Ramesh Chauhan re-entering soft drinks segment

Twenty-three years after he exited the soft drinks business following the sale of his Thums Up brand to Atlanta-based Coca-Cola, 76-year-old Ramesh Chauhan will step back into the category.

A week from now, he is to launch Bisleri Pop, a carbonated drink, in four flavours across major cities.

Chairman of Bisleri International told this newspaper there was room for unique flavours within carbonated drinks. "There is enough and more of dark colas, orange and lime-flavoured drinks in the marketplace. Bisleri Pop will have flavours such as pina colada and spicy, different from what is available in the market today. People are (more) open to experimenting with flavours than earlier, which gave us the courage to consider these options,” he said.

Once known as India's cola king, he says the new product has been priced competitively, at Rs 15 for a 300-ml PET bottle. "Cans will come later, by which time we should be able to build a reasonable market for the brand.”

Around 18 months earlier, Chauhan had stepped into the energy drinks market with Urzza. After the initial rollout, the brand was pulled out of the market, owing to "a few mistakes”, he said. "The positioning of Urzza was not right. We are working on it and should relaunch in the next four months.”

Bisleri Pop took eights months to develop and Chauhan says he put all his experience to ensure it clicks in the marketplace.

"We unveiled the product at the recent Khala Ghoda arts and cultural festival in the city and were surprised with the response it received. It was good. People in general liked the flavours, which gave us the confidence to consider a larger rollout,” he said.

The launch will be accompanied by an outdoors campaign, subsequently moving to media such as television and digital to attract youngsters. More flavours and extensions might come later.

The Rs 13,000-14,000 crore soft drinks market in India is dominated by Coca-Cola India and PepsiCo. They straddle the beverage pyramid with carbonated and non-carbonated drinks. Ironically, Thums Up, launched by Chauhan when Coca-Cola first exited India in 1977, remains the largest cola brand in the latter's portfolio. This despite the fact that Coca-Cola is the leading cola drink across the world and something the company gives special emphasis to in India as well.