A BIG FIGHT IS BEING WON
Even as every local soft drink brand crumbles under MNC pressure, Rasna fights on. The multinationals had captured the ready-to-consume soft-drink market, which had grown due to changing consumer preferences and rising number of refrigerators. Rasna, unfazed, simply expanded the soft drink concentrate market by going global. The brand added more products — jams, fruit cordials, teas, pickles, chutneys and ready-to-eat curries.
Currently, Rasna is sold in 53 countries. Sales in the Gulf and the South-east Asian neighbourhood account for the larger chunk of export and Latin America is next.
“Some Latin American countries have large, state-sponsored initiatives for children. They provide drinks as nutritional supplements to school kids at subsidised rates or free of cost. We are in talks with a few governments to be part of these programmes,” says Piruz Khambatta, chairman and MD.
Africa is an emerging market too for Rasna but it finds the market there to be value-conscious. So it sells sachets that are low on sugar and price in western Africa. In markets such as the US and Europe, Rasna sells ethnic flavours.
“We are role models for Indian firms that want to fight multi-nationals and continue growing. We are one of the very few that are truly made in
Rasna is sold in 53 countries. Sales in the Gulf and the South-east Asian neighbourhood account for the larger chunk of export and Latin America is next
India,” Khambatta adds.
Rasna was among the domestic soft-drink brands that came up in the mid ’70s after CocoCola withdrew following foreign exchange regulations. In the ’80s, the drink concentrate was a major category in the soft drink market and Rasna enjoyed over 90 per cent market share. But the category has not grown as fast as the softdrink market. The soft drinks market grew from `13 crore in 1982 to `14,000 crore in 2014. At around `700 to 800 crore, soft drink concentrate is just two per cent of the market now.
But while the softdrink concentrate market did not grow as expected, Rasna continued dominance. All attempts by MNCs to dislodge it from its spot have failed.