A taste for Kassie juice

After entering the local market only a month ago, Albert Uulenga commonly known as Mushe, male artist of the year 2012 says that his newly invented product, Kassie Juice is well received in the Namibian market. “Kassie Juice hit the local market with 2,000 500ml bottles and within the first two weeks, all of these were sold out and and today I can proudly say that I have sold more or less 17,000 bottles of Kassie Juice.”
In an exclusive interview with the Economist last week, Uulenga told the Economist that his idea of coming up with this product is due to the fact that many artists are focusing on purified water and  although he also has his own purified water brand, he wanted to bring something new to the table. “Many of the artists are selling water brands and competition can be a bit hard, and that is why I came up with the Kassie Juice. Initially the idea was to produce Kassie Beer with Camelthorn Brewing company but as a public figure, I do not want to encourage drinking.”
Kassie, an informal Afrikaans name for Location is the name of the yet to be officially launched Kassie Juice.
He said that the name is there so that locals can feel that they are part of this initiation “Direct translation, Kassie Juice means Location Juice and I wanted it to sound like a local juice so that people can feel part and parcel of the product.”
The juice is currently only sold at shebeens in Windhoek as well as the Polytechnic of Namibia and upon request at nearby towns such as Okahandja and Rehoboth. Uulenga said that the reason for this is because he is still looking for an agent to distribute the juice. “I am currently busy negotiating with outlets such as Checkers, Shoprite, Pick n Pay as well as Woermann n Brock and responses are positive so far but I need to do greater marketing homework, which I am currently busy working on.”
He said that the product will be officially launched in October although it is already on the market. “The official launching of Kassie Juice should have been done already, but due to the fact that I had left the country for business purposes, launching had to be postponed. The launch of the Kassie Juice will be for charitable purposes.”
An ambitious Uulenga told the Economist that an initiative of this nature enhances our local economy and creates a sense of pride for investing in our locally produced and manufactured goods such as Kassie Juice. “There is a belief that locally produced goods are not in demand but I can assure you that there is a positive feedback. I thought this was going to be a small project but time and again, I have realised that this is a tremendous project and people do buy Namibian.” He foresees even greater sales in few months to come as the issue of delivery to all parts of the country will be tackled and Kassie Juice might just hit the shelves of outlets sooner than expected.
Kassie Juice comes in mango, tropical, orange and guava flavours and is brewed by Namibia Quality Beverages. Under the umbrella body of Empire, Kassie Juice looks like a promising initiative.