Fruit-drink brand Maaza has emerged as the fastest growing brand within the Coca-Cola’s India portfolio this summer season on the back of a strong rural push. Maaza is Coca-Cola India’s third largest brand after Thums Up and Sprite. The beverage major, which is putting a strong push behind the nutrition space globally, is also looking at tapping into opportunities in the oral rehydration solutions and value-added dairy segments in the country.

India business ‘jewel’ for company

Speaking at a media roundtable on Thursday, Sedef Salingan Sahin, President, Global Nutrition Category, the Coca-Cola Company said that the India business is a “jewel” in terms of its contribution to the growth for the company globally. “ Maaza is at the heart of our nutrition business in India and one of the leading brands here. We are also working on new innovations to build a much broader Minute Maid proposition in India,” she added.

The beverage major said that it will be putting in significant investments in the nutrition category which includes brands Maaza and Minute Maid in the next 3-4 years. Stating that the nutrition category will be one of the key growth drivers for the company, Arnab Roy, Vice-President and Head-Marketing, Coca-Cola India and Southwest Asia added, “We are investing to set up additional manufacturing lines for Maaza. Our ambition is that the brand should continue to grow in strong double-digits for the next three years. A lot of incremental growth for the brand has come from expansion in rural markets with focus on smaller packs at affordable price points,” he said

Billion dollar brand

With Thums Up becoming a billion dollar brand in India recently, Coca-Cola believes Maaza is expected to also reach that goal in the next few years. It is also working on taking the mango fruit-drink brand to some of the neighbouring markets.

For Minute Maid, the company is experimenting with various variants beyond Pulpy Orange. “We will be investing in Minute Maid innovations in terms of benefit-based fruit juice products,” he added.

Cracking the dairy segment

Coca-Cola India has also been looking to crack the dairy-based beverage segment, which is dominated by the likes of Amul. “It’s a no-brainer that we need to have a play in the value-added dairy segment in the long run. But it will be critical to ensure that we have a differentiated and market winning product proposition. We need to have the right business model,” he added. 

Talking about plans in the advance hydration space, Roy said “The ORS (oral rehydration solutions) is a global trend and the company is very clear that over the next one year, we need to get into this space as part of a global project. We are working very closely with our global R&D team on this. India could be one of the first markets to be part of this global launch,” he added. 

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