More companies set to join "Red" brand AIDS fight

LONDON, Oct 6 (Reuters) A second wave of companies including a major consumer electronics group is set to join the ''Red'' product branding alliance as the scheme to raise money to fight AIDS in Africa goes global.

Richard Feachem, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, said that several big firms would sign up in the coming weeks.

''There are five major corporations today -- I'm guessing there will be eight or nine by the end of the year,'' he told Reuters on the fringes of an HIV/AIDS conference held by British think-tank Chatham House.

Products bearing the brand name Red from American Express, Motorola, Gap, Giorgio Armani and Converse, a unit of Nike, have been on sale in Britain since early this year.

Under the programme -- the brain-child of U2 rock star Bono and former US President John F Kennedy's nephew Bobby Shriver -- manufacturers pledge to channel a portion of profits from Red branded goods to the Global Fund.

One per cent of money that customers spend on a special Red Amex card also goes to the Geneva-based organisation.

10 MILLION DOLLARS JUST A START So far, the campaign has raised around 10 million dollars in Britain, but the potential is far higher as more companies sign up and the venture is launched around the world.

''It has the potential to raise truly large sums of money -- hundreds of millions of dollars a year -- and to ensure that those sums are sustainable year after year,'' Feachem said.

He declined to name the new members that were about to join the scheme but said the line-up included an ''iconic'' consumer electronics business.

The original backers, meanwhile, are expanding their operations, with Motorola, Gap and Giorgio Armani all launching Red brands in the United States and other markets in October and November.

Amex has not yet set a date to offer its Red card outside Britain, but Red label Converse sneakers are already available worldwide.

The UN-backed Global Fund was established in 2002 to channel both government and private sector funding into the fight against the three big killer diseases of the developing world.

To date, it has committed 5.6 billion dollars to finance disease prevention and treatment programmes in 132 countries, but it faces a struggle to secure long-term funding to meet its long-term commitments.

Before the launch of the Red scheme, contributions from corporations and private individuals represented just 0.1 per cent of Global Fund income. But Feachem said this had already tripled and should grow exponentially as firms realised the benefits of linking their products to the war on AIDS.

''The key to Red is that it's good for the companies. The companies are in this not for corporate philanthropy. They are in this to increase their market share and to increase the sale of their core products,'' he said.

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