The Mukesh Ambani-owned company is replicating its pricing strategy in soft drinks and energy drinks to sell Sun Crush at ₹20 each for 200 ml bottles, a move set to further escalate the fierce packaged beverages war, executives in knowledge of the development said.
Rivals such as Real and Tropicana have juice drinks variants at similar prices.
Sun Crush is Reliance’s second juice brand after RasKik. “Apart from pricing, Dabur, ITC and Tata Consumer are among the companies that have sounded off trade channels on new variants of packaged juices at aggressive prices, promotions and tweaked margins,” a large Delhi-based FMCG distributor said.
Two years back, Reliance had acquired local juice maker RasKik from entrepreneur Vikas Chawla, former managing director of Coca-Cola, South East Europe, to compete in the mass market. Reliance has existing partnerships with Ceylon Beverages for contract packaging Campa and co-creating energy drink Spinner in India, besides distribution rights for energy drinks and juices in India.
The local beverages market is estimated at ₹67,000 crore, said a report by think tank ICRIER, which forecasted this market to reach ₹1.47 trillion in sales by 2030. This includes carbonated soft drinks, juices, fruit-based and water.
