|
|
 |
 |
| Sunday, 1 June 2003 |
 |
|
 |
Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
|
Pro-Palestinian soft drink gains ground in Arab world : Cola for a cause by Paul Michaud Tawfik Mathlouti, the 47-year old Franco-Tunisian businessman who gave the world Mecca Cola last year, has announced the signing in Casablanca of a major Euros 9 million ($10 million) investment pact with a group of Moroccan businessmen that has translated into orders of 3 million bottles for distribution in Morocco during only the operation's first month in business. Mathlouti also made use of the special signing ceremony at the special port warehouse he's rented at Casablanca to announce that with this accord, also those recently signed with a number of other countries, among them Great Britain, but also Yemen, Jordan, Libya, United Arab Emirates and Lebanon, he expects to have bottled and sold no less than 480 million bottles of his pro-Palestinian soft drink by the end of 2003. Earlier this year, the millionaire businessman and creator of France's foremost Islamic radio station Radio-Mediterranee, had noted that Mecca Cola, although it started operation only last November, had already sold 4 million bottles, most of them in France, and this during the first three months of its existence. "Naturally," he admits, "the international context has helped matters tremendously, and undoubtedly the war in Iraq and its aftermath has certainly helped boost our sales tremendously. As will the postwar resentment being felt in Iraq and the Arab world, which makes people want, more than ever, to send a message not only to Washington, but also to the Western world, that they're fed up with what is going on right now in the Arab world, not only in Iraq and the Palestinian territories, but also Syria, Lebanon and Iran where the Americans may not have launched an armed attack, but are applying formidable pressure in the name of capitalism and Zionism." Mathlouti has also taken on the services of a German laboratory, which already works with some of the world's most important brands, notably Mecca Cola's principal nemesis Coke, and this with a view to ameliorating the taste of his soft drink. As Mathlouti puts it, "we have to give a reason to our customers for them to return. At the moment they buy Mecca Cola a first time to support a political cause - to fight the US capitalism and international Zionism - but we want for them not only to buy us for what we mean but also for what we are, which is why we're investing in the improvement of our quality." As for criticism that has been levelled against him with regard to his promise to donate 20 per cent of profits on Mecca Cola to humanitarian associations (10 per cent) and to Palestinian causes (10 per cent), he affirms that he's definitely going to live up to his promise, which is printed on the bright red and Palestinian green label of his bottles, but not right away. "Mecca Cola represents a major investment on my part, and it won't be making back its cost in the near future. What I have done is ask those organisations that think they qualify for assistance to write me, and I do promise that in a year's time, when we should have broken even, I'll be able then to keep my promise, but not one day before." Mr Mathlouthi, who is 47, had already made a fortune with the French-based network Radio Mediterranee, France's leading Muslim radio station - which he singlehandedly created and which also has been used to promote his support for Palestine, notably through an annual radiothon that last May allowed him, in association with Secours Islamique, to raise $300,000 for the Palestinian cause. |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
