READY-TO-DRINK SEGMENT RECORDS 20% GROWTH

       The fruit-juice market grew by 7 per cent to Bt8.2 billion over the last 12 months, thanks to brisk sales of mass market products.
       "We have seen growth at about 10 per cent each in both the medium and economy ready-to-drink fruit juice segments, worth Bt600 million and Bt2.7 billion respectively," Pathumrat Pianchorb, the director in charge of branded business for the country's leading fruit juice company, Malee Sampran, said yesterday.
       "However, the Bt1.4-billion super economy ready-to-drink fruit juice segment has enjoyed trementdous growth of almost 20 per cent over the past 12 months," she said.
       With the rebound in the economy and consumers' purchasing power, the company has witnessed signs of recovery in the fruit juice market over the last two months, she said.
       Only the premium ready-to-drink 100-per cent fruit juice segment worth Bt2.8 billion was expected to decline 3 per cent in the period, caused by a fall in pasteurised fruit juice as consumers opted for cheaper products, such as economy and super economy fruit juices.
       The market for pasteurised ready-to-drink fruit juice peroducts, which is worth about Bt300 million, dropped sharply by 20 per cent year over the past 12 months as consumers shifted to products with lower prices and longer shelf lives.
       There are also many new players competing in the economy product segment.
       Malee Sampran expects its sales to increase 5-10 per cent this year to Bt1.8 billion-bt2 billion, of which about 55 per cent is fruit juice and 45 per cent non-fruit juice.
       "We are looking to develop and launch non-juice products as well as below 100-per-cent fruit juices next year to balance our product portfolio," she said.
       Malee Sampran has budgeted Bt5 million to promote Malee i-Corn, a 100-per-cent corn milk beverage, during the 10 days of the Chinese Gin Je Festival starting on Saturday.
       During this period, Chinese like eating vegetarian food.
       "It is a great opportunity for us to boost the penetration of our Malee i-Corn corn milk beverage, particularly among the Chinese, who avoid drink dairy beverages during the Gin Je festival," she said.
       The company expects Bt200 million in sales of Malee i-Corn during the festival.
       Malee i-Corn now leads the Bt120-million UHT corn milk beverage market with a 30-per-cent share.
       The market is projected to expand by about 5 per cent this year.
       The company aims to increase Malee i-Corn's share to 35-40 per cent by next year.