Expect Thums Up to be $1 bn brand in 2 yrs: Coca-Cola India

Beverages major Coca-Cola India today said it expects its softdrink Thums Up to be a USD 1 billion brand in the next two years, for which it is adding variants to the home-grown product.

With the introduction of 'Thums Up Charged', the company today added the first ever variant to the 40-year-old brand. "We expect Thums Up to become a USD 1 billion brand in next two years.

The launch of Thums Up Charge will help accelerate the journey of becoming the first home-grown billion dollar beverage brand," Vijay Parasuraman, Vice President, Marketing, Coca-Cola India and South West Asia, said here.

Thums Up has a revenue of Rs 5,000 crore, he said. Coca-Cola India said the company, along with partner bottlers, will invest suitably in enhancing the brand, launching new packs, expanding distribution and augmenting manufacturing capacity to increase sales of Thums Up by 2020.

The new Thums Up Charged will be available in seven different packs-—180ml can, 200ml can, 300ml can, 330ml can, 250ml PET, 400ml PET, 500ml PET, it added. Besides Thums Up, the company has identified brands such as Maaza and Limca which have the potential to grow to reach similar size. "For Maaza, it would take around five years to reach that scale," said a company official.

Coca-Cola globally has 21 brands which are in billion dollar club and a large chunk of them has come from other countries, he added.

The company introduced Thums Up Charge last week in some markets and expects it to be available pan-India by the second week of December.

The new variant would have around 150 PPM caffeine while the old Thums Up has around 85 PPM of caffeine.

Coca-Cola would invest on branding and marketing of Thums Up Charge and its teaser is expected to come in December.

"This belief is crucial to Thums Up as it enables the brand to inspire millions of Indians and make them look up to Thums Up as an icon of masculinity," said Parasuraman.