PureCircle Limited (LON:PURE) has announced that Coca-Cola Stevia No Sugar, the very first product from the world’s leading beverage company sweetened solely with stevia, was launched in New Zealand.
The FTSE 250-listed producer and innovator of stevia ingredients said it has worked closely with The Coca-Cola Company for years on stevia and innovated together to bring Coca-Cola Stevia No Sugar to market.
READ: PureCircle’s sales, profits and margins hit by US problems
PureCircle also announced its plans to significantly increase the planting of Starleaf stevia, a proprietary non-GMO stevia plant that yields 20 times more of the best-tasting stevia leaf sweeteners versus current conventional varieties.
Magomet Malsagov, CEO of the company, said: “The launch of Coca-Cola Stevia No Sugar is a very material development which further strengthens the long-term prospects of the stevia industry in general and PureCircle which has invested significant resources to produce the best-tasting stevia lead sweeteners.”
He added: “Having scaled Starleaf plantations and established large-scale production capacity, we have positioned PureCircle as the partner of choice for major brands around the world that are looking to roll out great-tasting products with less or no sugar and artificial sweeteners.”
In early morning trading, PureCircle shares rose 2.2% to 398.5p.