I love the Innocent company and look forward to their quirky newsletters arriving every month, eagerly scrolling down to the bottom to see what amusing link delights await me. I love the cute marketing, the colourful bottles of lovely juices, the funky little knitted hats and the fun blog where everything about the company it totally transparent.

But, i am stunned that they have given a 30 million stake in their business to the corporate giants of soft drinks Coke. Coke stands for unhealthy drinks so loaded with sugar that when my baby brother drinks it he bouncing off the walls for an hour.

James Quincey, group business unit president for Coca-Cola Europe, said the group was delighted to be investing in Innocent. “We have long admired their brand, their products and their unique approach to business,” he added.

co-founder Richard Reed of Innocent said “every promise that Innocent has made, about making only natural healthy products, pioneering the use of better, socially and environmentally aware ingredients, packaging and production techniques, donating money to charity and having a point of view on the world will remain.We’ll just get to do them even more.”

But i don’t understand, Innocent employs 275 people, has a turnover of more than £100m and sells about two million smoothies per week, why do they need this involvement from Coke, Ok they can do more work for charity but what harm are they doing in the process. I just don’t see how they can up hold their ethical credentials in light of this, after all Coke was recently made to correct its advertising campaign in Australia because its claims that Coke did not make you fat or rot your teeth were deemed “misleading”.

Read the Twitter feed to see just how pissed some of their customers are http://twitter.com/innocentdrinks

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