Reliance to relaunch local soft drink brand Campa Cola

The product will be launched in three flavors - cola, lemon, and orange, CNN News-18 reported last week.

Campa Cola, one of the two best-selling soft drink brands in India in the late 1970s, was first launched by New Delhi-based Pure Drinks group after Coca-Cola was temporarily ousted from India in 1977. The product went on to become one of India’s two best-selling soft drink brands but declined in popularity when foreign soft drinks returned in the 1990s.

The iconic soda brand that once filled a vacuum left by Coca-Cola had, in fact, rivalled foreign brands Coke and Pepsi.

While Coca-Cola was introduced in India in the 1950s, it withdrew from the market just over two decades later when the then central government introduced a regulation that would have required it to reveal its formula.

In its absence, the Indian alternative Campa Cola became immensely popular and soon grew to lead the country’s soft drink market.

Campa Cola’s popularity too was fueled by catchy advertising campaigns  and its punchy tag line, with a hint of an appeal to patriotism - “The Great Indian Taste” that appealed to Indian youth. 

However, the return of the US brands with the opening of the Indian market by the administration of Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao and his finance minister Manmohan Singh, gave a big blow to the local brand and its popularity began to fizzle during the 1990s. 

As the foreign brands Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Fanta became popular, Campa Cola gradually disappeared from food stalls and their shelves across the country.

With its new acquisition, Reliance appears to be hoping to appeal both to those Indians nostalgic for the brand and to introduce the cola to a younger crowd who might not remember its previous incarnation.

“By presenting Campa in its new avatar, we hope to inspire consumers across generations to embrace this truly iconic brand and trigger a new excitement in the beverage segment,” CNN News-18 quoted a company spokesperson as saying.

Reliance Industries had acquired Campa Cola from New Delhi-based Pure Drinks Group in a deal that valued the local soft drink brand at around Rs22 crore ($2.8m), according to reports.

The brand’s two major manufacturing plants and office in Delhi closed in 2000, and since 2009 the product has only been available in a few, select grocery stores in the country.

According to reports, three flavours of the brand will be initially launched in select centres and will eventually be made available nationally via Reliance Industries’ retail stores in the country, as well as in local family-owned kirana stores.