Squeeze goes on market leader

By PHILIPPA STEVENSON

Orange juice market newcomer Charlie's claims the advertising and labelling of market leader Simply Squeezed is misleading.

In the latest in a long line of juice sector battles, Charlie's director Marc Ellis has complained to the Commerce Commission that the rival juice contains sugars, preservative, concentrate and water.

"So you can't call it simply squeezed for a start because it is not."

Ellis said the Fair Trading Act did not distinguish between a company name and words used to describe a product.

Simply Squeezed was launched in 1990 and has a 45 per cent share of the chilled juice market. Its managing director, Steve Brownlie, said the juice was labelled according to Commerce Commission and Juice Association guidelines.

"We were surprised to learn of the complaint and look forward to the issue being resolved," he said from the company's Hawkes Bay headquarters.

Charlie's, on the market since 2000, is the brainchild of Ellis' friend and partner Stefan Lepionka who, as a school-leaver in 1990, launched Stefan's orange juice, now a Frucor brand.

Commerce Commission spokeswoman Jackie Maitland confirmed that Ellis had raised the issue with the commission. The commission already had two fruit juice cases before the courts, she said.

One involved a Double R Softdrinks product and the other questioned the health benefit claims of a Rio Beverages juice. Rio was on the other side of proceedings in 1993 when it took a case alleging that Enza, which then owned the Just Juice brand, was using 60 to 91 per cent de-ionised apple juice, a syrup with no taste, smell or flavour.

In July 1994, the commission forced Levin's O'Jay's Freshly Squeezed orange juice off the market while it printed new labels because the product, although freshly squeezed, contained preservative.

In November 1994, the commission forced Arano juice to change its label.

In 1997, Stefan's orange, then owned by Enza, was found to have breached the Fair Trading Act after falsely claiming to be New Zealand-made, fresh and delivered daily when it used days-old Australian juice and added preservative.

In 1996, while the Stefan's case was making its way through the courts, the commission issued guidelines for how orange juice was to be labelled and promoted.

Ellis acknowledged that Simply Squeezed was the chilled fruit juice market leader but said his company was happy with the progress made by Charlie's in two years.

He had made the allegations now "after ascertaining the facts and testing the market for a number of months".

Consumers should be able to make an informed choice, he said.

The label on a Simply Squeezed bottle states that "Simply Squeezed juice contains only the finest NZ valencia and Navel oranges, NZ tangelos and Australian valencia orange juice".

"It is bottled and delivered daily from Hawke's Bay orchard [sic].

"To maintain our high standards Simply Squeezed drinkers demand, in light seasons we add fructose and glucose sugars at similar levels found naturally in oranges. In severely short seasons premium concentrate orange may be added."

The label also states the juice contains "Preservative 202".

Brownlie said the company's slogan in advertising, "Simply Squeezed delivered to a store near you each day", was an obvious reference to the 12-year-old brand name.

"Our products are delivered to stores each day. The product is called Simply Squeezed and has been for the past 12 years," he said.

Charlie's label, meanwhile, states its juice is "not from concentrate, [is] 100% squeezed orange juice, [has] no water, no sugar, no preservatives. Made by God - packed and guaranteed by Charlie's."