A strawberry-sweet idea

Germans love fruit juice and thus they drink a whole lot of it. When Austria joined the EU, Germany soon became one of Rauch’s most important target markets. But what stood in its way? Hundreds of fruit manufacturers in Germany fight to quench this huge thirst. For consumers, it means a huge selection at low prices. The newly established team at Rauch Germany knew they needed a good idea.

In 2005 the German managing director discovered it in the new product catalogue from the head office in Rankweil. Originally, it also included the drinks manufactured by Rauch Hungary. It featured a variety of Happy Day that was made from one of Germany's favourite fruits: strawberries.

Without further ado, the manager ordered a palette from his Hungarian colleagues, got on the phone and arranged meetings with his best trading partners. He had formulated an excellent question for those sales meetings. “Which jam and fruit yoghurt brings you the highest returns?” The buyers always answered “strawberries”. And this specific variety of juice was missing on supermarket shelves. Thus, Happy Day became the leading brand for speciality fruit juices in Germany: passion fruit, cranberry, rhubarb, and strawberry, of course.

Happy Day is now the leading brand for unusual speciality fruit juices in Germany, from rhubarb to passion fruit. The story began with a great, spontaneous idea and Hungarian strawberry juice.