Twenty years ago, MiWadi was so well established that its name was the generic one for any dilutable orange "cordial".

To become a "generic" is the dream of every brand. It means that when consumers think of a product category they automatically think of your brand name. Hoover, for example, is a generic for vacuum cleaners, Jiff is a generic for bathroom cleansers. But generics can become so familiar that, in a fastmoving consumer world, they appear out of date.

So 10 years ago MiWadi was close to being delisted because of new competition from fizzy drinks and other cordials such as Kia Ora and Robinson's.

But the C&C brand, invented in 1927, has bounced back. Four years ago, MiWadi had an 11 per cent share of the cordial market, worth £18.6 million. It now has 29 per cent and is the market leader.

The bottle was repackaged to look more modern and to emphasise the drinks' fruit content; new types of drinks were introduced under the MiWadi brand (e.g. a sugar-free version) and the company put a major advertising budget behind the brand. The first ads with the slogan "It's not your Wadi, it's MiWadi" featured children but also showed that adults liked the drink.

This reflected the company's research which showed that the product, which used to be consumed almost entirely by children, had found a new audience in adults, who for health reasons wanted to consume more water but found it too bland to drink on its own. This year a new £600,000 television campaign was launched, again emphasising that the product is essentially a children's drink but is loved by everyone.