Ribena
 |
|
| Type | Soft drink |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Suntory |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Introduced | 1938 (H.W. Carter & Co) |
| Colour | Purple |
| Flavour |
Blackcurrant Strawberry Blueberry Orange |
| Website | www |
Ribena (/raɪˈbiːnə/ ry-BEE-nə) is an English origin brand of blackcurrant-based uncarbonated and carbonated soft drink and fruit drink concentrate that until 2013 was produced by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).
The brand originally had a strong reputation as a healthy product for children, stemming from its distribution to children as a vitamin C supplement during World War II by the British government. Beecham (a company that has been part of GSK since 2000) bought the brand in 1955 and developed many soft drink versions. A series of scandals in the 2000s, concerning vitamin C levels, sugar levels, and the amounts of actual fruit in some of the brands, damaged its reputation as a healthy product. By 2013 the brand was widely seen as being similar to other soft drinks.
In 2013 annual worldwide sales were around £500 million. That year, GSK sold Ribena and another consumer line, Lucozade, to the Japanese multinational Suntory for £1.35 billion.
Ribena was originally manufactured by the Bristol-based food and drink company HW Carter as a blackcurrant squash. Development research into pure fruit syrups for the manufacture of milkshakes had been done at the Long Ashton Agriculture and Horticulture Research Station in North Somerset using a pectinase enzyme process; Ribena was essentially invented there by Vernon Charley, a scientist at the University of Bristol in 1933. The blackcurrant variety was found to contain high levels of vitamin C. The drink was launched in 1938 under the name Ribena (from the botanical name for the blackcurrant, Ribes nigrum).
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