Maha 2022: Origina aims to change the beverage game, one pouch at a time

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 14 — Banking on its previous experience as a packaging manufacturer, the founders behind Origina — a beverage company — aim to shake up the flavoured milk industry using its retortable pouches.

Speaking to Malay Mail at the Malaysia Agriculture, Horticulture and Agrotourism Exhibition (Maha) 2022, Origina CEO Fatin Diana said they were the first local company to use retortable pouches — which their previous packaging company produced — to create a niche for themselves.

Fatin explained that using retortable pouches, instead of the conventional bottle or tin to package beverages, can extend the shelf life of the products by an additional 18 months, making it easier for the people who buy their products to store them.

"We believe that there are no drinks in the market that are packed in pouches. We would like to highlight more on the benefits of this kind of packaging, which is three times lighter than your conventional bottles or tins.

"Using these retortable pouches can extend the life of fresh milk up to 18 months without the use of preservatives.

"So our logistics partners and stakeholders like distributors and wholesalers, they don't need to put our products in a chiller or transport it in an ice truck, you can just keep it in ambient temperature," she said.

Since its launch in 2015, the Klang-based company has broken through not only to the local retail market, but also the international retail market, with presence in other South-east Asian countries .

"That was our major breakthrough in the milk industry. We broke through in 2015, and we have been growing quite immensely because we are now in the retail markets such as 7-Eleven, 99 Speedmart, Watsons and Petronas.

"We are also continuously growing internationally. We actually started in the export market first. It was much easier to export back then because we just needed to find an exporter that wanted to carry our products.

"We are now in Brunei, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam and soon we will hit Thailand and Japan," said Adilah Shuib, General Manager of Origina.

Commenting on Maha 2022, Fatin said that the exhibition has been very good for them, not only to hit their sales target, but also to increase their brand awareness and recognition locally.

She added that they reached their sales goal on the third day of Maha.

"A lot of people said that they may have seen our products before, but have not tried it. So here, we get to educate them on our products, its nutritional value, and our use of natural ingredients imported from the best countries that produce them.

"Maha is so good because we get to spread our brand awareness widely, as the people who come, come from all over Malaysia," she said.

Adilah shared that what made Origina stand out compared to other beverage brands are its three core values: taste, nutrition and competitive pricing.

"One of them is that Origina must have great taste. That's rule number one. Number two, nutritious. That's why our tagline is Hilang dahaga, manfaat berganda, because we emphasise nutritional value in all our products.

"Whether it is from the natural ingredients that we use, or added vitamins or minerals that we put in, the results are very important for us to move forward. When our R&D team comes up with a new formula, we emphasise taste, nutrition and the third, competitive pricing," she said.

Fatin said that Origina uses less or no sugar in their drinks, and only uses real fruit extract sourced from the best countries where a certain fruit or product is produced.

"Generally, we use less sugar or no sugar, and we use real fruit extract. So take our orange juice, we import the fruit itself from Brazil which is known to produce the best quality oranges and they are very naturally sweet, so there is no need to add any more sugar to it.

"So people can consume it daily without worrying about gaining weight or jeopardising their health. There are other benefits like the Tamar Raisin Flavoured Milk. It is made from Australian fresh milk, with date stock from the Middle East, as well as Saffron extract.

"As you know, saffron is a very premium product right? Even a small amount costs a few hundred. So we put saffron into it and we make it affordable for people to buy and try," she said.

Maha 2022 runs through Sunday, August 14 at MAEPS Serdang.