News China Peregrine and Warner Bros. Consumer Products Sign Looney Tunes Licensing Agreement
NORTH PALM BEACH, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 8, 1999--China Peregrine Food Corp. (OTC BB:CHPF) will introduce a new line of Looney Tunes(tm) beverage products in China, under a license from Warner Bros. Consumer Products.
These new beverage products will introduce the popular Looney Tunes(tm) characters through a new, branded line of pasteurized milk, juice and yogurt drinks. This arrangement offers Chinese families healthy drinks with the cartoon characters they love.
Looney Tunes(tm) characters are household names in the West and are rapidly becoming known throughout China, especially in the urban communities. Bugs Bunny, Tweety, Sylvester, Lola Bunny, Tasmanian Devil, and Marvin the Martian will appear on China Peregrine's milk, juice and yogurt drinks set to debut this summer in Shanghai and Hangzhou. These specially designed Looney Tunes(tm) products will be launched concurrent with a national marketing campaign to include television, print and event marketing, that has proven successful throughout the world for Looney Tunes(tm).
Mr. Charles Beech, Chairman and CEO of China Peregrine said, ''During my twenty-year career working with well-known brands at Proctor & Gamble and Maybelline, I learned to appreciate the power and importance of quality products with high awareness brand names. We believe this introduction of new products featuring famous Looney Tunes(tm) characters, among the world's best known animated characters, will be very successful in China.''
''China Peregrine is making an important commitment to providing health conscious products to the Chinese consumer,'' said Mark Matheny, Senior Vice President, International Licensing, Warner Bros. Consumer Products. ''We believe that our Looney Tunes(tm) characters will serve as exciting ambassadors for these new healthy beverages in China.''
The two cities approved via this licensing agreement are Shanghai and Hangzhou, with populations of approximately 17 million and 5.5 million respectively. Results of an extensive market research study conducted by The Gallup Organization and released in October 1997 indicate that 71% of all households surveyed in Shanghai now have milk in the home. The same report revealed that over 95% of households in Shanghai have refrigerators.
Further, the study reported that between 1994 and 1997 the median income level per household in China had grown 81% and that, on average, consumers now spend over 42% of their household income on food for the family. All of these positive consumer statistics confirm the significant potential and ideal timing of these new products in the Chinese market by China Peregrine and Warner Bros. Consumer Products.
China Peregrine currently produces the only fresh pasteurized milk in Shanghai. Until recently most Chinese consumed poorly processed milk in heat sealed pouches that were consumed the day it was processed. Introduced in 1995, China Peregrine's Happy Family(tm) brand of milk has been at the forefront of western quality food processing and packaging in Shanghai and is the basis for this expansion in its product line.
China Peregrine owns 70% of an existing 50 year National joint venture with China National Green Food Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Ministry of Agriculture of the People's Republic of China, one of the first ever such ventures approved. In addition, China Peregrine owns 52% of a joint venture located in Hangzhou, which is the dominant supplier of milk and juice products in that city. China Peregrine is now positioned to rapidly expand through additional acquisitions and innovative marketing strategies to meet one of China's highest priorities - better nutrition for its 1.2 billion children and adults.
Warner Bros. Consumer Products, a Time Warner Entertainment Company, L.P., is the world's leading and most diversified licensing and retail merchandising organization, which owns and manages a vast library of intellectual properties and the Warner Bros. Studio Stores. With over 3,700 active licensees, Warner Bros. Consumer Products licenses the rights to names, likenesses and logos for a variety of entertainment properties, categories, and Warner Bros. name icons that include Looney Tunes(tm), Batman, Superman, Scooby-Doo, Wizard of Oz, and its many films and television series. Warner Bros. Consumer Products includes Warner Bros. Studio Stores, Warner Bros. Worldwide Licensing, Worldwide Publishing, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Kids WB! Music, WB Sport and WB Toys.
For more information, visit our website: www.chinaperegrine.com.
LOONEY TUNES, characters, names and all related indicia are trademarks of Warner Bros., (172) 1999.
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