Launch complements its premium juice line and augments its water and tissues lines targeted at children

Dubai, November 05, 2006: Masafi, the regional leader in the bottled mineral water industry, has announced the launch of a new, innovative juice packaging meant exclusively for kids. The new packaging, featuring Masafi's popular cartoon characters, is part of its campaign to promote Masafi juice line among the children across the Middle East and other markets worldwide.

The colourful packaging, unveiled in refreshing flavours, will feature Toto the Turtle, Jami the Camel, Octo the Octopus, Flip the Shark and Hoofy the Zebra. These cartoon characters, first featured on Masafi's special mineral water packs for children, were also unveiled for the Masafi tissue line for kids.

Announcing the new kids' juice packaging, Ashraf Abushady, Chief Executive Officer of Masafi, said: "Masafi is pleased to introduce yet another innovative marketing tool targeted at the little ones. With more and more consumers becoming attracted to products that add value, Masafi is constantly looking at enhancing the look and feel of its products in addition to maintaining their high quality. This distinctive new packaging also reflects Masafi's commitment to raising awareness among the younger generation on the benefits of healthy juices among children."

He added: "Close on the heels of our success among the adult market segment, we aim to further strengthen our presence among the children. The cartoon characters, which have been a huge success in our mineral water and tissue segments, is being implemented in our juice line for children, who would love to have something that is vibrant and great fun."

Masafi Juice, which was launched in May, contains no preservatives. The juice retains its distinct taste and freshness through the use of 'hot fill' technology. The bottles are recyclable, thereby making them environment friendly.

Masafi has successfully retained its market leadership in the UAE mineral water segment with more than 40 per cent share. The company exports approximately 30 per cent of its product portfolio to different countries. The major importers are Japan, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Afghanistan and Djibouti. The company also exports to Germany, UK, Australia, Taiwan, Pakistan, Morocco, Yemen, Sudan, Bangladesh, and the Ivory Coast among others.

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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 the past 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 first-class 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 mineral water, tissues, and the newly launched Masafi Juices. The mineral water product line comes in bottles of 1.5 litres, 1 litre, 500ml, 330ml (regular and sports), 330ml kids packaging (regular and sports); mineral water cups in sizes of 250ml, 200ml, and 125ml. The tissue line includes boutique fragrant tissues in three scents, floral tissues in purple, pink and green colors, and car tissue boxes, while the hugely popular Masafi Juices come in an array of original flavors and rich blends available in 2 litre, 1 litre and 200 ml bottles.

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/ Naeem Badiuzzaman,
Bates PanGulf PR,
Dubai.
Tel: +9714-2953456;
Fax: +9714-2951027
E-mail: gkammoun@batespangulf.com / naeem@batespangulf.com 

© Press Release 2006