Kolkata, Aug 17 (IBNS): The country’s leading packaged beverage company, Coca-Cola India, here on Tuesday, announced its entry into the ready-to-drink (RTD) dairy market with the launch of Maaza Milky Delite.
At a press interaction held at a city five star, company officials showed off the mango and milk-based drink, which will first be launched in Kolkata in the coming weeks, and with a phased approach, shall be introduced to the rest of the country.
Maaza Milky Delite will see the beverage behemoth taking on the current segment leaders (nationally) Amul for the RTD dairy market which the company officials said ‘is nascent but growing at double digit rates’.
The drink, which uses fully indigenous raw materials and is currently packaged only at their Taratala (West Bengal) plant, was developed in Coca-Cola’s Research and Development Lab in Guragon.
“We couldn’t outsource an existing product from our foreign markets because understanding the Indian consumer was very important for this product. There’s an entirely different psyche associated with packaged beverages here than other countries,” company Vice President Marketing, Ricardo Fort said.
Coke already has similar dairy-based products in countries like China and Vietnam where it ‘was doing very well’ according to the company execs.
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| Pic Courtesy - ET |
The drink’s performance is expected be intricately scrutinised as a similar product launched by Parle Agro, a few years ago, was not very well-received.
