How do you say "juice" in Polish?

We could soon see this question answered by the newest entries in the soft drinks business. Soft drinks and instant chocolate maker Maspex Romania, branch of the Polish Maspex Company will enter the cartoned natural juice market.

Maspex is already selling the Duo Fruo and Tedi juices on the Romanian market, as well as the La Festa instant chocolate and cappuccino.

“We’re entering this market because it is a very very small one, and all you can find in Romania is either imported products that are very expensive, or domestic products, which are cheap indeed, but their quality leaves much to be desired,” Maspex chairman Krzysztof Grabowski said. “There’s a lot of room in the middle,” he added. The company will approach this particular segment with its Duo Fruo and Carotella brands, with juice sold in 1l and 1.5l cartons. The two products will retail for 25,000 to 50,000 ROL.

This investment of Maspex only serves to verify the upward trend of the domestic natural juice market in the last 12 months.

The sales of fruit juice doubled from $710,000 to $1.2 million throughout December 2002-March 2003 compared with December 2001-March 2002, according to a survey by market research company ACNielsen. Sales of nectars (26%-99% fruit content) totalled $3.7 million compared with $2.2 million in the same time last year.

“I think many companies will shift focus to natural products in the future, because it is only natural. Consumption is still low compared with the Western European countries, but we have to change this opinion,” Maspex chairman said.