By Diane Silcock
THE beverage business of AECI has expanded globally. The 100-year-old group, which produces and distributes more than 25 million litres of juice concentrates, has grown its geographic reach.
It is now supplying products to over 26 countries primarily within Africa, but as far afield as Chile and Japan, and counts major and global brand owners as its customers.
AECI Food & Beverage (F&B)’s manufacturing facilities, located in Cape Town, include a tank farm with a cooling capability and capacity in excess of 2000 tons of concentrate, as well as a formulating plant comprising multiple modern blend tanks, homogenisers, and filling lines. It also operates a pasteurising plant, and their colour treatment plant is where juice concentrates are physically treated using activated charcoal – not a chemical treatment process.
Ron Richardson, AECI F&B’s head of commercial, says, “Meeting customer’s demands in the beverage sector requires the understanding of consumer preferences, lifestyle, and values, and then matching products accordingly. As a business-to-business manufacturer, AECI F&B assures a thorough awareness of target consumers’ needs, emphasising health and wellness, innovation and diversity, ethical practices, and quality and consistency.”
The company develops bespoke product solutions, delivering fruit juice concentrates, compounds, blends and beverage emulsions to exact customer specifications. The end result, once the customer has reconstituted and blended the product, is a ready-to-drink juice beverage that is non-alcoholic or alcoholic, still, carbonated or isotonic.
In today’s world, consumer preferences constantly shift due to health concerns, cultural shifts, social media influences, or consumers merely want to have the same experiences as their peers in other regions of the world.
Richardson attended the world’s biggest annual F&B event held in Dubai earlier this year. What stood out for him was the increasing demand for healthier, functional beverages, such as those with lower sugar, and fewer calories. He says products made with natural components with clear health benefits and nutritional highlights, as well as the desire for functional beverages with perceived consumer benefits, continue to be a primary focus across all generations.
“When formulating fruit juice beverages for health-conscious customers, the goal is to provide a product that is as close to nature as possible, with little processing and high nutritional content. Transparency in labelling and providing information about the sourcing and production process, enriches confidence in the products formulated.”
The internationalisation of taste profiling is also becoming more visible, owing to consumer behaviour influences via social media and IoT, as well as cross-cultural variations and demography. AECI F&B’s priority is understanding consumer requirements and preferences while remaining current with market trends, discovering new beverage ideas, as well as keeping up with technological advancements. This gives their customers a competitive advantage by providing them with access to new, innovative, trend-setting products, underpinned by an infrastructure that taps into the most recent international research.
“We adopt an international sourcing strategy to ensure security of consistent supply amidst the many seasonal and crop challenges. However, our mandate is to support and grow local suppliers as far as possible in line with resource scarcity,” concludes Richardson.
