Case Study: Circl & Innocent
How Innocent Built Confident Coaches and Inclusive Leaders
“I wanted to take what I learned back to my team to improve their decision-making and empower them to do the coaching process on their own.”
John Taylor, UK Commercial Director
About Innocent
Industry: FMCG
Location: Global (London team featured)
Company size: 700+
Innocent Drinks began with a simple mission: to make drinks that help people live well. Since launching in 1999, the B Corp–certified brand has grown from three founders to 700+ employees, expanding across Europe while staying true to its values of sustainability, inclusivity and social impact.
The Challenge: Empowering managers to make better decisions and lead with confidence
Innocent had already invested in traditional leadership development, but wanted to deepen their managers’ coaching capability. A key organisational goal was to improve decisionmaking across teams—and they saw coaching as a practical way to build individual confidence and autonomy.
They also wanted to connect learning to their social impact values. Circl’s mission-aligned programme—pairing professionals with underrepresented young people—offered a practical, purpose-led route to develop leadership in a new way. “When you’re working with other professionals in your industry, you all have common problems and similar ideas. To have that displaced and disrupted is great. Doing the programme with young people is the right way of doing it because you’re challenged a lot more.”
The Solution
Practical coaching experience with real-world impact
Programme participants:
11 Innocent professionals in leadership positions
Future leader participants: 11 FL's
Training hours: 18 per person
The Circl Approach
The Circl approach has proven to create long-term behaviour change; working alongside a young person with completely different interests and experiences, engages professionals more than working alongside their peers. It also helps them to increase their cultural awareness by gaining a deeper understanding of diverse perspectives.
Circl delivered a 12-week coaching programme for 11 Innocent managers, combining expert-led training with real-time coaching practice:
● Professionals attended theory sessions covering coaching frameworks, tools and techniques (like the TGROW model).
● Each was matched with a Future Leader—an underrepresented young person—for weekly 1:1 coaching conversations.
● Both parties practised coaching each other, putting their new skills to use immediately while gaining fresh perspectives.
“When you’re working with other professionals in your industry, you all have common problems and similar ideas. To have that displaced and disrupted is great. Doing the programme with young people is the right way of doing it because you’re challenged a lot more.”
Suraj Gangani, Head of Refreshment Product Marketing
The Outcomes
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90% of participants reported increased confidence in their coaching abilities.
Managers felt better equipped to delegate, support others, and guide problem-solving without providing all the answers.
Participants applied the TGROW model and other tools directly with junior colleagues and in team meetings.
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Participants reported improvements in leadership clarity, communication and alignment across teams.
Junior employees who joined the programme felt more comfortable leading discussions with senior staff, and saw better outcomes in collaborative work.
Working with Future Leaders gave managers exposure to different ways of thinking and boosted their ability to listen, reflect and ask powerful questions.
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All professionals noted the personal and professional growth of their Future Leader partners.
The practical, socially-conscious design of the programme meant learning was not only retained but lived—and aligned closely with Innocent’s values.
Conclusion
Through Circl, Innocent equipped their leaders with real coaching skills that helped build confident, collaborative teams - while making a tangible impact on social mobility.
Discover how Circl can help your leaders drive better decisions and more inclusive teams.
John Taylor
UK Commercial Director
"I’ve learnt some really useful tools and techniques that are easy to remember. The TGROW model is something I’ll use a lot going forward. It’s given me confidence to work through problems with other people that I don’t know the answer to. I can now enable them to get to the answer themselves.”
What people had to say