Shares in ultra-premium mixers play East Imperial (EISB) fizzed 13.2% higher to 13.75p on Friday after the posh tonic water, ginger beer and grapefruit soda company announced a series of ‘significant’ new supply agreements across Australia and New Zealand.
Admittedly much smaller with a modest market cap of around £36 million, stockmarket newcomer East Imperial is rapidly building its business with retailers in across the region and is an emerging competitor that £2.6 billion cap premium mixer brand Fevertree Drinks (FEVR:AIM) might want to keep an eye on.
CLINCHING COUNTDOWN
Under an agreement with Woolworths New Zealand, East Imperial will supply its range of premium mixers to Countdown stores across New Zealand.
And in a separate deal, New Zealand’s largest supermarket chain Foodstuffs has also agreed to stock the small cap’s beverages in all of its New World supermarkets across New Zealand’s South Island, in addition to the outlets already supplied on the North Island.
RETAIL STEP-CHANGE
Founded in New Zealand in 2012 and floated on London’s main market last month, the ultra-premium mixers play has become an established brand throughout the world’s hotels, restaurants and bars and like Fevertree, is well-placed to benefit from the increasing consumer demand for high-end mixers around the world.
These deals with Woolworths New Zealand and Foodstuffs provide a step-change in East Imperial’s off-trade (retail) offering and will now take the total number of retailers supplied across the region to over 1,000 outlets; this includes a recently announced agreement to supply 245 Dan Murphy’s stores, one of Australia’s largest alcoholic drinks retailers.
In today’s announcement, East Imperial also announced an agreement with major Australian wholesaler Metcash to stock its range of beverages, thereby ‘providing access and brand visibility to independent retailers across Australia’.
Founder and CEO Tony Burt, who was previously the boss of M&C Saatchi in New Zealand, insisted: ‘This is a significant step forward for East Imperial as we look to accelerate our retail offering, a core element of our growth strategy. I'm delighted that since our listing in July we have added over 600 outlets across Australia and New Zealand.’
Burt added that his team ‘continues to work on similar placements throughout the wider Asia Pacific and US regions’.
East Imperial’s products are currently sold throughout Asia-Pacific and the USA, although the website teases that the brand is coming to the UK soon. Its range of drinks uses ‘all-natural ingredients, low natural sugar content, and a genuine 1903 East African family recipe’.
