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Beverage Distribution/Major beverage distributors in London, UK

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Expert: - 4/25/2009


Question
Hi Eric,
I'm a first year MBA at Thunderbird and I'm doing research study regarding bringing an organic, free-trade RTD tea product from the US to UK.  We are specifically having troubles finding viable market research on the industry and particularly distribution networks available in London.  Would you happen to have recommendations on resources that would be available?
Thanks for your time.
Regards,
Nate

Answer
Tea is an interesting beverage in the UK.  While I cannot point to specific research, I know from first hand experience (Lipton RTD) that chilled Tea drinks in general are NOT popular for cultural reasons; carbonated tea drinks go down even worse.  British tea drinkers prefer hot tea, with milk and preferrably sweetened.  To get round the abhorance to chilled tea, Unilever decided to carbonate such - creating a particularly unpopular product that I don't believe is marketed anymore.

Fortunately for you this is an academic exercise; were you to put money behind this it would likely be a disaster.

Suggest you peruse Unilever for case studies on launching their RTD in the UK.  You'll find the stronger markets for them were France, Spain and throughout Central Europe.  Perhaps you can find research also with Pepsico; though I expect this information is closely guarded.  You might find info with Canadean, Nielsen or MEMRB; though I expect it won't be free.

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Eric Hofer

Expertise

Over 27 years experience, with 17 in international FMCG in back office operations and in field sales and data collection, including design, development and deployment of Handhelds, Marketing Equipment (Service, Tracking and Return on Investment), reporting and Vending management. Have participated on the launch of operations in new markets, and re-engineered the back office in several countries.

Experience

Designed and led the development and deployment internal ERP system for Pepsi used in On-Premise/Vending in 13 markets. Designed 2 handheld systems, the latest is now deployed in 4 markets internationally. Re-engineered the back office functions (settlements, despatch, invoicing, credit control, etc) for over 20 snack, confectionary and beverage operators. Developing software: Progress, VB, Access, C, Sybase, SA

Organizations
Innovative-Selling Solutions; SalesSuite

Publications
BudapestSun

Education/Credentials
State University of New York - BA Economics NYU - Courant - Graduate work - Computing

Awards and Honors
Moderator of LinkedIn CEE Group

Past/Present Clients
PepsiAmericas PepsiCola International PepsiCola Company British Steel British Telecom Britvic (Pepsi's bottler in the UK) AT&T BellSouth Mars Overseas Bottling Pepsi France Matutano (Frito-Lay Spain) Frito-Lay Pepsi Foods International Chase Manhattan Bank Kidder Peabody National Power SmithKline Beecham Mars Overseas Bottling (Pepsi Azerbaijan) A&P Bottling (Pepsi Serbia & Montenegro) Iberia Bottlers (Pepsi Georgia)

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