Until 18 October 2026, three bottles of F&N FRUIT TREE FRESH juice at FairPrice, Cold Storage, Giant or Sheng Siong will get you an exclusive Sumikkogurashi Cooler Bag, while stocks last. The gift-with-purchase campaign has been running since Tuesday, 22 September. If you’ve had your eye on those pastel bags in the drinks aisle, this is the last weekend to get one. Participating products are listed on the F&N FRUIT TREE FRESH page.
The Deal at a Glance
🗓️ Date: 22 September to 18 October 2026, while stocks last
📍 Location: FairPrice, Cold Storage, Giant and Sheng Siong supermarkets, plus RedMart online
🧃 In-store redemption: Three 946ml F&N FRUIT TREE FRESH juices (assorted flavours), two 946ml F&N FRUIT TREE FRESH Muscat Grape Juice Drink with Aloe Vera Bits, or two 1.89L F&N FRUIT TREE FRESH Apple and Aloe Vera
🛒 RedMart: Minimum spend of S$6 on participating F&N FRUIT TREE FRESH products
🎁 Gift: One Sumikkogurashi Cooler Bag, in three exclusive designs
⚠️ What runs out: The bags, both in stores and on RedMart. Redemption is while stocks last.
Which Bundle to Pick
There are three in-store routes and one online route. They suit different shoppers:
- Most juice: two 1.89L Apple and Aloe Vera. That’s 3.78L per bag, which works well for a household that finishes juice quickly.
- Least juice to carry home: two 946ml Muscat Grape Juice Drink with Aloe Vera Bits. This limited-edition flavour gets you the bag with the smallest volume of any in-store option, and you get to try something new.
- Most variety: three assorted 946ml bottles. This one is for the flavour-curious.
- No carrying at all: RedMart. You need to spend at least S$6 on participating products. On RedMart, shoppers can redeem a bag with a minimum spend of S$6. Bags can still run out online, though.
The Regular and Reduced Sugar ranges carry real fruit bits, and No Sugar Added variants are in the mix if you’re watching your sugar intake. F&N says each serving is high in vitamin C, citing Harvard Health Publishing on its role in immune and skin health.
Meet the Corner Dwellers
Sumikkogurashi comes from San-X, the Japanese company also behind Rilakkuma. It’s a cast of characters who love life in the corner. Shirokuma is a polar bear who stays indoors because he dislikes the cold. Penguin? isn’t quite sure he’s a penguin at all, and the question mark is part of his name, which tells you everything.
That gentle, slightly anxious energy is the whole appeal. If you bring a jacket into a Singapore office every morning, a polar bear who can’t handle the cold is easy to relate to.
For this collaboration, F&N is offering three exclusive cooler bag designs. F&N is short for Fraser and Neave, the Singapore-listed group behind 100PLUS and F&N MAGNOLIA. It pitches the bags for picnics, grocery runs and keeping chilled treats cold on outings. In this climate, that’s a genuinely practical use and not just a marketing line.
Your Supermarket Is the New Merch Drop
F&N isn’t the only Singapore brand doing this. Over the past couple of months, several have used Japanese characters to get people into shops:
- Starbucks Singapore started its second mofusand collaboration on 25 August with Singapore-exclusive items, including a limited-edition glass cold cup bundled with a drink voucher. The coffee chain said the tie-up was built around the appeal of character merchandise and collectable culture. Those were its own words, and they’re an honest admission of what sells.
- Giordano brought in Chiikawa to win over younger shoppers and families, while keeping existing customers who love limited-edition, character-led products.
- KFC Singapore ran a Pokémon campaign from 19 August to 29 September.
- Mini Glam launched a Hello Kitty and Friends range of lip products, shimmer cosmetics and a character makeup bag.
That’s a fried chicken chain, a fashion label, a coffee giant, a beauty brand and a juice brand. None of them sell characters as their main business, yet all of them have bet that a cute face moves product faster than a better ad.
The Numbers Behind the Cuteness
The money explains the enthusiasm. In its annual results, Sanrio, the company behind Hello Kitty, reported record sales of ¥194.088 billion for the year ended 31 March 2026, up 33.9%. Its operating profit climbed 50.3% to ¥77.8 billion. Sanrio said Hello Kitty alone made up about 37% of group revenue, and that its licensing growth spanned beverages, food service, cosmetics and apparel.
Japan’s Yano Research Institute tracks licensed products and content tied to anime, manga, games and illustrated characters. It valued the country’s character business at ¥2.8767 trillion in fiscal 2025, up 3.2% year on year, and forecasts ¥2.9635 trillion for fiscal 2026. Yano credits part of that growth to more character shops and more chances to buy. Every juice-aisle tie-up adds one more of those chances, and that’s the whole idea.
Scarcity Is the Real Product
The secret ingredient is rarely the bag or the cup itself. Brands combine three things: a character fans already love, a low-cost way in, and a limited window. Together, these give people a reason to visit that shop instead of ordering whatever is cheapest online.
Singapore has seen how intense this can get. Around the turn of the millennium, McDonald’s released six bridal Hello Kitty-and-Daniel pairs over six weeks, sparking nationwide queues. Looking back at the craze in a 2025 analysis, the agency Dentsu put the draw down to the “thrill of the chase”, shared experience and scarcity.
That chase has a downside, and regulators have noticed. China’s market regulator, the State Administration for Market Regulation, issued guidance in 2023 barring blind-box sales to children under eight.
F&N’s version is far calmer. The only catch is the phrase while stocks last, so there’s still some scarcity, just a gentle kind.
Character tie-ins come and go, but this one asks for little more than a grocery run, and a shy polar bear keeping your drinks cold is a fair reward for it. Check the participating products on the F&N FRUIT TREE FRESH page and follow @fruittreefresh on Instagram for updates. Then get to the supermarket before 18 October, while the corner dwellers are still on the shelves!
Photos and Visuals courtesy of F&N Foods.