Founder of English drinks company ‘UDA’ says he’s never heard of terror group

Avi Roy spent thousands to buy the web address www.uda.com and last week released a berry-flavoured energy drink branded with the three letters.

When told by The Irish News about the blood-soaked history of the UDA and its UFF offshoot, Mr Roy said he had wished he had known about it before shelling out for the branding.

“It was only after we launched that some started pointing that out. We had to say we had nothing to do with a paramilitary organisation,” he added.

“In the beginning, every person involved was a scientist and we were all so excited about building the science.

“We are not that good yet at branding and positioning. We should have done much more thorough research.”

Mr Roy said it was never their intention to hurt anyone’s feelings, but it would be too expensive to change the name because it was “more than buying a house”.

The firm may use a different name when selling in Ireland.