Powdered Tropicana variant joins Tang, Rasna

Food & beverage major PepsiCo has launched a new powdered variant of its Tropicana brand of juices, taking on players such as Rasna and Kraft, which produces the Tang brand of powdered beverages.

India is the first market where PepsiCo has rolled out this product in an attempt to increase the penetration of Tropicana, which thanks to its premium pricing, is limited to the larger cities in terms of consumption. For instance, a 200-ml tetrapak is priced at Rs 22.

The first phase of the launch will see the product available in the metros of Mumbai, Delhi, Pune and Chennai, with the second phase expected to target more cities. PepsiCo, at the moment, is rolling out the product in mainly traditional trade outlets in the four cities, Homi Battiwalla, senior director, marketing (colas, juices & hydration), PepsiCo India, said.

The juice category including products that have fruit content anywhere between 20 and 100 per cent is growing in excess of 20 per cent. It is a market that is pegged at about Rs 500 to Rs 700 crore in size and is expected to touch Rs 1,500 crore in the next few years. Besides PepsiCo's Tropicana, products in the market also include Dabur's Real brand of juices and Coca-Cola's Minute Maid portfolio ,besides Parle Agro's Saint Juice among others. There are also imported brands that operate in this space.