Austria-based energy drink manufacturer Red Bull announced it is planning to establish a new production unit in Dubai, following a meeting between company founder and managing partner Dietrich Mateschitz and the emirate’s Crown Prince and UAE Defense Minister Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum.
The company opened its regional headquarters in the Dubai Airport Free Zone (DAFZ) in October 2002. Red Bull sales throughout the Middle East region account for roughly three percent of the manufacturer’s worldwide sales, in 70 countries. Mateschitz projects that this figure will double in two years time.
Some 120 of the company's 1,600 staff worldwide are employed in the Middle East, stationed in the GCC, Lebanon, Jordan and Morocco. Red Bull began its Middle East marketing operations in the UAE in 1999.
Red Bull’s three operating production lines currently produce about 1.3 billion cans per year. The company plans to raise production to maximum capacity of 1.5 billion cans in 2003. The company controls 70 percent of the international energy drink market, according to Mateschitz. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
