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Este informe no está disponible en español. CARIBBEAN BUSINESSMerisant Puerto Rico To Take Over Equal’s Marketing Efforts In New York And CaliforniaCampaign In South Florida Boosted Sales Of The Sweetener By More Than 40%; Company Plans To Open Manufacturing Plant On The Island In 2004BY TAINA ROSAOctober 24, 2002 Marileana Soto, brand manager for artificial sweetener Equal, announced that in about 18 months, Merisant will open a plant on the island to manufacture Equal and the company’s other products, which are currently made in Illinois. "We are now in negotiations with the Puerto Rico Industrial Development Co," she said. The company will also launch a new item in Puerto Rico next month, a sugarless, low-calorie hard candy called Equal Perfect Pleasures. Merisant expects to sell more than 36,000 boxes in one year. Merisant’s marketing efforts in Puerto Rico have borne fruit, Soto said. The company’s products, including Equal, Nutrasweet, and Same, are market leaders, with a 40% market volume (sell-through to consumers). Because of this success, the company plans to manufacture the sweeteners on the island in 2004. One year after taking over the marketing of Equal in South Florida’s Hispanic community, Merisant Puerto Rico reported that sales have jumped by more than 40%. Now the 10-person team will target New York and California, where sales increases of more than 50% are expected. "The campaign for Equal in southern Florida’s Latino community has been a complete success as sales there have increased by more than 40% in just one year," said Samuel Gonzalez, Merisant business manager for the U.S. Hispanic market, Central America, and the Caribbean. "Now we are expanding our marketing to New York and California, states with large Hispanic populations where we expect Equal’s sales to increase by more than 50% in a year." Merisant’s new strategies include introducing products that are currently available only in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean to U.S. Hispanic markets. "We will offer our Hispanic brand of sweetener, called Same, in the U.S. during the second quarter of 2003," said Soto, who noted that the product’s packaging has text in English and Spanish. This Caribbean Business article appears courtesy of Casiano Communications.
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