The Hindu Business Line : Rasna looks to launch energy drinks range

Chennai, Sept. 3 Soft drink concentrate maker Rasna Pvt Ltd plans to launch products with more health benefits. It is looking at a range of energy drinks with salts, vitamins and other nutrients.

Speaking to Business Line, Mr Piruz Khambatta, Chairman and Managing Director, Rasna Pvt Ltd, said the company wanted to invest its products with more nutrition by adding vitamins and increasing the fruit content. “These will be functional drinks which go beyond flavour and taste. We are looking at sports drinks, after-school drinks and the like, to be launched by next summer, probably.”

Rasna products are seen primarily as children’s products but to cater to all age groups, the company began introducing flavours such as kesar-elaichi in its portfolio.

Rasna also aims to launch more natural flavours to fight the competition from home-made drinks, Mr Khambatta said. It has made a beginning by launching cocum and aam panna.

Rasna is targeting mass market by making its products available at the lowest prices ever of 50 paise per glass, he added. It would also like to expand the market through extensive sampling but the sheer reach of television dictates that 75 per cent of the advertising and marketing budget of a mass brand such as Rasna is devoted to mass media, Mr Khambatta said. Only 25 per cent was spent on sampling exercises through kiosks, schools and the like.

To establish its presence in the upper middle-class and rich households, Rasna has launched Juc-Fit fruit juice and Shake Up milkshake mix.