The FINANCIAL — According to Alkhan Alizada, official representative of Azersun Holding in Georgia, the black PR campaign in Georgia against the tea brands of Azersun, stopped the company from putting 2 million USD investments in to a new tea factory in Tbilisi.
Azersun Holding is the market leader in the food production, retail and farming sectors throughout Azerbaijan. Generally known as the largest major producer and exporter in the country’s food industry, Azersun Holding has a nationwide network of leading-edge manufacturing facilities with high-volume production capacities and boasts a large network of overseas supply and distribution offices.
Among the brands of Azersun are Azercay, Blendo, Final, Bono, Maryam, Pasha and Supersu.
The company was planning to invest USD 2 million in construction of new tea production facilities in Tbilisi, but as company representative Alkhan Alizada said, “due to the media campaign implemented against Azersun brands, the company became more careful in its decisions.
“In such conditions it is not the best time to open a new factory,” Alizada told The FINANCIAL.
Alizada says the company did not change its plans radically. But the factory’s opening has now been postponed.
As Alizada declares, it’s been a year already that groundless accusations and disinformation have been getting spread about the quality and ingredients of their tea brands.
“On July 20, there was a TV report which said that our products contained harmful colourings. Sources speaking in TV reports said that a laboratory study found materials harmful for people’s health,” Alizada said.
Victoria Imnadze, Marketing Manager of Dapna-Ha, which imports the tea products of Azersun Holding to Georgia, says that the black PR campaign against the tea brands hasn’t affected the sales of the company.
The history of Georgian tea began in 1897 when Lao Cheng Zhao came from China to the imperial estate in the village of Chakvi. Lao, whose house still stands on the seashore, brought high-quality tea seeds to the country; and the first tea was harvested in 1902.
“Our tea had many consumers in Georgia, they like the taste of the tea and they still continue to buy tea imported from Azerbaijan. The black PR campaign hasn’t effectively impacted on our consumers and the demand hasn’t been significantly decreased,” Imnadze said.
“Those who are spreading disinformation to the media and society, are forgetting one important thing, that due to their very high quality teas Maryam, Final and Azercai are sold quite successfully in Azerbeijan, in CIS countries, and even on European and United States markets. The consumers of these countries drink our tea with pleasure. Due to this reason, the value of each brand is proved by the support of millions,” Alizada said.
“We planned to open a factory in Tbilisi but our partners are afraid of these kinds of campaigns,” he said during his interview with The FINANCIAL.
“I think that we will continue our project. I don’t know the exact date of its start, but it will definitely take place,” Afik Safarov, Head of the sector of PR and Media of Azesun Holding, told The FINANCIAL.
As Alizada says, caring about society was always a priceless value for their company and their reputation was considered the main backbone of the mentioned value. In order to prove that their tea has good quality and doesn’t contain anything harmful they decided to make analyzes of the tea in Austria, in an independent laboratory.
The location of the laboratory Saltsburg, Austria
Laboratory where the analyses took place ANALYTEC
Date of the analyses 02 – 08.09.2010
Method of analyzing QAM 2-06.2-13
Index Type of product
Maryam Tea Georgian Black Tea Georgian Tea Gurieli Export Black Tea
Glucose 0.72 1.71 1.23 1.23
Fructose, % 0.53 1.61 1.26 0.99
Saharoza, % 0.72 1.38 0.43 1.57
lactose, % – – – –
maltose, % – – – –
Dissoluble sugar quantity total index % 1.97 4.7 2.92 3.79
Dissoluble sugar amount in the tea, %
1-4
“As the results show, the accusations towards our products are unfounded, which implies that there is a special campaign against Azersrun Holding. In the frame of healthy competition, fighting against each other by this kind of method is absolutely inadmissible and is without any kind of business ethic,” Alizada said.
Company representatives have said that they are going to sue.
If the same black PR takes place towards our company again we will definitely apply to the Georgian courts and make them pay for hurting our reputation,” Alizada said.
Azersun Holding and its subsidiaries hold certificates of the International Organization of Standardization ISO 9000. The tea factory Sun Tea, where the tea is manufactured, is the holder of ISO 9001:2008, ISO 14001, ISO 18001 and ISO 22000 international certificates.
Azersun Holding together with Petrol-Trans are engaged in the oil transportation industry. Since 2002, Azersun Holding has carried out 95% of these works through Middle East Petroleum affiliated with the transportation of oil into and out of Dubendi terminal.
Azersun is the main sponsor of Qarabagh Football Club.
Last year Azersun Holding became the winner of the “Progress Reward”, as it greatly contributed to the economic and trade relations between Russia and Azerbaijan in 2009.
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