More than a year after it disappeared from the market, the cult fruit juice brand Punica will go on sale again. The drink should be available again in German supermarkets from April, Hamburg drinks marketer Columbus Drinks confirmed on Tuesday.
The fruit juice brand, which was sold in the brand’s typical glass bottles, was mainly present in advertising in the 1980s and 1990s.
Commercials with cult status
Punica commercials have almost a cult status among some children of that time. Individual German-language advertising videos from that time were viewed tens of thousands of times on internet platforms. In the advertisements, cartoon characters often dragged themselves through the desert to get to the ‘Punica Oasis’ and thus ‘save’ themselves.
Punica was originally launched in 1977 as a brand of Dittmeyer GmbH; the German drinks manufacturer was eventually acquired in 1984 by Procter & Gamble, which sold the Punica brand to American investor JW Childs in 2004. In 2005, he sold Punica to PepsiCo.
Hamburg company takes over the sale
PepsiCo ultimately sold most of its juice division, including Punica, to financial investor PAI Partners in 2022. The new joint venture Tropicana Brands Group had reviewed its strategic priorities and made the decision to withdraw Punica from the market, PepsiCo announced afterwards.
Now the cult brand will be available again on German supermarket shelves from April. The Hamburg company Columbus Drinks will take over sales in the Germany-Austria-Switzerland region. It is not yet known when Punica will be available in Austrian stores.
Higher fruit juice content
Columbus Drinks director Jörg Harders told the specialist portal “About Drinks” that they now want to reposition Punica in the market with a higher quality and more natural quality. This should be possible with a new recipe that must have a fruit juice content of more than 30 percent and a recommended retail price of less than two euros.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
