Skinny Fizz gets new look plus a Prosecco

The Skinny Fizz brand is to go mainstream with new funding, fresh packaging and the addition of new products, including a cheaper Champagne and a Prosecco, according to its founder, Amanda Thomson.

The new look Skinny Fizz

Speaking to the drinks business yesterday, Thomson said she hoped to raise £750,000 this month to “launch the whole brand properly”, describing the current range of two Champagnes – a Skinny blanc and rosé – as a “soft launch” for the label.

As previously reported by db, the Skinny Fizz brand was brought out in late 2013 with a zero dosage from Alexandre Penet – a Champagne house renowned for its low-dosage cuvées – which was later followed by a similarly bone-dry pink variant.

Conceived by Thomson, a former BBC broadcaster, the Skinny tag was her way to promote Champagne without any added sugar, encouraging people to try a lighter and less-calorific style of fizz.

Although the product has proved successful, with regular sales through her own website as well as a few outlets, such as The Corner Restaurant at London department store Selfridges, Thomson told db that the brand needed outside investment to gain greater awareness.

The old packaging for Skinny Champagne

In particular, Thomson has commissioned Imagist to design new packaging for the range, which she said was based on the purity of a diamond (pictured above), while she is adding a third Skinny Champagne with a slightly lower price point.

Augmenting the current pink and grand cru blanc zero dosage Champagnes, which sell for almost £50, will be an extra brut retailing for around £30.

“It will be low dosage, not no dosage, and at a more competitive price point,” she said.

She is also taking the Skinny brand to other sparkling wines, adding a Cava, Franciacorta, Prosecco and French sparkling to the range.

While the Cava and Franciacorta will have no added sugar whatsoever, the Prosecco and French sparkling will both have low levels of residual sweetness to ensure the wines are balanced.

Explaining the difference, Thomson said that the traditional method winemaking approach – which sees the wines undergo a secondary fermentation in the bottle – was more conducive to the zero dosage style than the tank-fermentation technique used for Prosecco and the French sparkling wine.

While Thomson said that the Skinny tag referenced the fact her sparkling wines had no or low-levels of sugar, it was not reflective of a reduced alcohol content. “We are not trying to make low-alcohol wine,” she stated.

She also told db that she was “completely confident” that her new-look Skinny Fizz brand would succeed.

“Sugar is the new devil,” she said. “There was so much media concentrated on the dangers of fat, but now it’s realised that high-fat is fine, it’s high-sugar that is the new crack cocaine in the media.”

Looking ahead, Thomson said that she hoped her brand would be the source of a new drinks category.

“I want to become like skinny cappuccino, I want the new bar call to be: ‘Champagne or Skinny Champagne’,” she commented.