Tiger Is Black Tiger

The Polish energy drink is quite interesting with 2 major players, 1 follower and few minor brands. The leader of the market, believe it or not, is not Red Bull.

It used to be called Tiger, Tiger was branded with a nickname of Polish boxer Dariusz ‘Tiger’ Michalczewski, but late in 2010 owner of the brand removed any links to the boxer and regular Tiger was replaced by “Black Tiger”, also their slogan was changed from “Power is Back” to “Power is Black“.

At present two energy drinks under the Tiger name are available on the market. One is produced by FoodCare, which resumed its production after a court in Krakow decided to withdraw a decision that had prohibited the company from producing and selling the drink.
Another producer, Maspex, introduced Tiger to the market based on a license agreement with Dariusz Michalczewski, who terminated cooperation with FoodCare in 2010. The situation has yet to be resolved by the courts.

Red Bull was the first energy drink launched to Polish market. The Austrian brand that quickly became an international leader of the energy drink category dominated the Polish market for many years. Until 2004 where a Polish company called Gellwe (now called FoodCare) launched Tiger.

Due to the lower price Tiger soon became very popular among younger people who were obviously more price-sensitive.
Tiger had a problem with its brand image – perceived as a cheap copy of Red Bull – it couldn’t compete with the Austrian brand within some key target groups.
The next step in the process of improving Tiger’s brand image was the collaboration with Porsche Design Studio which prepared the design for Tiger’s new bottles introduced in March 2009.

Tiger’s main competitor, Red Bull, did not reveal its financial results for 2010, but according to estimates, its share of the market in terms of sales value accounted for 25% last year.

Another energy drink, Burn, offered by Coca-Cola, increased its share of the market from 6.5% in 2009 to 8% in 2010. Burn’s sales volume grew by 60% year on year in 2010.

Likewise, the Green up energy drink, produced by Herbapol, reported 120% growth in sales volume in 2010, and at present controls around 3% of the market in terms of sales value.

Moreover, two new energy drink brands were introduced to the market in 2010: Adrenaline Mountain Dew offered by PepsiCo and Las Vegas Energy Drink, produced by a Polish company under the same name.

The value of the energy drink market in Poland is estimated at PLN 700m (€179.6m). According to Nielsen, up to 2009 the rate of growth of the market, calculated in sales volume, accounted for several dozen percent per year, while in 2010 it slowed to 9%.