The Calmer Co. eyes global market share with kava innovation

CEO Anthony Noble explains the recent alliance with CJ Patel Group and the push to modernise kava into popular juices.

When Anthony Noble opened up about being CEO of The Calmer Co., Asian Banking and Finance got a glimpse of his strategic vision that perfectly explains his company’s alliance with CJ Patel Group. More than a collaboration, there is Noble’s clear intention to increase their market share in the global alcohol and cannabis sectors while pioneering kava modernisation.
 
The Calmer Co., formerly known as Fiji Kava, has undergone a significant transformation. Noble said the company’s diversification of brands was a key reason for the name change.
 
“We’ve been doing more and more business in the other brands in our portfolio. So we wanted to update the name of the company to reflect that broader offering and House of Brands that we are selling,” he said.
 
The company still maintains strong links to Fiji and the Pacific, with their major operations based in the city of Navoi, Fiji. Noble stated, “Our business has its roots in Fiji. The kava that we produce is a root crop grown exclusively in Fiji, which are the varieties that are safe and effective to use in medicines and in functional beverages.”
 
The CEO said the recent alliance with the CJ Patel Group is a partnership that covers 17 countries. “CJ Patel is one of the biggest distribution companies. It means that we can touch virtually every retail point of distribution across 13 countries in the Pacific, which is the home market for the consumption of kava,” he said.
 
There are four other countries involved in the distribution agreement and these are the markets in Australia, New Zealand, the US, and Canada.
 
The products made by The Calmer Co. broadly fall into three categories: medicinal, powder-drinking kava, and the forthcoming ready-to-drink kava. With the ready-to-drink products, the company plans to cater to varying consumer preferences, offering everything from small-format kava juices to sparkling beverages.
 
Looking ahead, Noble can see Kava competing with the popular, yet controversial, cannabis market. “In terms of the benefits that kava can give to consumers, they are very similar to the benefits that cannabis purports to have. But kava, I think importantly, has a much more friendly regulatory environment,” he asserted.
 
There was no hesitation in Noble’s expressing optimism about the future of The Calmer Co. and its continued product development. Highlighting the potential for expanding kava use worldwide is, to Noble, a natural leveraging of the company’s unique supply chain of fresh green kava sourced from Fiji.
 
“The next products that people can expect to see are going to be based on those fresh kava juices possibly formulated with some other well-known functional juices,” he said.