Locally produced soda pop gets quick youngsters attention

The oldies look on the locally produced soda pop had got the market attention. (From left) Husain, Azmilruldin and Fernandez workign hard to push and market the new drink into the market.

IT ALL started with the idea of creating a “unity drink”, a made-in-Malaysia beverage that everyone could call their own.

As a result of the the idea, a group of friends came up with the idea for locally concocted fizzy drink, Pop, The Soda.

They then wrapped the drink in a 1950s theme to tap the fondness many Malaysians feel for the era.

To their surprise, the soda drink became an instant hit among youngsters, who loved the 1950s theme.

The marketing was the work of Warren Fernandez and Husain Khalid of marketing company Whosyn’Signature, said Mohammad Hisyam Mokhtar, business development manager of Transcendence Venture (M) Sdn Bhd, the company behind the drink.

“Youngsters simply love the idea of this vintage look and design, which is different from the existing carbonated soda drink available in the market.”

The 1950s look and design give the soda pop appeal to many.

Transcendence Venture is no stranger to business. Back in 2006, the company was among the first to tap the potential of online business by selling miscellaneous ethnic products, apparel and women’s accessories over the Internet.

Faiz Rahman, who is chief executive officer, co-founded the company in 2005 with Azmilruldin Badruddin, who is it managing director.

They started local e-commerce portal in Lelong.com and expanded.

Last year, they decided to diversify and venture into the drink business, hoping to corner the non-alcoholic and halal market, locally and abroad.

Mohammad Hisyam said the fizzy drink make its debut at the Tempatan Fest held in Jalan Kia Peng last October.

“The locally produced soda drink became an instant hit among the youngsters. The overwhelming response spurred them to produce the soda drink commercially.”

People trying out Pop, The Soda during a promotion campaign at a shopping mall recently.

“It is the first premium tropical fruit flavoured soda pop available at RM3 per bottle,” he said.

Mohammad Hisyam said the premium drink uses the plant-based sugar substiture stevia and other high quality ingredients.

“The success simply proves that any fruit can be turned into a carbonated drink. It is the first 100% single-tropical-fruit soda, not just a mixture of fruit. The tropical fruits like mangosteen, soursop, bananas, durian, banana, lychee, and pineapple are easily found in Malaysia and other Asian countries.”

He said Malaysian tropical fizzy drink has potential and offers an alternative to the common flavours like orange, apple, strawberry and lemon that have been around for long time.

Mohamad Hisyam said it took about four months for the company’s drinks to gain traction.

“Due to the overwhelming response, the company decided to invest in better machinery and established a commercial production line to cope up with the demand.

The drinks also make good mixers and can be used to make mocktails

“This was followed by the opening of a factory in the Taman Putra Perdana commercial area in Puchong, Selangor. The facility is equipped with a state-of-the-art semi-auto carbonated soft drink processing machinery.”

He said to complement their mass production and maintain the continuous supply to the market, they also invested in commercial vehicles to handle the logistics and distribution of their products.

“Our machines are capable to run around the clock. They are locally made for easier maintenance and sourcing of parts.”

The factory is capable to produce 6,600 litres of carbonated drinks in eight hours, enough for 20,000 330ml bottles per day.

Mohamad Hisyam said the soda was first launched with a temporary stand in Bangsar, to draw office workers. The first flavour was soursop. From there, the company never looked back realised it had a hit in its hands.

Today, Pop, the Soda has five different flavours: banana, pineapple, mango and lychee. Aside from these four flavours, Transcendence Venture also plans to introduce special edition and limited edition flavours into the market.

“We will launch the special edition flavours in a six pack. There will be more flavours for these offerings, which will release from time to time on different occasions until 2016.”

He said special flavours will change every three months and will be made available around festivals. The flavours would go through an 18 months cycle before the same taste is reproduced again.

The limited edition offerings will be produced only once for a limited time period and discontinued to keep its exclusivity.

He said the first limited edition will be released on their anniversary at the end of this month.

Mohamd Hisyam said with so many types of exotic fruits found in the region, the company has plenty of options for new flavour ideas.

Transcendence Venture is embarking an aggressive marketing campaign to push their drinks into the market in the next few months.

The company had earlier projected its revenue to hit RM150,000 this year, with sales expected to increase 4% every month.

However, the company achieved its target by hitting the RM200,000 sales as early as the first quarter of this year.

Pop, The Soda is currently available at Aloft, KL Central, Thumbs Cafe in Ipoh, Rasta TTDI and several other themed restaurants.

The company, he said, is still looking for potential distributors to distribute their drinks.

“We also have plans to penetrate into the commercial and private eateries soon,” he said.