Red Bull taps health market

"Fruit Fit for Fun", the latest brand for the company, is selling a 15 per cent orange juice drink targeted at young consumers. It claims the brand is the most popular in 7-Eleven stores just two months after being launched.

Marketing manager Suwandee Chaiwarut said the firm planned to become a force in the fruit juice market as well-responded of consumers amid healthy products awareness.

"The company is expecting to gain about 10 per cent market of the fruit juice drink market, focusing on the economy and super economy segments," she said.

These segment in the orange juice market refer to 25 per cent and 15 per cent mixes of orange juice. According to AC Nielsen, these segments are the most highly competitive in the entire fruit juice market with a total value of more than Bt7 billion a year. The other segments are premium at 100 per cent juice and medium with 40 per cent.

The economy and super economy segments experienced 12 per cent growth to Bt3.45 billion last year.

Suwandee said the Red Bull group would continue to introduce healthy new products to the market as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) scheme.

The firm's research and development department has eight researchers developing health beverages. They are now studying potential fruit drinks and white tea to put on the market soon.

Puriku, a white tea drink, is another brand that focuses on the health market.

Under the "Fruit Fit for Fun" brand, the firm has invested Bt1 billion to import state-of-the-art machinery using the "Cold Aseptech" technology from Germany to make the drinks.

The new technology can effectively preserve nutrition better than normal fruit drink producing machines. Food safety is a major concern with the new technology which has the added advantage of retaining the natural scent and taste of the fruit, as well as keeping the drink free of preservatives.