Page 25 - IB July 2021

Celebrating 25 years of innovation

From supplying Fiji cinemas with frozen soft drinks 25 years ago, aged their bottom line. “Having said that we feel good that we did it,
Pleass Global Limited has grown into a diverse company that is look- even though the lag of actually affecting the bans that we had coming
ing to new markets, new products and new opportunities. has been quite significant.”
Co-founders Catherine and Warwick Pleass came to Fiji from China,
where they had been working in the beverage industry. While they Compliance and community
started manufacturing frozen cola, they quickly saw there were Catherine Pleass says the company’s 2009 listing on the South Pa-
opportunities to move into supplying bottled water to offices, homes cific Stock Exchange has been very positive for internal processes and
and hotels under the AquaSafe® brand. external relations.
Catherine Pleass says AquaSafe is now the market leader in Fiji in “What it actually does is forces compliance across most areas of
terms of volume and is also known and trusted across the Pacific. the business, and it’s a good opportunity to adopt significant compli-
The success of AquaSafe prompted Pleass Global to develop an ance gains in other areas that are not necessarily touched by your list-
export brand,VaiWai®. The brand’s biggest markets are China and the ing,” she says. “It’s a very positive thing, it’s certainly a very positive
United States, although VaiWai is also sent to customers in Russia and thing for overseas clients [who] feel that you’re a more stable, solid
Europe. The company plans to increase its exports to Asia, Western and reliable supplier if you’re a listed company rather than a private
Europe and South America. “We believe this will really change the dy- company, that’s the perception.”
namics of our company yet again, and looking forward to a very bright “By being listed we also have a board of directors that are advised
future once we can get COVID behind us,” Catherine Pleass says. to oversee the business and that brings skill and intellect that is out-
Unlike many companies, Pleass has been able to continue produc- side the staff and the executive, and that’s very important as well.”
tion throughout the pandemic, by creating its own workers bubble Pleass’ shareholders include the Fiji National Provident Fund, which
and implementing COVID-safe measures. But border closures have af- Pleass says, “adds to their social responsibility story.”
fected the bottom line. Freight costs, which can now fluctuate wildly “These days the market environment is very different to the past.
between shipments, are costs that cannot be passed on to customers People don’t just want to buy something, they want to feel good
who have contracted to purchase water for a fixed price. about what they’re buying, that the organisation does have social
The cessation of tourism and Fiji’s second wave of the pandemic, functions and does do good things for its community.”
which has seen many people work from home, has also affected the While Pleass operates on freehold land, it has developed strong
company. “The VaiWai® brand particularly does very well in the tour- relationships with nearby Nabukavesi village.
ism sector. It’s high volume in the peak tourism times and in addition “This is the community that lives here and have lived here for
to that, most of the hotels have backup house use of our coolers. So, generations, and we need to be respectful of that. And similarly, the
the consumption in hotels and resorts is very very high, and signifi- people are very respectful of us. It’s a very friendly, peaceful envi-
cantly contributes to our revenue.” ronment and it’s a very positive relationship. And it’s one of mutual
“But we’ve been looking at other ways of selling water and deliv- respect, and I think that’s the key.”
ering water. We’ve developed an app for our water delivery so that 100% of Pleass’ team is now fully vaccinated, so they are looking to
people can just jump on the app and order and get a receipt and it the future. Catherine Pleass says she is looking forward to being able
will be delivered in a contactless manner. We’ve utilised this time to physically meet customers again.
to make some significant company improvements which I’m pleased “We haven’t actually seen a customer in the last 18 months. And
about.” while we can do lots and lots of things on Zoom, personal relation-
Beyond water, Pleass manufactures and distributes packaging, ships are very important. I’m excited to get back to trade events
including single use tableware under the PartyTime brand. It’s a because that, for us is a very big opportunity to meet new customers
market that is undergoing fundamental shifts. “We made a conscious and to grow our export markets.
decision about four years ago that we wanted to move away from “We’re working on some very exciting projects at the moment,
single use plastics per se,” Pleass says. “It isn’t easy in this market we’re doing a major custom label for a major US supermarket chain
because people are very price driven when it comes to disposable and we’re putting in a glass bottling line, so we’ll have VaiWai in
tableware.” So, it’s been very difficult to make change because up glass, both as a standard option and as a sparkling option. That will
until quite recently, the market appetite for biodegradable products be a premium product that will give us a little bit more opportunity to
was not strong. play with margin. It puts you in different places in terms of on-prem-
Pleass says they started replacing plastic and Styrofoam items with ises presentation in restaurants, cafes and things like that. So, we’re
tableware made from bagasse ahead of their competitors. However very excited about that as well.”
delays to the implementation of legislation banning plastics has dam-

Islands Business, July 2021 25