Coke eyes market for fruit juices, energy drinks

Mumbai: Coca-Cola India plans to enter new beverage segments such as fruit juices in addition to sports and energy drinks in tune with its global strategy to promote healthy beverages.

Coke in India already has a presence in carbonated drinks, tea, coffee, mineral water and fruit-based drinks. The company's mango-flavoured drink, `Maaza', is already well established in the market, while it launched its 100 per cent fruit-based drink,`Minute Maid' - an orange-flavoured drink - in February.

The soft drink major said it would put in place a supply-chain system before entering the 100 per cent juice segment.

The 100 per cent packaged juice segment in India, estimated to be worth around Rs500 crore, is currently dominated by brands such as Dabur Foods's Real, Activ and Coolers, PepsiCo's Tropicana and Ladakh Foods's Leh Berry.

Coca-Cola officials said the company was assessing the market potential of its energy drink, Burn, and sports drink, Powerade, in India. Burn and Powerade are already available in international markets such as the US.

Coke is also trying out the pulp-based drink which is not 100 per cent juice, Coca-Cola India's regional operations vice president Milind Sathe said.

Coca-Cola had earlier tried to enter the energy drinks segment with the brand Shock.

At present, Red Bull and Gatorade are some of the energy and sports drinks available in India.