Beverage company Charlie's Group (NZX:CHA) has made an important Australian deal with supermarket giant Coles stocking 11 Charlie's products nationally.The deal has the potential to double the size of Charlie's Group Australia, which had sales of $7 milli
Beverage company Charlie’s Group (NZX:CHA) has made an important Australian deal with supermarket giant Coles stocking 11 Charlie’s products nationally.
The deal has the potential to double the size of Charlie’s Group Australia, which had sales of $7 million in the year to 30 June 2010 and contributed $1.8m in ebitda.
The range includes Charile’s Old Fashoned lemonade and the brand’s Spirulina Smoothie.
The deal is so big Charlie’s needs to squeeze around four million extra lemons every year – a 300% increase - just to meet the demand for its Old Fashioned Quencher range.
Charlie’s Group chief executive Stefan Lepionka said the Australian juice market is very well developed and a tough one to crack.
“Our ‘not from concentrate’ positioning has proven its value,” he said. “We now have a very big foot in the Aussie market door because we use the best ingredients and have innovative, honest and fun packaging.”
He said the company’s sales team had been working on the deal with Coles for about a year.
“Now, Coles is rolling out our brand nationally backed by in-store marketing programs starting in November. This is very big news for Charlie’s and comes on the back of 39% growth in Australia last financial year.”
Mr Lepionka said the new deal would bring 30-35% extra volume through the production facility set up in 2008.
He said Australia’s warm climate and 22 million people provide significant potential for Charlie’s, which launched in Australia two years ago.
There are 750 Coles supermarkets in Australia with more than 100,000 employees and more than 11 million customer transactions every week.
Charlie’s Group reported record earnings of $3.4 million in the year to June 30, 2010.
It achieved 39% sales growth in Australia and 33% growth in other export markets.
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