Fruit juice not colas is hotter in South India this summer

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By Divya Rajagopal and Ramya Ramamurthy, CNBC-TV18

Forget colas, South India wants its fruit juice! FMCG companies are busy battling for a market share in the hot southern market this summer. So, who will win the battle of the shelf space?

Pepsi and Coca Cola wars are passe. Fruit juice is where the action is, at least in South India. Coca Cola chose to launch its orange fruit juice drink Minute Maid in Chennai and Pepsico added its own twist in the tale when it launched Tropicana Twister . Local companies are taking a big sip too. Chennai-based Cavincare, a Rs 500 crore FMCG company, acquired popular brand Maa Fruits last month to enter the Rs 60 crore fruit juice market in South India.

"Particularly, Maa as a brand already has consumer acceptance. Though it is not widely distributed, the places where it is are high consumption centers. As a brand, it is doing fantastically well. So, we thought it is a very good fit for us and we can make it big also," said C Ranganathan, MD, Cavincare .

In the last two years, the fruit juice market in India has been growing at a rate of 25%. Even while Pepsi and Coca-Cola slug it out, it's the local brands, which get premium space on shelves. But that hasn't stopped biggies like Dabur from wanting a slice of the fruit juice market. It's battling it out with own brand - Real juice.

So how do local competitors plan to take the biggies on?

"What is that differentiation factor that we can offer. You are also as an competitor offering orange and I am also offering orange. We will look at a specialty variant and a different factor," added C Ranganathan.

Local companies like Cavincare may not really need to worry with their strong distributor base. So, while you may find a Minute Maid or a Twister in any of the metros, it's the Maa brand that available at the central railway station in Chennai or a bus terminus in Tirunenveili.