Keeping the fizz in lucrative Latin American soft drinks market

A Yorkshire-based global business that helps soft drinks manufacturers maintain the fizz in their beverages for longer is expanding operations to meet rising demand from Latin and South American countries.

Located in Horsforth, CO2 Sustain LTD, makers of patented liquid foam control and carbonation aid, CO2Sustain, has almost trebled output to Latin America over the past three years, with a sales growth of 280%.

Having a dedicated business focus on supporting growth in the Latin American market for the past five years has resulted in sales from this region accounting for 50 per cent of total global sales in CO2 Sustain LTD’s last financial year, with no signs of any imminent slowdown despite the challenges resulting from COVID-19.

Latin America represents 24.3% of the global carbonated beverage market.

Throughout the region, the business has access to 15 countries including Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, and Uruguay through an ongoing partnership with Brenntag.

CO2 Sustain LTD has supported many customers to achieve additional operational savings during lockdown, which has been critical to business continuity and even survival. Operational savings from using CO2 Sustain has helped some manufacturers increase production line speed by typically 25-30%, reduce start-up time by up to 50%, reduce wastage and increase the volume of bottles filled. Many have also benefited from less consumer complaints due to enhanced fizziness perception and longer carbonation shelf life.

Designed for carbonated beverages including fizzy soft drinks, mixers, alcopops, and cider, adding the solution-based CO2 Sustain to the beverage offers manufacturers and brands the ability to retain and extend carbonation, giving consumers longer lasting fizzy drinks.

From its manufacturing base in Leeds, CO2 Sustain LTD’s team of technical innovations chemists pioneered the preservative-free, foaming and carbonation aid to increase the carbon dioxide content and extend the carbonation shelf life of soft drinks, using an exclusive formulation.

Following months of overseas travel restrictions, CO2 Sustain LTD fully revised its business operations allowing new and existing clients and customers based in the Americas and across the world to receive uninterrupted service.

After installing a brand new carbonator at its newly fitted out onsite laboratory mid-lockdown, the business’s team of scientists were capable of adding CO2 Sustain to remotely test and solve any issues with beverage products from overseas. Tests carried out to customer specifications in the lab range from carbonation shelf life trials to light-weighting of PET bottles and general production line efficiency improvements.

Luis Robles (pictured), business development specialist at CO2 Sustain LTD commented: “The Latin American market represents a huge growth opportunity for us where there is constant demand for our product and expertise. The last 12 months have seen six-figure investment in our equipment, technology and personnel to meet this. It is a key market for us as a business because four out of the top 10 countries in terms of per capita consumption of carbonated beverages are in the region - Mexico, Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay - with Mexico and Brazil among the countries with the highest consumption in terms of volume in the world.”

“Manufacturers in Latin America face many challenges ranging from enhancing fizziness perception and foam control during the filling process to carbonation shelf life and keeping operational costs lean. Using CO2 Sustain helps them address these challenges through our patented bubble encapsulation technology, which helps reduce bubble size and keep CO2 inside the liquid for a longer time. Throughout the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns, we have continued to help our customers, some of whom remain in strict lockdown, to achieve crucial additional operational savings.”