Always learning

Scientific research is a must. We partner with prestigious academic and research institutions, like King’s College London, Lancaster University, Innovate UK and Research Council UK to develop and inspire our knack for innovation. 

Our in-house scientists aren’t just clever; they’re experts in their field, always searching for cutting-edge technology that can boost the effectiveness of our products and make them even tastier. They’ve contributed to more than 220 scientific articles and papers in academic and peer-reviewed journals, including: The Lancet, Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise and International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism. They give talks and lectures at universities, conferences and science task forces throughout Europe. It’s impressive stuff.

The world of sport and people’s exercise habits are continually developing and changing, so we have to keep up. In fact, we need to be one step ahead of the game.

Today, when people get active, they’re often in competition with themselves, rather than ‘playing to win’. It’s more about progression, improvement and being a better version of themselves.

So what are the real-life exercise needs of our consumers? What gets them moving? What motivates them? And of course, we have to understand the role of sports drinks for our consumers.

We teamed up with universities and external partners to find out more about the real impact of today’s exercise. Using jaw-dropping, cutting-edge technology we can look inside muscles in real-time to see fuel reserves. And our sport scientists have been taking this technology to consumers across the UK to show what happens in muscles during exercise.

We’ve always loved juicy blackcurrants. When we started blackcurrant breeding in 1956 we knew it would be big - but it’s since become one of the largest breeding programmes in the world. In the UK, we harvest more than 12,000 tonnes of gorgeous little blackcurrants a year.

Ribena uses a unique blend of 10 types of blackcurrants; many are grown exclusively by our farmers to give Ribena the distinctive, luscious flavour that we all know and love.

Because we know how important science is to sustainable farming, we’ve invested over £1million over the last 10 years in The James Hutton Institute - a Dundee-based agricultural scientific research centre. We’ve been able to develop varieties that are nifty at coping with climate change, and varieties that have a higher natural sugar content.

All of this basically gives us a better chance of full and healthy crops. And of course, more of our favourite blackcurrant-y beverage.

Think you can help us do better?

Head to our open innovation gallery and innovate with us.