ACI CO-RO Bangladesh Ltd, a joint venture of ACI Ltd and Danish fruit drinks manufacturer CO-RO A/S, has launched its juice products in Bangladesh under the brand name Sunquick.

The company, which began its operation on February 6, says that the brand will revolutionise the ready-to-drink market in the country thanks to its commitment to purity and flavour.

Already, three types of flavours – mango, orange, and berry – have hit the market, with top officials saying the products offer natural options without artificial additives, aligning with evolving consumer preferences.

"Sunquick has stood the test of time and has continued to bring joy to consumers in more than 80 countries every day," said Soren Ravn, executive vice-president for the Asia-Pacific of CO-RO, during an interview with The Daily Star in Dhaka recently.

"The taste of our products has been crafted to fit Bangladeshi consumers. Sunquick is rich in vitamin C and does not contain preservatives and use artificial flavours, colours or sweeteners. In other words, it is a high quality and great tasting new offering."

Speaking about the partnership in the same interview, Arif Dowla, managing director of ACI Ltd, said, "In ACI CO-RO, we value similar partnerships."

"We find the combined strengths of CO-RO and ACI to be ideal when launching quality products in a new market like Bangladesh."

Both Ravn and Dowla talked about the joint venture, investments, products, production process, pricing, and future prospects.

Established in 1942, the CO-RO story started in a room in suburban Copenhagen. The 1960s saw CO-RO expand internationally, with factories established in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Today, CO-RO-branded products have strong market positions across the Middle East, Asia, Europe and Africa.

After landing in Dhaka on February 5, Ravn, along with some officials, directly went to the market to see customers' response.

"I'm very happy to see that the first response is that this is a very good product and people like the taste. Hopefully, it will be one of the most loved brands soon."

Ravn termed Bangladesh as a large market, with the country having a population of 17 crore and the economy posting steady growth in recent decades, sending per capita income higher.

"We have been thinking about Bangladesh for a long time to do something innovative and something good for consumers, especially in the ready-to-drink segment."

The other thing that CO-RO has wanted is to have local production from the beginning.

"So, we wanted to work with local suppliers as much as we can. The quality of mango pulp is from the best local source. And we wanted to make sure that the taste was absolutely a winning taste in Bangladesh," Ravn said.

"We are trying to stand out with a strong focus on quality, bringing the best from our parts of the world to here. We're going to do a lot of things in the coming months and years to provide high-quality fruit drinks."

Ravn said mango pulps come from one of the few local sources that can produce fruit pulp without preservatives.

The Danish quality team has supported and audited suppliers several times.

"Now, they are at a level where they can be approved as international pulp suppliers in the CO-RO system."

The joint venture has initially invested around $20 million in the factory in Narayanganj. There are investments related to marketing, distribution and branding as well.

ACI CO-RO Managing Director Nils Ronnow, who was also present during the interview, explained that the new production facility is highly automated, so it doesn't require a big workforce.

Seventy people are running the factory and another 20 are working at the Dhaka office. Additionally, it has external distribution partners and sales teams.

In total, the venture is expected to create 400-450 new jobs.

Talking about product quality, Dowla said it started from the innovation that CO-RO has in its European centre.

"The key is always to ensure quality. CO-RO has a strong history of working with development processes. Here, we just have to ensure the quality consistently and we already know how to do that."

According to Ravn, when they held the first consumer focus groups a few years back, it had a strong focus on Gen Z, which refers to the generation that was born between 1997 and 2012.

"But we updated taste profiles again and again before and after Covid-19."

"We have put a lot of effort into it because we needed to find the right balance and we wanted a mango that fits the existing consumer taste. Simultaneously, we also want to see if we can expand the fruitiness a little bit."

The joint venture is also aware about how customers might react when preservatives, artificial sweetness, flavours or colours are not added to products.

"It won't taste like other products that are already in the market. The natural fruit taste and aroma will stand out," Ravn said.

"And that is perfect because we are trying to make an upgrade and bring something new to the table. On the other hand, we need to make sure that when people taste it, they say, yeah, it's new but it's great."

Some big players are already operating in the fruit drinks segment in Bangladesh. But Ravn is not worried about competition.

"Our ambition is to be a little bit niche."

"Deliberately, we have not set ourselves a target of whether we want to be the number one, two or three or whether we should have 5, 10, or 20 percent of the market. We would be very, very happy if we could contribute to making this category more exciting, and improve the quality and the trust of juice drinks."

A 250ml bottle of mango juice costs Tk 35 in the retail market while those of orange and berry mix are selling at Tk 40.

Dowla said although Sunquick is very affordable, there is no question about the quality.

"Customers are getting a higher quality product but at a marginally higher price."

Ravn is also bullish about the products' prospect in the export market.

"Sunquick is the pioneer not just in terms of taste and quality but also in technology, bottle design, and shape. Therefore, we, of course, expect a significant level of export in the future."