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TheBuzz Erika Engle |
Guzzling green
Nekta Liquid Kiwifruit
is the latest to battle
for your budsIt's green. Very green.
It's new to Hawaii, the product's entry point into the United States.
It has been compared to spinach, wheat grass and toilet cleaner, based solely on appearance.
"I can assure you it's nothing too close to any of those things," laughed Mark Holmwood, national marketing manager for Nekta USA Inc.
Nekta Liquid Kiwifruit is a juice, a flagship product for New Zealand-based Nekta International Ltd., a privately owned company founded in 1994 and headquartered in Auckland. The juice is sold in 20 countries around the world, including New Zealand and Australia as well as in Asia, Europe and Africa.
KEN IGE / KIGE@STARBULLETIN.COM
Mark Holmwood, Nekta’s national marketing manager, holds the green stuff at Sack & Save in Nanakuli.
United States sales began July 28 in Foodland and Sack 'n Save stores. Each has hosted or will host a product sampling, with Holmwood working the table and the crowd.
In a land where people plan trips to members-only wholesale stores to coincide with the food-demo schedule, not everyone jumps at the chance to sip a sample.
Hawaii is the only market where the verdant color has caused people to hesitate to tipple the tropical treat. The peel and dark seeds are removed before processing, but Kiwi is green, so the juice is going to be green. Color enhancers are also added.
Parents intent on getting green vegetables into their children will decline a drink at the sample table. The children chance 'um willingly and say, 'This is so good, mom, you've got to try it,'" Holmwood said.
The parent will bravely guzzle the green stuff and then buy some.
Nekta has a three-ounce advantage over traditional juices such as orange or cranberry, often packaged in 64-ounce bottles. Foodland and Sack 'n Save carry 67-ounce bottles of Nekta for an introductory, Maikai-card holder price of $3.99, regularly $5.99.
Sales have exceeded expectations, according to Beau Oshiro, director of grocery operations. Successful test-marketing in Hawaii bodes well for Nekta's future on the mainland, he said.
Neither would have been possible had Nekta International not redesigned the packaging and labeling for the U.S. market. It needed a UPC bar code and USDA-approved nutrition labeling.
Holmwood is especially proud of its nutritional content and cites a 1997 study of nutritional density in fruit by Rutgers University. Kiwi topped the list of 27 common fruits with a ranking of 16 compared to fifth-ranked mango at 11, bananas at 4 and at the bottom of the list, apples, at 2. Kiwis' calories per nutrient worked out to 3.8 versus 32 for apples, he said. Nekta is 17 percent kiwi juice.
Retail is only part of the picture.
Nekta has signed Richard Wong, of Rick's Tea Service Inc., as the distributor for Hawaii's foodservice industry. Rick's also distributes China Mist iced teas and Fong sees Nekta as a natural for many venues, including bars, where more grown-up concoctions using the juice may be developed. One such beverage, without alcohol, is served on Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific Airways' in the first- and business-class sections.
Product samplings are scheduled through Oct. 5 at Foodland and Sack 'n Save stores throughout the islands. More information can be found at www.nekta.com.
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin. Call 529-4302, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210, Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached at: eengle@starbulletin.com
