Yogesh Valaulikar, Managing Director of UAE-based Aqua de Fonte, has spoken about the brand’s success mantra scheme, packaging, distribution channel partners, on-trade and off-trade service formats and competitive offerings. Valaulikar said it was a hands-on exercise with direct involvement and oversight from the promoters and advisors to draw inferences on the basis of authentic and real market data and insights. Aggressive brand promotion certainly helped create a unique brand identity. There already were established brands and players serving the UAE market when we launched Aqua de Fonte in 2017. Rather than fulfilling a need in terms of un-serviced or underserviced segments of the market, we saw an opportunity in positioning ourselves as a modern refreshing brand with high levels of brand awareness and appeal.
Amongst the end users. Aqua-de-fonte focused on getting product placement right across key service formats and establish strong brand recall with proactive customer engagement campaigns run by our marketing team and supply chain partners. Additionally, we have been able to create new pockets of demand from new customer segments with our innovative packaging solutions. As I mentioned earlier, our strategy to position Aqua de Fonte as youthful and energetic brand has created a key differentiator in the market that attracts consumer attention.
We source our water from DEWA – Dubai Electricity & Water Authority. Our process starts with raw water which goes through various filtrations and treatment units such as RO and UV, then it is dosed with minerals before it goes into bottle filling. Over the past three years, Aqua de Fonte bottled water has created a niche for itself and won customer loyalty primarily because of its quality, taste, consistency and smart packaging. The water has a distinctive natural taste which gives a refreshing feeling to the consumer.
We adhere to the highest level of operational standards in the industry and our plant setup compares with the best in class internationally in terms of efficiency and hygiene. These standards allow us to certainly differentiate Aqua de Fonte from the rest of the competition. Tight control on the costs, process efficiencies, economies of scale, right customer mix across retail and institutional segments allows to position Aqua de Fonte at the right price point in the market. As Aqua de Fonte gains traction and brand equity, we will leverage this strength and appeal to launch new products in allied markets and customer segments.
For instance, responding to increased demand for hygiene accessories in this pandemic times, we launched Aqua de Fonte brand of hand tissues just last week. We are also drawing plans to enter the fresh and natural juices segment in 2021. We are working on a strategy blueprint which will see Aqua de Fonte label gain prominent shelf space across leading supermarkets and hypermarkets formats in the UAE. In terms of distribution channels, we plan to substantially enhance our distribution fleet so as to cater to wider geography in UAE and aggressively expand to other GCC countries. Already we are official beverage partners of many A-league hotels across UAE and will be aggressively expanding in this space. More importantly, we intend to enrich our team with key leadership talent in marketing and strategy functions with experience in B2C space which will enable us to execute our brand growth and distribution expansion plans. “I can assure you that Aqua de Fonte will become the fastest growing bottled water brand in the UAE in the years to come.”
We are also drawing plans to enter the fresh and natural juices segment in 2021. We are working on a strategy blueprint which will see Aqua de Fonte label gain prominent shelf space across leading supermarkets in the UAE.
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