Coca-Cola India is running against time to launch its sports drink Powerade in the country before the Commonwealth Games in October.
The
official beverages partner is keen to have a sports drink in its
portfolio before the games takes off in New Delhi even if that means
importing the product, a person close to the company brass said.
The
world’s largest drink maker plans to start local manufacturing of
Powerade in India, said the person on condition of anonymity.
But
it will import the brand in case production is not ready in time for
the games, he added. When contacted, a Coca-Cola India spokesman would
not confirm or deny the proposed launch of Powerade. “As part of our
beverage innovation pipeline, we are always on the look out for new
opportunities,” he told ET. “We will get back to you as our plans
fructify.”
As official partners, Coca-Cola has exclusive rights
to serve drinks in its portfolio to athletes, spectators, team officials
and volunteers at the games. But athletes mostly avoid fizzy drinks and
prefer sports drinks instead. Hence the rush to launch Powerade.
Its
biggest rival and world’s largest sports drinks brand Gatorade from
PepsiCo is present in India since 2004. PepsiCo last month extended the
brand to the ready-to-mix powder format, making it more accessible.
GlaxoSmithKline
is working on commercial launch of its sports drink Lucozade which was
test-marketed during the Mumbai Marathon in January this year.
It
is not clear which all flavours of Powerade will be launched in India.
In global markets, Powerade is available in a variety of flavors
including orange, berry, lemon and mango. The brand also has a
low-calorie variant — Powerade Option — in some markets.
Apart
from Powerade, Coca-Cola also has Aquaruis in its global sports drinks
portfolio. The agreement between Coca-Cola and the Commonwealth Games
(CWG) organising committee at present includes fizzy drinks Coca-Cola,
Diet Coke, Thums Up, Fanta, Limca and Sprite, juice-based Nimbu Fresh,
Maaza and Minute Maid, and water brands Kinley and Bonaqua.
It, however, excludes Coke’s energy drink Burn because energy drinks contain caffeine, which is banned for athletes.
Coca-Cola is aggressively chasing its arch rival PepsiCo in the global sports drinks market dominated by Gatorade.
Last year, Coca-Cola relaunched Powerade as Powerade Ion4 — a formulation claimed to replenish electrolytes lost in sweat.
Soon
after, PepsiCo sued Coca-Cola over advertisements claiming that
Gatorade was an ‘incomplete’ sports drink since it only contained two of
the four key electrolytes.
The matter was ruled in favour of
Coca-Cola for reasons including Gatorade making similar claims about its
own brands, PepsiCo failing to prove any damage caused by the ads and
that the commercials were run only for a limited period.
Fortified waters and sports drinks saw steep volume declines in 2009 in the US and Gatorade declined in double digits globally.
Coca-Cola
was the official beverages partner for the Youth Commonwealth Games in
Pune in 2008. Globally, the brand has been associated with the Olympic
Games since 1928.
