Tampico Beverages Focuses Its Future On Innovation.

Scott Miller hasn’t wasted any time as the new Chief Executive Officer of Tampico Beverages. A longtime veteran of the beverage industry with vast experience working for the country’s biggest brands including Pepsi, Snapple and Cadbury Schweppes, Miller took the reigns at Chicago-based Tampico Beverages in January 2005 and has been busy over the past nine months infusing innovation into all facets of the company’s culture and products.

The company, which has historically targeted value-conscious consumers predominantly within the Hispanic market, is currently expanding its global marketing efforts to reach new consumer sectors under Miller’s direction. The company’s core refrigerated juice drink line, Tampico(R) Fruit Punches, is a favorite among Hispanics and has remained the number one selling brand in U.S. groceries according to AC Nielsen. However, the company’s leader realizes that in order to stay competitive, it must broaden its current product portfolio and expand its marketing efforts.

“Tampico has seen great success selling to the more than 41 million Hispanic Americans living in the U.S. and millions more internationally,” said Miller. “As we grow our business, my ultimate goal is to build a corporate environment that is focused on speed to market, creating excitement in retail, and moving forward as a brand. It really is an exciting time right now at Tampico Beverages and we’ve already made a lot of progress.”

New Leadership

In the past year, Tampico Beverages has attracted top talent within the beverage industry to join its leadership team and support the company’s global business expansion. Miller has brought on a number of talented beverage industry veterans to implement his new vision for Tampico including Chuck Walkley, formerly of Quaker Oats’ Gatorade and Vermont Pure Springs, who is working closely on strategic business initiatives and new product development.

In addition, Mark Kent, formerly of the Snapple Beverage Group, joined Tampico as an Executive Vice President in early 2005 to head up the company’s national sales. These strategic hires reinforce Miller’s commitment to infusing new creativity and thinking into Tampico initiatives. Miller has also promoted from within to round out the remaining key executive positions including Dan Weingart formerly of The Coca-Cola Company to head the international sales efforts, Richard Ross formerly of Kraft Foods and The Coca-Cola Company to lead both the domestic and international marketing efforts, Arthur Acevedo formerly of McDonald’s Corporation to handle legal affairs and Dawn Stanislaw to oversee global financial operations.

New Look

This month, Tampico unveils a new core label design to continue building stronger brand equity on a global basis. The colorful, revitalized label features vibrant colors and fruit imagery and prominently promotes the 100% daily value of Vitamin C in every 8-ounce serving. The new Tampico label will begin appearing on all varieties of its top-selling Tampico Fruit Punches during a “soft transition” period throughout the remainder of 2005 and into 2006.

New Flavors

Tampico Beverages is focused on bringing its consumers the best tasting, highest quality products at the best value. For foreign-born U.S. consumers and their families, traditional flavors from their home countries make a stronger, emotional connection and also serve as a reminder of culture, tradition and history. Tampico Beverages is known throughout the world for its irresistible, unique flavor blends and has recently introduced a Kiwi Strawberry Punch. With an eye-catching bright green hue and refreshing hint of guava in every sip, this new flavor is expected to be a big hit among core and new consumers alike.

“Kiwi-Strawberry blends now represent 8.8 million gallons in the refrigerated case becoming one of the most popular blends in refrigeration over the past year,” said Miller. “We felt strongly that our core consumers would respond positively to this new flavor and will continue to explore several new flavors for introduction in the future to get even more consumers excited about our brand.”

New Products

In addition to creating innovative flavor profiles, Tampico Beverages’ product development team has equally been busy over the past several months preparing to make company history with the introduction of a new product line. In early 2006, the company will unveil new Tampico Plus, the first nationally-distributed, refrigerated juice drink product that features 50% reduced sugar, enriched with calcium and fortified with vitamins A, C, D and E. Each 8-ounce serving will provide 25% of the daily value of Vitamin D which is the same amount found in a glass of milk—and along with added calcium is the perfect match for individuals suffering from lactose intolerance that may not be able to consume dairy products like milk. Available in four irresistible flavors, Tampico Plus will be sold in grocery retailers nationwide. Tampico Beverages also has plans for additional product line introductions throughout 2006 including, Tampico Light, a new line of zero calorie fruit-flavored drinks.

“In response to our consumers requesting drinks with good-for-you features and benefits, we’re excited to launch Tampico Plus—our first new product line in the company’s history,” explained Miller. “This new product will appeal not only to our core consumers, but also to the mainstream shopper seeking out healthier alternatives. Within the coming year, we plan to market to these new consumers by creating even more health and wellness focused beverages.”

New Sizes

To continue appealing to busy families “on the go,” Tampico is introducing more ways for people to enjoy its products. This fall, retailers will begin selling a new 12-bottle variety pack featuring a combination of four of their top selling flavors—Citrus Punch/Tropical Punch and Kiwi Strawberry Punch/Island Punch. Each 6.75-ounce bottle features resealable twist-on/twist-off caps and provides 100% daily value of Vitamin C in every serving.

“This year has been all about creating the ‘new’ Tampico,” said Miller. “I think we’re off to a great start and am very confident that the industry will be seeing more innovation and exciting advancements from our company in 2006.”