Vimto's appeal is undiluted

The favourite drink of Ramadan has retained its global popularity without changing its old-fashioned image.

Vimto was invented by the English herbalist John Noel Nichols in the early 1900s. By 1928, when this picture was taken, the drink was popular around the world.

James Nichols says his great-grandfather, John Noel Nichols, would have been a proud man had he lived to see his beloved Vimto cordial storm into the 21st century as the drink of Ramadan. Nichols Senior, known to everyone as Noel, invented Vimto in his Manchester herbalism shop 100 years ago, though no one seems to know the precise date. By the time he died in 1966, he had seen Vimto's parent company, Nichols plc, survive two world wars and social revolutions which had seemed certain to consign this delightfully old-fashioned drink, famous for its fruity, herbal and spicy qualities, to history. But instead of being crushed by drinks of mass appeal, such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi, Vimto has become increasingly popular around the world. Sold in 65 countries, it is a force on the east and west coasts of Africa and as much a part of the fabric of life as rain and football in the north-west of England. However, its core market, worth an estimated £60 million (Dh400m) a year out of worldwide sales of £200m, is the Middle East. In the run-up to, and during, Ramadan, especially in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, many millions of bottles and cans of Vimto are bought. This is the strongest, sweetest version of Vimto sold anywhere in the world; the company suggests it should be diluted substantially but says many in the region like to drink it with far less water than is recommended. "It is an institution in the Middle East," says James Nichols, who works in the company's division that deals with the UK market. "It has been part of life there for 80 years." Much in the world has changed, says Mr Nichols, 28, since his great-grandfather experimented in his little shop in Manchester city centre with the grapes, raspberries, blackberries, herbs and spices that became the recipe for Vimto. But that recipe, known only to a handful of people and kept in a safe at an undisclosed location in the north-west of England, remains the same. "No one can copy us," he says. "The recipe is what makes our drink unique. There is no other drink like it. It is not like your usual soft drinks." Other manufacturers have tried to break Vimto's hold on the Ramadan market in the region. Coca-Cola, for example, has offered cans festooned with a moon and crescent as a mark of respect for Islam's holy month. But this has not even slightly dented sales; Vimto remains the must-have drink for many millions of Muslims before and after they fast. Another Vimto executive, Simon Hunt-Brown, 48, who, after many years spent working around the world, specialises in Africa for Nichols, says: "We have been in the Middle East for so long we are almost seen as a local drink, as part of life there. We are now associated in people's minds with Ramadan. It is the drink you have before you begin your fast. It is the one you have when you break fast. It is the drink you offer guests." Vimto is, he says, what the industry calls "an occasion drink": "Carbonated soft drinks, the usual fizzy drinks, are what are known as 'refreshment' drinks. You pick them up on the move. They taste nice and do the job. But Vimto is for an occasion. It is special." Vimto has prospered, he says, because it is essentially a "fabulous drink" that revives, stimulates and is fun. But clever marketing, targeting countries likely to be receptive to a drink that is too sweet and fruity for most North American and European palates, has also been vital. "We know that people in Africa like it strong and sweet," says Mr Hunt-Brown. "In the Middle East they like it even sweeter. It is just local taste. So the diet versions, which don't have any added sugar, aren't popular in these countries." Vimto is big on the west and east coasts of Africa. "Take Guinea," says Mr Hunt-Brown. "It is seen as a blood tonic. It is seen as a magical potion. It is a treat, for a special occasion. If you are looking for a data peg to explain this you won't find one. "You can't say, for example, that Bantu people like Vimto because they like raspberries or are attracted to the red colour of the drink. It is not so. Why do people in Africa prefer our carbonated version to the cordial? Why do people in the Middle East like the cordial more? There's no easy explanation." The Vimto story serves as a refreshing reminder that global giants do not always crush the small players. John Noel Nichols was the son of a cotton yarn agent and governess. In 1908 he started a herbalist business in Manchester and invented a drink which, he thought, would boost energy and generally improve "vigour". Adopting a word synonymous with energy and, at that time, in common use, he called it Vim Tonic. It was soon popular in the city, where people drank it diluted with hot or cold water. This was the era of temperance in the UK, with alcohol considered dangerous to the soul as well as the body, and Vim Tonic was a welcome alternative. By the early 1920s the name had evolved into the punchier Vimto and the drink was firmly established as a brand. With 21st-century-style marketing aplomb, Mr Nichols published The Vimto Book of Knowledge. By the 1930s, Vimto had implanted itself in the consciousness of the people of north-western England - it was never popular in the south - as "a great problem solver". The master stroke, however, was expansion to the old British Empire. In the early 1920s, Vimto concentrate - the secret formula that made the drink what it was - arrived in India, where local firms turned it into the cordial that British troops stationed in the country knew and loved. From India the drink made its way to the Middle East, courtesy of Indians who worked in Saudi Arabia. A company called Abdulla Aujan and Brothers became the bottlers and distributors for the cordial in the region - and remains so today. Expansion continued after the Second World War. According to the company, it was an accident that the cordial was so strong and sweet in the Middle East. It was just cheaper, it says, to ship double-strength cordial long distances. Luckily, it says, this "fuller flavour and sweetness" suited Middle Eastern palates. In the past quarter of a century Vimto has swept into Africa - Tanzania, Cameroon, Sudan, Kenya, Guinea and Mozambique - and today the company is planning to distribute in China, beginning in Beijing and Shanghai. Brendan Hyles, the Nichols chief executive, told one newspaper recently: "We have got everything in place in China and are going to give it a shot. We are ready to move." Over the decades, the company has developed carbonated, still and diet versions of its drink and added variations, such as an orange-heavy Vimto. There is even a range of Vimto-flavoured confectionery, including Tongue Ticklers, Chewy Bon-Bons and Fizzy Centred Lollipops. In the UK, the company stopped manufacturing the actual cordial five years ago and farms out the task to independent bottlers. All it makes now at its base near Manchester is the concentrate that is the core of Vimto. This is shipped around the world, where local producers turn it into a sellable drink. The company says it plans and markets but, above all, it sells an image. "We are about family values, healthy living, clean fun," says Mr Hunt-Brown. Nichols has no time for the cutting edge advertising of the soft-drinks giants; instead it cultivates an image as homely and decent. It is, says Mr Hunt-Brown, deliberately "quirky". Today, the drink's advertising presents a vanished England, a country where policemen cycle around villages and chastise naughty children for stealing apples. It is the imagined landscape of the 1950s, populated by law-abiding people with simple and harmless pleasures. Nichols projects itself in jolly reds and purples and its catchphrase invites shoppers to "Shlurple the purple" - a reference to the colour of Vimto. There is also an element of yesteryear's children's comics; the company evokes a distant past typified by Richmal Crompton's Just William books, in which schoolboys may have played pranks on masters but never meant any real harm. One of its television advertisements features a jaunty song and a boy wearing an absurdly large swimming costume; it is so old-fashioned, say advertising analysts, that it is "genius retro". Certainly, it is hard to imagine any of the giants of the soft-drinks industry choosing a song with words like these as the core of an advertising campaign: "Here's a story with a warning Billy grabbed his Vimto early one morning Met his mates in the pool He'd packed his Dad's pants now - what a fool! He's got his Dad's pants in the middle of his roll Dad's pants in the middle of his roll Dad's pants in the middle of his roll And he's going swimming! The answer to the problem everyone knows Was to shlurple the purple so the moral goes Didn't have a worry and he didn't have a care Cos when you drink Vimto it don't matter what you wear!" True, it is not sophisticated, but it seems to work - part of a recipe for success that appeals to millions of people around the world, regardless of race, culture or background. In fact, the only thing likely to divide two Vimto fans is the tricky question of dilution. "I drink it all the time," says Mr Hunt-Brown. "But I always argue with my wife about how much to dilute it by. I am a 50/50 man. But my wife likes it weak. Too weak for my taste." @Email:[e-mail]