Drop in mineral water consumption during Ramazan
Hathoon Sheriffdeen
The month of Ramazan is the difficult month for the mineral water
industry. Our turnover drops 15 to 20 per cent during this month, ice
cube production and the sales are normal every month, Managing Director,
Frosty Marketing (Pvt) Ltd, Mukthar Marrikar said.
|
Mukthar Marikkar
Picture by Palitha Gunasena |
“Out total turnover for water is one million litres per month. Ice
cubes are 30 to 40 per month. Though these products are for daily use.
Our people are not used to consume mineral water as their daily use. The
water is purified and cubes are also made out of purified water,” he
said.
“They export mineral water and ice cubes to the Maldivian and Middle
East markets. That is not a big quantity. Its a seasonal market.
‘We had a small capacity to produce bottled water and cubes then.
When the market grew we had to move to another place for production and
packing. Now we have settled in Malwana,” Marikkar said.
“We employ 150 and provide indirect employment to 50. We have to
register with the Ministry of Health and we have got SLIS certificate,
they too inspect us. He said.‘Initially we found it very hard to make
people drink bottled water. Now we have picked up. It’s a trend now.
People prefer to drink a bottle of water than a bottle of soft drink,”
he said. |
