The company on Saturday launched the "White Malt" flavour for its range of green-tea drinks sold under the Oishi brand, and the fifth flavour - orange - in its Amino OK range of refreshment beverages.

The new products have a Bt50-million marketing budget till the end of the year and will reinforce Oishi's image as a "healthy beverage manufacturer", said managing director Tan Pasakornatee.

He said the White Malt flavour would be a seasonal product sold only during the Chinese vegetarian festival, but the company expects it to be a success despite this.

The CP Group, operator of the 7-Eleven convenience-store chain with branches nationwide, has already ordered one million cases.

Oishi chose to introduce an orange-flavoured Amino OK drink after major players in the orange-juice market - such as Splash, Tropicana and Valencia - launched new products in various categories.

Tan said Oishi had to wait for the marketing campaigns of these other companies, on which they have spent Bt300 million to Bt400 million, to ease up so as to ensure better awareness for its own product.

He said he was not worried by the fierce competition in the orange-juice market because the Amino OK brand is the only one to contain amino acids, which are said to have health benefits.

The Oishi green-tea range currently contributes 70 per cent of Oishi Plc's sales, and Amino OK the rest.

Tan said green teas would remain Oishi's main product, but the sales share of the Amino OK range could rise following consistent new product launches.

The company has seen its overall sales grow consistently by 10 per cent quarter on quarter this year.

Its share of the market for green-tea drinks increased from 69 per cent to 73 per cent, partly due to a 300-per-cent increase in sales during the World Cup.

Oishi is the leader in the local green-tea market, followed by Unif and Sencha.

Nitida Asawanipont

The Nation

NAKHON RATCHASIMA