Wisynco's Winner- Ocean Spray WATA nabs Breakthrough Product of the Year Award

The Wisynco Group of Companies has received the prestigious "Breakthrough Product of the Year Award for 2008" from the Jamaica Manufacturers' Association for their Ocean Spray WATA, launched in November 2007.

"Our marketing and production teams are extremely proud and honoured for the Breakthrough Product of the Year Award," said Simmone March, Ocean Spray WATA innovator and product development manager at Wisynco, in an interview with Thursday Food before explaining how she and her team came up with the right formula.

"I decided to create a flavoured water beverage for the local market because many Jamaicans introduce flavours to water, both for colour and taste, in their households. Additionally, many people do not enjoy drinking water in its pure form."

Her solution: cranberry-flavoured water which pairs the clean, refreshing WATA with the tart of Ocean Spray cranberry juice, which is distributed locally by Wisynco.

March, who has been working with Wisynco for the past eight years, headed to the Wisynco labs to formulate her ideas for the new beverage.

And so, several testings and samples later, March shared her ideas on the winning product.

"It was definitely a challenge to create the perfect blend, particularly when it came to sweetness," March told Thursday Food, "the product is not a juice drink but a flavoured water, so we had to ensure that it remains as natural as possible and that the sweetness was not overpowering."

The drink was launched in November 2007 and has since made significant strides in the beverage market, expanding to include the White Cranberry Ocean Spray WATA. For this past summer, Wisynco produced an average of 200,000 cases of Ocean Spray WATA.

Ocean Spray WATA not only appeals to the health conscious, but to a wide cross section of consumers since cranberries hold lots of nutritional value. The berries are a good source of vitamins C and A, dietary fibre, and also contain manganese, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium and beta-carotene.

Valuable nutrition aside, consumers can also expect more from the company in the upcoming months as March is currently working on additional flavours. However, she is not yet prepared to say what they are.

"Ocean Spray is the number one beverage in the country and it will continue to win the hearts of Jamaican consumers," said March.

(Jamaica Observer)