Coca-Cola, a global leader in the beverage industry is all set to launch three fruit-based drinks during the summer. Two of these fruit drinks will be launched under the Minute Maid brand, whereas the third would be a mango shake in the dairy segment under the brand Maaza.

The Coca Cola officials confirmed the news, “Coca-Cola India is currently test marketing Minute Maid Apple Juice and Minute Maid Mixed Fruit juice in Kolkata. Based on the response, we will take a call to roll it out in other parts of the country.”

The company has not yet set its foot in the dairy segment, and thus the launch of mango shake in the Indian markets would act as a testing ground for the company. Also, the company has partnered with the upcoming Common Wealth Games to launch its fruit-based drinks.

Industry sources believe that the move just reflects the consumer’s need for a healthy life. The juice market in India is expected to be approx. Rs 2,670-crore market, which seems to be nearly 18% of the carbonated drinks market.

FMCG companies have been launching health related products in the past few months to cash on the healthy living concept adopted by their consumers.

Coca-Cola has launched a new lemon variant of Minute Maid, which had earlier launched ‘Pulpy Orange’ in 2007. Nimbu Fresh, the new variant was launched on February 19. The brand has been positioned as ‘Bilkul Ghar Jaisa’ attempting to woo the Indian consumers.

The brand was exclusively launched at Future Group’s Big Bazaar and Food Bazaar hypermarket chains. The brand was available only at 96 outlets across seven cities including Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune and Ahmedabad. The brand was launched under the ‘Shubh Muhurat’ programme by Big Bazaar, where all the new brands are launched.

Sandeep Walunj, chief marketing officer, Big Bazaar, said, “Close to 15 lakh people walk into Big Bazaar on a daily basis. The idea was to work together closely with the brand team at Coca-Cola to deliver a never before launch. Big Bazaar consumers experienced the ‘Joy of New’ with close interactions with the product.”

The Big Bazaar and the team of Coca-Cola planned various activities including unique in-store promotions, signages and branding. An exclusive Minute Maid Nimbu Fresh zone was created along with various contests and sampling. Standees, danglers, dropdowns and cross category reminders were also created for the launch.

Sumanta Datta, vice-president, customer and commercial leadership, Coca-Cola India, says, “This partnership was a win-win opportunity for all as it provides Coca-Cola India the scale to refresh its consumers across the four metros as well as Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Pune, all in one go. On the other hand, this special relationship enables Big Bazaar to exclusively offer a brand such as Minute Maid Nimbu Fresh to its consumers.”

Nimbu Fresh will be competing with PepsiCo’s Nimbooz by 7Up and Parle Agro’s LMN.