Dubai Refreshments (DRC), sole franchisee of PepsiCo products in Dubai and Northern Emirates, celebrated its golden anniversary at the trading floor, at the Dubai Financial Market.

As a special arrangement, DFM gave DRC the opportunity to ring the opening bell in commemoration of DRC’s golden anniversary. The bell ringing was followed immediately with cake cutting ceremony.

'As a publicly-listed company, DRC expresses its confidence at the Dubai Financial Market and extends its gratitude to the management for giving importance to our 50th celebration,' said Ahmed Bin Eisa Al Serkal – vice chairman.

In 1994, DRC became a publicly traded company.

“DFM is keen to cooperate with its strategic partners of listed public joint stock companies, and provide various facilities. Hosting DRC ceremony clearly reflects DFM’s commitment to support listed companies,' added Essa Kazim, chairman DFM.

DRC was established in 1959 and in 1962, became the sole franchisee and distributor of PepsiCo products and the first to introduce soft drinks in the UAE.

In 2008, DRC registered over Dh700 million in sales in the Dubai and Northern Emirates.  With continued investments in state-of-the-art facilities at its manufacturing plants, DRC is the first and largest company in the lower Gulf to produce cans and PET non-returnable bottles.

The company now has four production lines producing almost 3 million cans and 1 million bottles per day.

DRC started with the production of carbonated soft drinks and expanded into offering some of the most exciting beverages available in the market today; Pepsi, Pepsi Max, Diet Pepsi, 7 Up, Diet 7 Up, Mirinda, Mt Dew and, Shani, Evervess Soda, Evervess Tonic, Evervess GingerAle, Aquafina Pure Drinking Water and Aquafina Sparkling Water.

Today, it is has also ventured into distributing non-carbonated beverages such as Lipton Ice Tea, Tropicana Natural Fruit juice, Amp energy drink and Gatorade sports drink.-TradeArabia News Service