Indian soft drinks companies are taking advantage of the opposition that PepsiCo and Coca-Cola are facing in the southern Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala to expand their presence and boost sales.
Manpasand, a Gujarat-based beverages company which specialises in carbonated fruit drinks and fruit juices, says that it is “aggressively” expanding its reach in Tamil Nadu to capitalise on the ban on the multinational cola brands. It is fast-tracking construction of a new 1.5 billion rupees (Dh84.2 million) plant in Sri City, a special economic zone near Chennai.
“After this ban, we are able to penetrate the market much more quickly,” said Abhishek Singh, the director at Manpasand. “We are able to immediately appoint dealers and distributors in Tamil Nadu. It is not only an opportunity for us. It’s an opportunity for others. It’s an opportunity for Parle, for Dabur, to immediately gain control of the market.”
The lower pricing of local brands compared to the multinationals could also help them gain market share, he added.
Mr Singh said that Manpasand’s “turnover was jumping by double” in Tamil Nadu following the ban.
“It’s not good, it’s very good,” he said.
N Chandramouli, the chief executive of Trust Research Advisory, said that a number of local brands stood to benefit from the backlash against PepsiCo and Coca-Cola.
“There are local brands which have gained from it,” he said. “There’s a brand called Bovonto, which is a dark-coloured cola drink from the south. There’s a company called Sosyo from Gujarat and Manpasand. They have increased their capacities so quickly to meet the demand. The demand stays – it’s not as if that goes away.”
Manpasand said it is also setting up three more manufacturing units in other parts of the country, namely Vadodara, Varanasi and in the east of India with the aim of doubling the company’s production capacity in the next 12 to 18 months. Last year, the company had sales of 5.56bn rupees.
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