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In the days leading up to the Swire Shipping Fijian Drua’s first home game in Fiji, the business has been buzzing for outlets selling Drua merchandise.

Businesses in the capital city are also noticing sales pick up and they expect this to continue as game day draws nearer.

Jack of Fiji Suva Branch Store Manager, Praneet Kumar says that aside from game day tickets, Drua jersey’s and bula shirts have been the hot sellers ahead of this Saturday’s game.

“We have seen a great build up coming in and slowly as we are also selling tickets and the Drua merchandise are in stock so definitely the hype is coming. Game time comes and definitely, we’ll peak in. It’s great it started well and the first few days it was all out of stock so we went and again try to have it sewn and now it’s back in-store and people can take advantage of that.”

Sports World General Manager, Vinod Kumar says they expected the sales to pick up over the weekend and are prepared for the almost always last minute rush for merchandise.

“Actually we have started to see a spike in the Drua merchandise in the weekend and we expect it to happen and grow as we come along to the end of this weekend as well. We can also see that government pay week is this week, so there should be a lot of hype in the town as well. And if the weather goes bad we have rain jackets and everything that is there to support the Fiji team there.”

Suva Retailers Association President, Jitesh Patel says businesses in the Capital are also taking advantage of the buzz and influx of people the game will bring with it.

Meanwhile, Drua Merchandise distributors, Jacks of Fiji will also have tents set up at the ANZ Stadium on game day to cater for the crowds who might want to purchase items on game day.