How Rasna is taking on competition from multinational companies

As the number of players in the mass end of the packaged beverage market keeps rising, Rasna, the largest and the oldest player in the powdered ready-to-drink market in the country, is sprucing up distribution and scouting for regional buys.

From being the first player in the powdered beverage segment over 25 years ago, the creator of iconic ‘I Love You Rasna’ marketing slogan now has multinational players such as Kraft Foods India, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo to fight in order to maintain its market leadership.

Piruz Khambatta, chairman and managing director, Rasna International, said the company has separate workforce for handling distribution channels across urban and rural markets, and general trade and modern trade, to widen reach. The company is also keen to seize a few regional fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies.

“We are open to some deals and making some offers,” Khambatta said. “There are few food and beverage players available in the country. The scope is in regional brands and we are looking at specific regional-level players which are operating in our segment.”

Kraft Foods, too, this year has decided to go aggressive on its powdered drink brand Tang. In recent months, it has started to push Tang through its chocolate distribution network in the country. Globally for Kraft, Tang is one of the most profitable and fastest growing products in emerging markets, which it wants to scale up in India, too.

Rasna, which has a market share of close to 80% in the segment still, is unperturbed, but is dedicatedly ramping up distribution efforts, renewing communication to consumers by means of advertisements that strike relevance with today’s kids, and transforming packaging to have a more classy appeal.

The soft-drinks concentrate player will also be branching the flagship brand Rasna to newer extensions by launching newer products. Glucose powder drink, Glucose-D, and a squash, or liquid-based, drink are already being test-marketed. It recently relaunched its ready-to-drink powdered brand FruitPlus in stick packs.

While Rasna is also test-marketing Glucose-D in the region, PepsiCo India is launching a glucose-based ready-to-drink beverage under the Leher brand that will be sold at price point of ¤5 for a 200 ml stock-keeping unit (SKU).
“The product has been developed in India keeping in mind the requirements of the average Indian consumer. We have received phenomenal response to the product during trials and believe it will become a big success given its value proposition,” Geetu Verma, executive director - innovation, PepsiCo India, said.
Last month Coca-Cola India re-entered the powdered drink segment in a move to cater to the bottom-of-the-pyramid under its Fanta brand. The company is selling the product in select markets at price point of Rs5.

The cola major tried taking on Rasna a decade ago with brand Sunfill, which was later pulled out of the market.

Khambatta said Rasna would spend about Rs30-35 crore on television advertising this year, and a significant amount on below-the-line activities. The brand has also roped in badminton ace Saina Nehwal to endorse the new launches.

“The powdered beverages market is estimated to be at Rs500-550 crore, of which we have Rs350-400 crore in value terms. Our volume share will be much higher,” Khambatta said.