families to grow nutritious food.   We're incredibly proud to continue our support of the monumental work they do. Hats off to being great people you lot!

WE GAVE AWAY SOME CASH This year we launched our third Farmer Innovation Fund, which is a pot of money (it was a pretty big pot of £1 million this year) we put aside annually to help our farmers lower the emissions produced from growing our ingredients.  So that we can keep putting delicious fruit and veg into our drinks we need to secure their availability for the future. This means helping our suppliers invest in regenerative agriculture (we call it regen-ag for short) practices that improve biodiversity, boost their livelihoods and capture carbon. And our fund means that every year we get to hear about the extraordinary projects our farmers are working on. This year 11 farmers wowed us with the very cool stuff they were doing in the regen- ag space. For example, one of our berry suppliers, Pixley Berries (Juice) Ltd Anna Ralph will use bio-stimulants and sensory devices to help look after our blackcurrant crops – we love it. Other winners like AGRARIAS MANCHEGAS SA have plans to transform into the first fully functioning smart farm in Spain. Frutilight in Costa Rica are working on their quest to find a biofertilizer plant for pineapple cultivation and honestly, we could list them all because they are ALL so great, but we won’t.  

It’s World Nutrition Day We were going to write a whole post about how much we love fruit & veg, because we really do and we want you lovely lot to love it too. But it's a Tuesday after Bank holiday weekend. And we didn’t write a post. So, instead here's a chat with Louisa Handley, RNutr (AfN), our company nutritionist aka out-of-hours fruit & veg consumption consultant/fruit & veg fact fanatic.