FrieslandCampina Kievit, a global manufacturer of beverage and food ingredients, has opened a new innovation kitchen in Manila accompanied by a consumer study delivering insights in trends, preferences, and coffee, tea and chocolate concepts.

The launch of the Philippine study and innovation kitchen enables beverage manufacturers in the region to grow their business and innovate together with Kievit.

Kievit has opened their innovation kitchen in Manila to help partners tailor-make relevant concepts for the market

The accompanying market study showed several key findings:

  1. The instant coffee market in the Philippines is massive: a whopping 80 percent of coffee drinkers consume 3-in-1 coffee on a daily basis.
  2. Cold soluble concepts like iced coffee and milk tea got high scores from the consumer-led tasting panel, with iced coffee scoring 8.2 out of 9 and iced milk tea even scoring 8.4. This is the highest score ever achieved in a Kievit consumer test.
  3. Instant beverages that contain dairy are highly liked (75 percent of respondents).
  4. Foamy concepts (both coffee and chocolate) are well-received because of their appearance and taste. Sixty one percent of respondents say that they would buy these products.

If leveraged properly, the research could translate to growth opportunities for manufacturers of instant coffee, chocolate, and milk tea. The Innovation Kitchen and its enthusiastic new team will enable manufacturers to build on these insights and translate them to new opportunities.

The 3-in-1 beverage market holds tremendous opportunities for innovation, with cold drinks like iced coffee and milk tea scoring all-time highs in tasting panels

The new Innovation Kitchen is located at the same production facility in Manila where FrieslandCampina is producing its beverage creamers, which conveniently also houses the company’s sensory lab and other research and development facilities. In this space, Kievit’s R&D and technical support join forces with customers to develop fresh ideas together. These can range from marketing strategy and better taste and sensory experiences to new products and innovations.

The Philippine market study was done in five cities, among people aged 18 to 55. Twelve products were tested, all prepared in the same way and randomly tested by consumers. This was accompanied by usage and attitude studies, conducted in these same cities to gain maximum insights.

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