Carabao Energy Drinks has announced that it has moved its production base from Refresco in the Netherlands to Thailand, where the company originates from, as part of its 2020 growth strategy.
The factory has been newly purpose built for the production of Carabao Energy Drink products, with the capacity to produce more than 1.5 billion cans each year.
Located on the outskirts of Bangkok, the factory is conveniently positioned for product transportation.
According to Carabao, moving production to Thailand is also expected to increase supply chain flexibility and improve integration with Thailand’s R&D product development team.
The ‘state-of-the-art’ facility is part of Carabao’s global strategy, which also includes a £50 million investment into its marketing in the UK, such as building on its football sponsorship deals.
With the move, Carabao will take full responsibility of its energy drink production. However, Refresco will continue to support its other international markets.
David Butcher, manager director of Carabao UK & Ireland, said: “Refresco have been a fantastic partner to us in the UK for the last three years and helped us get to where we are today.
“We have no doubt they’ll continue to be invaluable to our other international markets. However, we are very excited to start making use of our newly-built state-of-the-art facility in Thailand, which will allow us to take our brilliant products to the next level.”
The Thai energy drink brand has also revealed that a new flavour will be launched in Spring 2020 – which will be amongst the first cans manufactured in the new facility – following its last release of Mandarin Orange in 2018.
According to Carabao, its new drinks will continue to contain 60% less sugar than its competitors.
Butcher added: “2020 is going to be our biggest year yet and we cannot wait to help customers across the UK drive incremental category sales.”
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