STRAPPED for cash, the maker of Stan Up Energy Roots Drink is unable to increase its volumes for export as it is only able to service one-third of the demand for the product.
Furthermore, the local producer of the drink has shelved plans to export to eight additional countries, including the UK and Canada.Access Marketing and Development, which owns the blend of roots beverage that has been patented by the Jamaica Intellectual Property Office, currently sells to New Jersey, Florida, and the Cayman Islands. The company recently turned down a distributor in Trinidad and Tobago, that wanted to add Stan Up to its portfolio of products.“We had to turn them down because we can’t even satisfy our current markets,” said Glenroy Brown, president of Access Marketing. “We don’t want to waste people’s time.”Should Brown get the US$250,000 ($25 million) he is seeking in investments, to expand the production and marketing of the beverage, the cash flow of the company will be improved, and he would be able to increase output at a cheaper rate, he said. The businessman said he is currently engaged in discussions with potential investors.Brown confessed that the company can hardly pay the factory to put 1,000 cases or 24,000 bottles to the markets per month, which is 2,000 cases fewer than the current demand for the product, he said. The factory has the capacity to make 1,500 cases a day.Customers love the drink, according to Brown.“We’ve been through the hurdles of making the product accepted,” he said. “Sales are coming, but we cannot grow sensibly with a weak capital base.”Moreover, there is a shortage of factories that have the equipment needed to make the carbonated drink under the appropriate conditions, with the technique.“It takes special care to produce the drink and not many companies can spend the time to boil the roots,” Brown said. “It’s complicated, that’s why we don’t want to shift, and jeopardise the integrity of the drink.”Roots tonics have long been staples in the Jamaican grass roots culture, with wild claims of the many ills the drink can cure, and significantly, about its ability to enhance sexual performance.Stan Up is not like other roots drinks, which usually come with an acquired taste, Brown told Caribbean Business Report. This, he said, is possibly the main reason the customers love the drink. Plus, the marketing company has done a good job in building the brand.“When people think of roots and energy drink the first thing that comes to mind is that its either dangerous or has a bad taste,” he reasoned.But his is a drink that is fortified with complex B vitamins for energy, ginseng for endurance and sarsaparilla known to be a blood purifier, he noted.Furthermore, he works with the Scientific Research Council, Jamaica’s premier state-owned scientific agency, to make the drink’s concentrate that is sent to the factory for blending and labelling.Stan Up is the only product of its kind that is allowed on US shelves because it is Food and Drug Administration approved, according to Brown. Stan Up Energy Roots Drink is a hit in export markets but the makers are unable to meet the demand for the product.View the original article here
Stan Up roots drink targets $25m to penetrate market
