In the domestic market, Maaza, the indigenous fruit drink brand, has reported total sales of Rs. 2,826 crore in FY21, which is way higher than the sales of Coke in India. In fact, Limca, a lemon-and lime-flavoured carbonated soft drink brand, recorded total sales of Rs. 2,061 crore in FY21. While Thums Up has now become a billion-dollar brand (Rs. 7,500 crore) under Coca-Cola’s stable, both brands (Maaza and Limca) were acquired by The Coca-Cola Company along with Thums Up from Ramesh Chauhan of Parle Bisleri in 1993, when the Atlanta-headquartered company re-entered the Indian market.
The Coca-Cola Company Chairman and CEO James Quincey said, “Our local Thums Up brand became a USD 1-billion brand in India, driven by focused marketing and execution plans.”
Sanket Ray, Coca-Cola President (India and Southwest Asia) conveyed on Maaza and Limca’s performance and said that both brands are doing well. In India, presently, Maaza is ranked as the No. 3 brand and Limca is the sixth brand in terms of sales volume in the overall beverage category.
Definitely, Maaza is bigger than Coke, and Limca is just smaller than Coke. In 1993, Coca-Cola bought the complete portfolio of aerated drinks from the Chauhan brothers, which also included Gold Spot, a brand which is not presently used by Coca-Cola.
Limca is doing well and it is especially strong in a few states like Punjab and the northern part of India, while in the rest of the country, it is still weak. Coca-Cola has a “mega plan” for brand Limca and, in the coming years, it will slowly pick up. Whereas Maaza was doing “extremely well” and had made significant gains in market share last year, as juice as a category had done well.
The beverage giant has recently signed Amitabh Bachchan and Pooja Hedge as the company is going all out on Maaza in the coming year. While talking about the orange-based drink brand Gold Spot, Ray said Coca-Cola is not using it right now as the company has another brand, “Fanta,” operating in a similar space. “Two brands in the orange category will cause confusion, and so, we are not using Gold Spot now,” he said.