Natural progression

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Making a visual impression in-store and offering clear product segmentation is imperative.

As fruit juices pose an ever-greater threat to carbonated soft drinks in the Middle East, manufacturers have responded with innovative packaging and marketing techniques to shape the sector and engage shoppers.

"The juice sector is witnessing impressive growths across the UAE, achieving a 16% growth compared to 2006, driven predominantly by nectars and more specifically by mixed fruits and innovative propositions. This is a trend reflected across all of the Middle East markets," says Hynd Lamrani, beverages brand manager, Masafi.

"Masafi enjoys 8% market share in the nectars segment, which represents 80% of our business. We are now part of the top five players in the nectars category, which is the fastest growing juice segment, seeing an up trend of 14%," Lamrani says.

Lamrani believes two developments in consumer trends have been observed: rising awareness of health issues and the need for variety of choice.

"The core flavours in the UAE are still representing more than 50% of the juice category but composite and innovative flavours are leading the growth, reflecting the change in consumers' habits and preferences," Lamrani observes.

Masafi juices are outgrowing the overall market trend compared to last year across the UAE, according to Lamrani.

"To date, Masafi has a witnessed a growth of 21% for its juice range compared to last year, while the market is growing at 16%.

"Key accounts represent 60% of our sales and their contribution will keep on growing in line with global trade structure, whereas traditional trade contribution to overall channel landscape is declining."

Masafi now offers eight flavours, since its original launch of orange, apple, tropical and mango, today amounting to 80% of its sales.

This year the company rolled out an additional four, the latest melon juice, in a bid to meet consumer taste profiles, and tropical and mango are its hottest selling varieties.

Premium values are key in juice rivalry nowadays, and manufacturers including Masafi are reaping the dividends of using quality ingredients.

"Tropical juice has a unique and distinctive combination of fruits including Papaya, mango, kiwi, pineapple, guava and passion fruit that gives it an exotic and delicious taste. Masafi Mango is sourced from Alphonso mangoes, which gives it the consistent and delectable taste," she says.

Another crucial component to stand apart from competitors is effective merchandising, and Lamrani underlines Masafi's implementation of a Planogram, defined internally between its marketing and sales departments.

Communicating efficiently with consumers has also been supported by the momentous presence of its flagship water brand.

"For our kids' promotion earlier this year during August and September, we proposed a joint pack between our water and juice packs for kids. Another example was the co-branded water label announcing the new juices to Masafi water consumers.

Despite the plethora of brands on the market, manufacturers' enthusiasm to revamp products according to demand, alongside retailers' willingness to enjoy high margins, cannot be underestimated.

"Our market share in Saudi Arabia is 26.5%, and we're also the market leader in Kuwait, Qatar and Oman. Although historically this market has been dominated by long-life juice, there been a shift in consumer behaviour towards fresh juice," says Clayton Lee Buckley, marketing manager, Juices & Beverages, Almarai Company.

Since unveiling its PET bottle in July, the company has experienced an increase of 60% in volume share on last year.

Saudi-Arabia based Almari, described by Buckley as "the largest vertically-integrated dairy company in the world with 9000 employees" currently exports to markets including West Africa, North Africa, South Africa, Jordan and Syria, with its 200ml, 300ml, 1ltr and 1.75ltr packs.

Despite recent triumphs, Almarai has continued to place considerable investment in its product innovation, having recently made the switch from high-density polyutherane to PET.

"We've invested about 40 million Saudi Arabia Riyals (US $12.3 million) in the past six months on our state-of-the-art bottling facilities, close to Riyadh.

Technological advancement has pushed the introduction of complex flavours and a raft of innovation among manufacturers.

"The investment in bottling and blow moulding and the fact that we pack our products fresh daily with induction seals shows the commitment we are making to the GCC and the consumer," Buckley says.

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