Royal Crown Cola International celebrates with Sial Paris 2014

Sial, the global food and drink marketplace, is celebrating its 50th anniversary in October 2014. How does RC Cola plan to celebrate at the show?

Moshy Cohen: Royal Crown Cola International (RCCI) will be celebrating an anniversary, too. In 2015, Royal Crown, our flagship brand, will be 110 years old and we are kicking off a year of festivities at the Sial show in October. We will have musical performances on stage, in our booth throughout the show, and our visitors will be able to taste our legendary RC Cola, plus our new drinks.

What new launches will RC Cola be bringing to Sial?

Moshy Cohen: Along with RC Cola, we will be featuring RC Cola Neo and Mulberry Farms juice drinks.

RC Cola Neo is made with natural flavours, natural sweeteners and natural caffeine and is what we like to call ‘the new cola experience’. Using a mix of stevia and natural cane sugar, it provides uncompromising cola taste with only half the calories of regular cola.

Although we’re best known for our flagship brand, RC Cola, RCCI works diligently to offer our partners a varied portfolio in regions across the globe. Our new Mulberry Farms juice drinks offer the best options from 100% juice, to juice blends ?and cocktails.

What developments and investments have been made over the last few years?

Moshy Cohen: RCCI has made significant investments over the past five years in marketing and business development, comprehensive R&D, technical services using latest technologies, quality assurance and testing, as well as innovative product development. These are executed by an experienced team of engineers, chemists and food technologists who work with bottlers at every step of the process.

A year or so ago, we featured you on the cover of Beverage Innovation magazine. How has the RC Q range evolved?

Moshy Cohen: Within the past few years, we’ve introduced a mouthwatering assortment of flavours, including Guava Melon, Cranberry Acai, Sicilian Lemonade and Guarana. These are tailored to meet the very different tastes of each individual market.

What about the light RC Cola introduction – has this been popular?

Moshy Cohen: Specialist flavours such as RC Cola light vary in popularity in different regions, and placement is diverse depending on regional trends and the specifics of each locale. So while RC Cola light is available in many markets, it has not been rolled out in others, and we continue ?to explore consumer interest.

Do you see increased demand in this lower calorie sector?

Moshy Cohen: Expectations and preferences for sugar and low calorie colas vary considerably according to the region and market for which they are targeted. RCCI understands these individual markets and offers innovation support to bottlers around the world to meet broad and regionally specific consumer demands.

In saying that, according to Canadean’s 2013 Global Soft Drinks Carbonates Report, the share of low calorie carbonates began dipping in 2011 and fell marginally further in 2012 when these products held just under 14% of category volumes.

We feel that there are two converging trends: consumers worldwide are looking for uncompromising flavour experiences while becoming more health-conscious and more inclined towards natural ingredients.

The demand for full-flavour, low-calorie beverages has led to the popularity of ingredients such as stevia, which is significantly lower in calories, yet is derived from a plant, unlike artificial sweeteners.

What are your plans for 2015?

Moshy Cohen: We’ve widened our portfolio offering to include finished products (ready to drink) manufactured in the US and exported all over the world. This has given our distributors top quality products, exciting brands and competitive pricing, and allowed us to help our partners respond to consumer tastes and preferences with speed and flexibility in up-and-coming beverage categories including juice, energy and other new ?age solutions.

Moving forwards, our global innovation team is identifying flavours that have resonance beyond individual markets, with plans to incorporate them into our global brand portfolio.

• Moshy Cohen talks about Royal Crown Cola’s international expansion