Soft drink giants adapting to new market conditions

Manama : Soft drink giants that were affected by the recently enforced excise duty are adapting to the new market conditions. Soft drink prices shot up from 150 fils to 225 fils last month following excise duty enforcement. However, the prices of the small cans and bottles of Pepsi have now been reduced by 25 fils effective from yesterday. This was confirmed by the brand’s official distributor in the Kingdom, Ahmadi Industries.

A company official told DT News that the prices have been reduced to 200 fils starting yesterday after it was sold for 225 fils throughout the past month.

The spokesperson clarified that “the price reduction only includes the 330ml plastic bottles and cans”, adding that “the company will bear the 25 fils as part of its care to consumers”, without giving any further information. 

The decision comes one month after a 50 per cent tax was imposed by the government on soft drinks. “We were notified by the company about the new prices, the company is bearing the cost so our margin is not affected,” said Ashraf, a salesman at a cold-store in Manama.

Rumours were rife in recent days that energy drinks companies were shutting down operations in Bahrain. These rumours are untrue, country manager of an energy drinks company, who did not want to be named, said. “We have not closed down, we are here. We have had a restructuring but we will continue operating in Bahrain,” he said. He added that there are no plans to reduce the supply of the product in the market. Supermarkets said that the products are selling as usual and they have not received any notice from suppliers about ceasing product distribution. “There has not been much of slump in sales since the increase in prices. We have not received any indication from the suppliers that they are halting operations,” a salesman from Anwar Al Zinj said.