Dubai: Saudi Arabia’s Aujan Coca-Cola Beverages, which manufacturers Rani and Barbican drinks in the Middle East, remains bullish about 2015 even as weak oil prices and continued unrest raise regional concerns.
Global oil prices lost more than half their value in the second half of last year, which if sustained, are likely to impact many regional oil-dependent budgets that splash out millions on public sector salaries each year. Meanwhile, the region is facing increasing unrest in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Yemen.
“In balance, we are definitely excited,” Nicolaas Nusmeier, chief executive, told Gulf News at Gulfood on Sunday.
“We see good growth in the region [this year]. We see good growth in the Gulf and we see things coming around in northern Africa. [The] Levant is still, of course, in limbo [and] we have to see [now] how Yemen is developing,” he added.
Coca-Cola owns half of Aujan through a $980 million (Dh3.5 billion) stake purchase in 2012.
Conscious how long-term weak oil prices may affect the purchasing power of its consumers in region, Nusmeier is confident any impact would be gradual.
“These are products that sell for a Riyal (Dh0.97) … these are part and parcel of the day-to-day consumption of many [consumers],” he said.
“So there is quite a big buffering factor,” he added.
While admitting unrest impacted sales in Libya and Iraq “to a certain extent”, Nusmeier said these markets posted double-digit growth last year. Aujan announced on Saturday a $500 million investment into the Middle East beverage industry over the next three years. Nusmeier said part of half-a-billion investment that came from existing cash will be used to grow its facilities in Dubai in the UAE and Damman in Saudi Arabia.
“In Algeria, the business is growing fast so we need to invest,” he said.
