COM223e Natasha Low Looi Yee (B2111930)

TMA02 – January 2021 Semester 19 Apr. 21

COM223e Writing for Strategic

Communication
Tutor-Marked Assignment 1-2
January 2021 Presentation

Natasha Low Looi Yee

PI:B2111930
Submission date: 19 April 2021

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COM223e Natasha Low Looi Yee (B2111930)
TMA02 – January 2021 Semester 19 Apr. 21

10 May 2021

Natural Zest Drinks Pte Ltd.

453 Spatial Avenue
#04-22 Singapore 680453

Singapore Food Agency (SFA)

6200 Harmony View
Singapore 6200345

To Whom It May Concern:

As the Corporate Communications Manager, I am writing to your organization in regards to

the recent case for a follow-up. The incident occurred when a customer, Ms. Layla made a
purchase of the Natural Zest Drinks’ kombucha beverage from her local minimart. Upon
unfastening the glass bottle cap, the top of the bottle popped and broke off, which caused Ms.
Layla to sustain several cuts that ended with the need of stitches. As we have discussed,
Natural Zest Drinks Pte Ltd takes such allegations sternly. The company have been in the
market and working closely with the same manufacturer for almost 10 years, always ensuring
the best quality in production. The incident that had taken place left us astounded, as this is
the very first incident since being in the market for the past 10 years. Therefore, the purpose
of this letter to your organization is to establish and follow up on some findings, which we
have gathered from our investigation carried out.

We have obtained the manufacturing report from the relevant department and noted that the
affected beverage batch date was manufactured on 12 January 2021 with the expiration date
on 12 June 2021. For the purchased batches by Ms. Layla, there are still two months before
the expiration date. The report from our bottle manufacturer also showed that the batch
produced was the same for all glass beverage bottles. When the incident happened, we have
immediately recalled the same batch of beverages produced with the affected batch and fully
refunded all customers. The purpose is to conduct some checks and to avoid similar incidents
while ensuring customer safety. After the examination of the recalled products, it was
finalized that there wasn’t any signs of inconsistency that could have caused the same
damages.

Consequently, during the site visit to the minimart to which we sold our beverages, we
noticed that the beverages were not stored at the required temperature of below 20 degrees
Celsius as advised. This standard operating procedure has always been a protocol and policy
listed when beverages are sold to retailers for acknowledgement to be carried out. The
beverages are manufactured in a way where the chemical composition has to remain chilled
for attaining of the freshness for the drink . The day when Ms. Layla bought the drinks on
April 20, 2021, it was also unusually warm due to the weather. The temperature on the day
itself reached a maximum of 36 degrees Celsius. Regardless, the drink wasn’t placed in
accordance and with the exceptionally warm weather, the temperature and the means of
storing the drinks could be the potential reason for the top of the bottle to pop and broke off,
with the accumulated air that combusted the air in the bottle.

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COM223e Natasha Low Looi Yee (B2111930)
TMA02 – January 2021 Semester 19 Apr. 21

Although Ms. Layla may have been compensated for her medical expenses, she is still the
victim of the damage caused which could have been avoided at all costs. Nevertheless, with
the occurrence of this incident both our company and the retailer’s end have definitely
learned a lesson from it and understood it’s cost on our customer. As a result, our
organization had also come to a decision on repackaging the kombucha beverage that will be
much durable even in warm weather or any other situation that could occur. We will also be
taking steps along with the retailers and manufacturer to make sure such incidents doesn’t
happen again. We have also sent out mass email reminders to all our retailers regarding our
policy of the product.

Upon sending out the email reminders, site supervisors from the company were also sent out
to conduct checks to further advise and demonstrate any safety precaution to our distributor
and retailers. Moving forward, we assure you that our production examining and safety
measures will be reinforced for maintaining quality. Attachment of the reports are included in
this letter for your reference on this case. We hope this clarifies the matter and also like to
prevent any further incident from happening. We wish to hear from you soon, and do let us
know if we can be of further assistance to this case, you may refer to my contact details
below. As part of the company, we appreciate your time looking into this case.

Best regards,

Natasha Low
Contact: +65 915402949490
Email: natasha@naturalzest.com
Corporate Communications Manager