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While Bisleri International and Coca-Cola are fighting a legal battle over the use of the Maaza trademark, Infra Foodbrands is raking it in with the juice brand, selling two million cases a year in Western Europe.
The Netherlands-based company bought the European rights to the Maaza brand from Bisleri International in 2006. Infra Foodbrands, earlier a Maaza distributor, rolls out juice products from a plant in Belgium.
Says Frank Sanders, the company’s CEO: “The largest market for Maaza outside India would be in the Netherlands, Belgium and France. In consumer value terms, we would be selling Maaza worth €45 million annually in the European market.’’
In Europe, Maaza has extended beyond its original mango pulp flavour into ten other juice variants, including guava, passion fruit and litchi.
Sanders says that Coca-Cola has been sending feelers to his company to buy the trademark rights to Maaza for the European market.
However, he added, Infra Foodbrands has no intention of selling the European rights. “It is not a realistic idea. We believe in doing a better job with the brand. Today, Coca-Cola is more of a logistics company dealing with carbonated beverages, while Maaza is a niche juice brand.’’
Legal Battle
Meanwhile, the battle over Maaza’s global intellectual property rights continues. It goes back to the finer details of the deal between Coca-Cola and the Chauhan family’s Parle beverage brands. Coca-Cola re-entered India in 1993 and bought Parle’s Thums-Up, Limca, Gold Spot, Citra and Maaza brands.
Bisleri’s contention is that the Maaza trademark was sold to Coca-Cola only within India and that Bisleri continued to own the brand outside India.
“We sold the Maaza licence to companies in Europe, the Middle East, North America and Canada, as Coca-Cola did not show any interest in Maaza since it was a juice brand, unlike carbonated beverages Thums Up and Limca, for which it bought the domestic rights,’’ says Ramesh Chauhan, Chairman, Bisleri International.
Coca-Cola can still launch Maaza in Australia and South America, among other markets, where Maaza is not yet a registered brand. Says Bisleri’s Chauhan: “Although we have the trademark rights, Maaza is not registered in these markets. Any other beverage player can still pick up the rights and sell in these markets.’’
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