Reliance Consumer Products (RCPL), a Reliance Retail subsidiary and fast-moving consumer goods arm of the company, will focus on setting up its own bottling units, as it eyes a wider distribution network for Campa Cola in the country, persons in the know told FE.
The iconic soft drink brand, popular in the 1970s and 1980s, was acquired by RCPL in August 2022 for Rs 22 crore. It was relaunched in March last year in both general trade and Reliance Retail outlets.
The company works with external bottlers like Kali Aerated Water Works, the maker of the Bovonto brand of soft drinks and Asian Beverages in Tamil Nadu; Jallan Food Products in Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan; and Ghodavat Consumer Products in Maharashtra. In Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Telangana, it works with local bottlers. It also bottles Campa Cola at a unit in Gujarat belonging to Sosyo Hajoori Beverages, in which RCPL has a 50% stake.
Campa Cola is widely available in states such as Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, where sales traction has been good, distributors told FE. They peg its combined sales in these markets at around `150-200 crore.
In Tamil Nadu, for instance, Campa’s reach has crossed 125,000 kirana outlets this summer as demand remains high for the brand, distributors said. In markets such as Andhra Pradesh, Campa’s reach has crossed 100,000 kiranas and is expected to grow in the future as cola consumption is high in that state.
The larger distribution and bottling push of Campa Cola will also be timed with a marketing drive for the brand across the country. The company launched Campa’s first national ad film last week as it looks to rebuild its brand equity in the marketplace. More ad films could come later with regional iterations to tap into a wider audience, industry sources said.
While Campa’s original ad positioning in the 1970s and 1980s — The Great Indian Taste — played up its home-grown credentials, the current ad campaign positions the brand as a drink for New India.
A mail sent to Reliance Consumer Products on Campa Cola elicited no response till the time of going to press.
The new ad campaign also comes as RCPL leverages its association with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), which had in January announced Campa soft drinks, besides home appliances from Atomberg Technologies, as the official partners for its India home cricket season for 2024-26. The deal gave Campa exclusive on-stadium presence in addition to pouring rights and beverage partnerships for cricket matches played in the country during the two-year tenure.
During Reliance Industries’ Q4 earnings call, Dinesh Taluja, chief financial officer, Reliance Retail, said Campa Cola apart from Independence, the company’s staples brand, had seen strong traction and had got good customer acceptance in the marketplace.
“We are building the supply chain for these products (Campa Cola and Independence), so that we can have localised infrastructure in different parts of the country, as we look to scale up these businesses,” Taluja said.
A 200-ml bottle of Campa Cola is priced at `10, while a 500-ml bottle is available for `20 each. The brand is available in three flavours, including orange, lemon and cola, say distributors. Campa Cricket, a lemon-flavoured carbonated drink with electrolytes, was launched during the September quarter of FY24, and energy drink Campa Runner during the March quarter.