Cartoons row boosts sales of Mecca Cola

[phylay]

UAE-based Mecca Cola, touted by its makers as an Islamic alternative to Western brand soft drinks, has seen sales triple since anger erupted in Muslim countries over cartoons lampooning the Prophet Mohammad.

Chairman Taoufik Mathlouthi told Reuters at a food industry exhibition that he planned to list Mecca Cola on the Dubai stock market, adding the process could take more than a year.

"Growth came with these Danish caricatures. It's crazy but our sales multiplied by three ... We cannot supply all the demand we have right now," Mathlouthi said.

Protests have broken out in several Muslim countries, where angry protesters torched Danish and other Western embassies in reaction to the cartoons published by a Danish newspaper. One of them portrays Islam's prophet with a turban shaped as a bomb.

Islam considers caricatures of the prophet blasphemous.

Muslim consumers in Europe were the target for Mecca Cola when it was launched in October 2002, but demand has been surging from Muslim countries after the cartoons row, he added.

Mathlouthi declined to give figures for turnover but said 1 billion litres of Mecca Cola had been sold in 2005, adding that average monthly demand in Malaysia, a key market, was 500,000 cans a month last year.

Distributors in Malaysia were now demanding 1.5 million cans a month, he said. Other markets, including Algeria, Yemen and France, had seen similar trends.

The company has also launched an energy drink called Mecca Power with the slogan: "Get the Halal Power". Halal is the Arabic word used to describe items that Islam permits.

A share flotation is being planned. "We are preparing to enter the stock market here in Dubai ... It will take at least one year," Mathlouthi said. The price of the shares and the value of the listing had not been decided.

The firm is also planning new production and bottling facilities in Dubai as well as a chain of coffee shops, dubbed Mecca Cafe, in the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia and Pakistan.

The firm's products also include Mecca Tea and Mecca Aqua.

International politics, including U.S. pressure on Syria and Iran, also play a role turning Muslims away from products seen as Western. People want become less reliant on countries they consider hostile to Muslims, Mathlouthi said.

"The Muslim population have started getting a political conscience," he said.


http://today.reuters.com/investing/...umber=0&summit=

[Al-khiyal]

law la alkasura ma kanat alfakhura

[Bilderbooger]

[Al-khiyal]

[Al-khiyal]

Non





Oui

[voltaire]

LOL, yes "buy Mecca Cola - they may be corporate leeches but they're our corporate leeches, not like them bastids at Pepsi"

Glad to hear that sales of those two famous Danish brands, Pepsi and Coke, are taking a hit as a result of the brilliantly thought-through boycott of Danish products though. I understand those other Danish firms Nike, Burberry and Stolichnaya are also now worrying...



V

[Al-khiyal]

Originally posted by voltaire
LOL, yes "buy Mecca Cola - they may be corporate leeches but they're our corporate leeches, not like them bastids at Pepsi"

V

You mean Bebsi, sa7?


OK, in answer to your call I will extend my blacklist:


Non