Dubai, December 10, 2012

Reinforcing its market leadership across the Middle East, Masafi - one of the leading FMCG brands in the region - has announced that the Masafi water has been named the region's favourite water at the first Middle East Beverage Awards, which were conferred last week.

The awards were handed over at a gala dinner held in conjunction with the fifth Dubai Drink Technology Expo, which brought together over 100 companies from 35 countries. Awards were given away in eight beverage categories and more than 30 regional and international brands took part in the competition.

A survey was conducted for the various award categories and more than 1.6 million individuals across MENA took part in the study.

Makram Haidar, Category Marketing Manager at Masafi, received the award from Dr. Ahmed Al Banna, Secretary General of the Arab Asian Beverage Alliance (AABA), and Dr. Abdul Salam Al Madani, Executive Chairman of the AABA.

In his comments, Makram Haidar said: "We take immense pride in this amazing recognition of Masafi water amongst the leading names from the Middle East beverage industry. To be named the favourite water brand among the elite brand-spread is a great achievement. The unprecedented success of Masafi water over the last three and half decades is driven by our commitment to provide world-class quality pure, natural mineral water to our consumers."

Since its inception 35 years back, Masafi has created a brand equity with its purity and quality attributes. Masafi has always espoused a mission to make life better and more convenient for its consumers. After becoming the generic name for bottled mineral water across Gulf and Middle East, the company has taken the natural evolution process and ventured into related sectors and today is one of the leading FMCG brands.

-Ends-

About Masafi:
Masafi, the leading producer of pure natural mineral water in the entire Gulf, was established in 1976 with a paid-up capital of approximately $5.5 million. The company has retained its market leadership for over three decades by providing world-class products which are renowned for their pure natural freshness. This has seen Masafi become the premium reference for bottled mineral water in the entire region. In the process, it has built an extremely strong distribution network to consistently deliver to dynamic market requirements and has continuously upgraded its state-of-the-art equipment to keep pace with technological advances around the globe.

Being a leading brand that delivers to consumer needs, Masafi's wide product portfolio includes Pure, Natural Mineral Water, Tissues, Juices, Flavored Water, Basmati Rice and Gourmet (Chips). The mineral water product line comes in bottles of 1.5 litres, 1 litre, 500ml, 330ml (regular and sports) 4 gallon bottles, 330ml kids packaging (regular and sports); mineral water cups in sizes of 250ml, 200ml, and 125ml. All Masafi product bottles are 100 per cent recyclable and only for one-time-use. The tissue line includes boutique fragrant tissues in four scents, floral tissues in purple, pink and green colors, and car tissue boxes. Masafi leads the UAE market in the Brand Equity Index in the water and tissue categories. The hugely popular Masafi Juices come in an array of original flavors and rich fruit blends available in 2 litre, 1 litre and 200ml bottles and a 100% juice blend tetra pack product line. The flavored water is available in four flavors -- strawberry, lemon, peach and mint & lemon in 500ml sizes. The Gourmet potato chips come in five flavours - sea salt, sweet chilly, 'four cheese', salt & vinegar and Labneh & Zaatar. The 100% natural Masafi Premium Basmati Rice is the finest quality basmati offering an unique aroma, authentic taste and pure goodness.

The company was the first recipient of the ISO 9002 certification in the entire Middle East and was awarded the ISO 9001:2000 certification for developing and maintaining a high standard Quality Management System. Masafi has also been awarded the HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points) certification. Masafi is also a member of International Bottled Water Association (IBWA) and Asia Bottled Water Association (ABWA). Masafi Water is tested and approved by NSF International, USA, which carries out annual unprompted audits on behalf of IBWA. Masafi is the first mineral water company in the region to be awarded the prestigious ISO 14001 certification for Environmental Management.

For further information, please contact Ghada Kammoun/ Venkat Iyer,
BPG Public Relations, Dubai Tel: +9714-295 3456; Fax: +9714-295 1027
E-mail: gkammoun@batespangulf.com / venkat@batespangulf.com

© Press Release 2012