Japanese company seeks Jamaican partners
Published:Friday | January 13, 2012 | 12:00 AM
Japanese-based Enagic Corporation was in Jamaica on the weekend in search of distribution partners for its "medical" alkaline drinking water machine that retails for some US$4,000, in a bid to increase its global market share.
The private company, which has offices in seven territories, started over three decades ago with its founder and president at 71 "looking as young" as he did when he first started consuming his water.
President Hironari Oshiro told the group of 400, who turned up at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel on Sunday in Kingston to hear his pitch, that his company would avoid large retailers in a bid to focus on local community growth.
"We prefer sell small persons rather than large retailers because small sellers tell others," said Oshiro.
Three hundred machines are already in Jamaica according to company executives, including Oshiro and Jamaican/US marketers Leroy Francis and Joseph Reid.
"In Jamaica, US$3,000 is a quarter-million dollars, so we do not expect this machine to be in everybody's house. What we want for you in Jamaica is that everyone will have access to the water. So you all come together as a family and get the machine," said Francis, global sales leader at Enagic.
Reid, who is also a global sales leader at Enagic, said he wants to set up an office in the medium-term, dependent on the uptake of business.
Enagic, which described itself as a market leader in the multibillion-dollar global water business, manufactures alkaline ionisers and water filtration machines.