At 40, Thums Up still seems to be going strong. Originally introduced in 1977, Thums Up, which was acquired by Coca-Cola India in 1993, is expected to become a billion-dollar beverage brand in the next two years.

Coca-Cola India on Tuesday launched the first variant of Thums Up called Thums up Charged. Vijay Parasuraman, Vice-President, Marketing, Coca-Cola India & South West Asia, said: “We expect that over the next two years, Thums Up will become a billion- dollar beverage brand. Globally, we have 21 brands that are in the billion-dollar club. Thums Up will be the first home-grown brand that will join this club.”

Currently, Thums Up retail sales are pegged at about ₹5,000 crore. Coca-Cola India said that the company and its bottlers will invest suitably in enhancing the brand, launching new packs, expanding distribution and augmenting manufacturing capacity to increase the sales of Thums Up by 2020.

Talking about the launch of Thums Up Charged, he said, “This is the first time we are launching a product innovation under brand Thums Up in 40 years. We believe it will enhance the relevance of the brand among existing as well as new consumers.” Coca-Cola India had last year, indicated that its brand Maaza is expected to touch the $1-billion dollar mark in sales by 2023. India is the sixth largest market for Coca-Cola globally.

Just last week, while addressing investors at a conference, John Murphy, President-Asia Pacific Group, Coca-Cola, had said that in India, “we have leader brands, but we have a industry that is very underdeveloped”.

“We have leader brands. Sprite, Maaza, Thumps Up, in particular…. Our job now is to leverage those brands to help grow the industry. And we're excited with the work we have under way to do that. In addition, we have a couple of other categories that we believe we have tremendous room for growth as we go forward. And the good news is there are not too many there yet who've cracked the code on leadership in those categories,” he added.

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