When asked at the Media360 conference in Brighton this morning whether the opportunity to remain "innocent" had been compromised by being owned by Coca-Cola, Germain said: "Not in my eyes but it would be for people to decide for themselves."
He continued: "What you expect me to say is, ‘It’s really shit now. They’re evil.' No, they’re a really great investor, we’re growing at a rate of knots. They look at us and think, ‘how did you do that’?"
Coca-Cola took control of Innocent in 2013. It originally bought a minority stake in the company in 2009.
Despite being part of such a big operation Innocent remains a very open brand – the company’s phone number and address are listed on the bottles and customers are welcome to call or drop by.
Three people in the office are designated to answer the phone if someone calls up. But if they do not answer within three rings, all the phones in the office start ringing.
Germain said: "We don't outsource our call centre. If we don't listen to our customers, we are utter idiots."
Innocent was originally going to be called Fast Tractor, after the only fruit grower who said he would work with them. But Germain said they then did some research on different names and arrived at Innocent.
And the brand is now something people feel really strongly about: Germain displayed a slide showing things that Innocent customers had sent them, including an embroidered quilt that he likes to describe as tapestry.
"Be interesting and your customers will feel they have permission to love your brand," he said.
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