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Timur El Ait
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FMCG · Functional Beverage · Product · Go-to-Market

Building a functional RTD coffee brand from product hypothesis to 500+ UAE retail points.

NOOZ was built as a functional cold-brew proposition designed to sit between specialty coffee and the better-for-you energy occasion. The work required more than a formula: it connected product architecture, manufacturing, cost, packaging, regulatory readiness, channel strategy and launch execution into one commercial system.

Two NOOZ cold-brew coffee cans floating against a turquoise sky

The challenge

Create an RTD coffee proposition differentiated enough to win attention in a market crowded by conventional iced coffee and energy products, while keeping the product manufacturable, commercially viable and suitable for retail distribution in the UAE.

What I did

  • Identified the positioning gap and translated it into a functional RTD coffee proposition.
  • Built the initial product and functional-ingredient brief, including the role of coffee quality, L-theanine and MCT in the proposition.
  • Selected and coordinated manufacturing/production partners and ingredient/raw-material inputs.
  • Connected formulation decisions to sensory quality, shelf-life constraints, cost and production feasibility.
  • Developed SKU, pack and pricing architecture with retail/channel economics in mind.
  • Managed regulatory and market-readiness requirements for UAE launch.
  • Built retail, e-commerce and distributor strategy and supported commercial negotiations.
  • Planned launch, sampling, activation and growth priorities.
  • Managed forecasting, inventory and supply-chain trade-offs as the brand scaled.

Selected outcomes

  • Reached 500+ active UAE points of sale.
  • Launched 6+ SKUs in total.
  • Won SCA Coffee Design Awards 2025 — Branding at World of Coffee Geneva.
  • Selected as a winner in the Spinneys Local Business Incubator 2024.
  • Featured as an industry source in Perfect Daily Grind articles on RTD and functional coffee in 2025.

Gallery

  • Two NOOZ cold-brew coffee cans floating against a turquoise sky
  • NOOZ cans stacked to show the full pack design
  • A NOOZ digital billboard outside an Emaar retail frontage in Dubai at night
  • Four hands raising NOOZ cans in a toast
  • NOOZ cans beside boxing gloves and a gym bag
  • A shopper carrying NOOZ cans in a clear reusable tote
  • Three cold-brew samples in glasses on a tasting table, each in front of its labelled sample can
  • A NOOZ cold-brew coffee can held up on the production floor
  • Timur El Ait seated for a filmed interview in front of the Spinneys Local Business Incubator 2024 banner

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