Coca-Cola brings back ₹5 price point with Vitingo

Coca-Cola India Pvt. Ltd on Thursday introduced the Minute Maid Vitingo, a water soluble powder priced at ₹5 per sachet, reviving a popular yet controversial price point that it discontinued 14 years ago. The purpose: get more people to try Coca-Cola products.

In 2000, the Indian unit of American beverages maker The Coca-Cola Co. had introduced ₹5 bottles of Coca-Cola, which was followed by rival PepsiCo with its own beverage at the same price. Coca-Cola ended the ₹5 bottles in 2014.

“The ₹5 price point will increase our reach, especially to the segment which cannot afford most of the packaged beverages. Nutrition is a category we would be focusing on in future. The aim is to bring products that have connects with the country’s socio-economic needs. And Vitingo fits in perfectly,” said T. Krishnakumar, president of Coca-Cola India and South-west Asia.

Coca-Cola’s Vitingo will have to compete with dominant Glucon-D, a similar product by American food firm The Kraft Heinz Co. and home-grown packaged goods maker Dabur India Ltd’s Glucose-D, among others.

“Chemist outlets would be one of the most important distribution channels for Vitingo. We have almost no presence there. We have partnered with wholesaler Metro Cash and Carry that has a strong presence in that segment. We’ll have more partners,” Krishnakumar said.

Vitingo, however, is not an entirely new product.

The company has been distributing it as part of its corporate social responsibility initiatives through non-governmental organisations since 2010.