DELHI: More than 16 years ago Coca-Cola was given an ultimatum by the leftist who governed India at the time reveal the drink’s secret formula or go.
Coca-Cola left in a huff, only to Tetumiast Christmas, ready to fight Pepsi for India’s potentially co: Jossal beverages market.
After Coca-Cola pulled out, Indians had nothing to gulp down but sickly imitations of the real thing such as Camp a Cola, whose trademark is a copy of Coca-Cola but whose product tastes like Sweet, effervescent mud, Profiting from the Congress government’s recent economic reforms, Pepsi thought it safe to enter the country through partnership with Lehar, a big local drinks firm.
Now the Cola wars are bubbling in India, First fights have broken out between the gangs of Pepsi and Coca-Cola sign painters vying for choice street comer hoardings. And when Coca-Cola had its muted launch at a bottling plant in Agra, near the Taj Mahal, Pepsi plastered huge advertisements all around, In Bombay, Pepst trucks were hijacked, Even without Pepsi’s rivalry, Coca-Cola’s beset by worries, The Communists see Coke’s reappearance as a symbol of India’s selling, out to imperialism. They claim they can rally 200,000 students for a protest demonstration next month in Delhi to demand that Coca-Cola and Pepsi quit India, Fow Indians have even tasted Coke, Distribution is slug; only a few hotels and fast food restaurants in the big cities stock it Coca-Cola’s reentry into India was masterminded by Ramesh Chauhan, a U.S.educated Indian widely held responsible for persuading the leftist Janata government to have Coca-Cola kicked out. With Coca-Cola gone, Chauhan’s four soft drink brands Thums Up, Limca, Maaz and Sprint became bestsellers. Coca-Cola executives are using him to handle the drink’s bottling and marketing throughout the country. In exchange, Coke brought out Chauhan’s soft drinks for $60 million. For Coca-Cola’s launch, Chauhan stood beside the multinational’s senior vice president, Neville Is dell, and discreetly flashed at hum sup sign. Thums Up is India’s most popular soft drink, with a 60% market share Competitive though Coca-Cola might be, it will probably continue selling Thums Up until it has won over tricky Indian taste buds Chauhan is thought to have called a truce with Coca-Cola when he finalized that the multinational’s comeback to India was inevitable and that his company alone could not tackle the two drinks giants India has more than 870 million thirsty people, but have Pepsi and Coca-Cola overestimated the size of the soft drinks market in a country where 40% are poor and many consider themselves lucky to have clean water? Indians imbibe only three or four soft drinks a year, compared with the 750 bottles guzzled yearly by Americans, Pepsi’s snack food and drinks operation in India has shown losses of $29.5 million, but both multinationals are eyeing the urban middle class of 94 million They can afford colas which at about 25¢ a bottle, are far cheaper than in Canada.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 11, 1994
