For 55 years, children have enjoyed the sugary Capri Sun – the fruit juice drink with orange, lemon, apple, or multivitamin flavor. Until 2021, the cult drink, which was invented in Germany and has been sold under the name Capri Sun since 2017, could be found in stores with the typical, pointed plastic straw. However, an EU directive put a stop to that. Since then, many food manufacturers, including the producers of Capri Sun, have had to switch to alternatives.
Since then, Capri Sun is still available in the familiar stand-up pouch made of aluminum, but now it has a straw made of paper attached to it. This doesn’t necessarily make the already quite complex opening of the drink pouch any easier. The Capri Sun AG, based in Switzerland, is aware of this problem and has repeatedly tried to optimize the paper straw. But that should now come to an end – Capri Sun wants to return to the plastic straw.
However, those who are now looking forward to the cult drink with the familiar orange plastic straw in this country will still have to suck on the paper straw. Because a reintroduction is currently only possible in Switzerland. For a simple reason: The EU directive does not apply there.
Competitive Pressure in Switzerland
In an interview with the Swiss “Sonntagszeitung”, Capri Sun CEO Roland Weening stated that the company is working on “at least in Switzerland, where the ban does not apply unlike in the EU, to use a recyclable plastic straw again.” Since the drink is produced in Eppelheim near Heidelberg (Baden-Württemberg), there is currently an identical product for customers in the EU and Switzerland – with a paper straw. However, the competitive pressure among the Swiss forces the company to return to plastic, according to the corporate chief. Competitors have introduced cheap private label products that are sold with a plastic straw.
In the long term, Weening also wants to achieve an exemption regulation from the EU for the European market so that the cult drink can again be available here with the pointed plastic straw. And, as announced by the company CEO, they also aim to find an alternative for the not very environmentally friendly aluminum in their pouches.