Game has just begun for sports drinks

Sports drinks have failed to catch on in India so far, with sales still on a slow track. But a host of companies are hoping that the sporting spirit during the Commonwealth Games will be strong enough to revive their fortunes.

That explains the flurry of launches. While Glaxo SmithKline launched its sports drink Lucozade last week, the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation, makers of Amul, relaunched Stamina after a rather lukewarm debut in 2006, and Heinz India came up with Glucon-D Isotonik.

Meanwhile, Coca-Cola, the official beverage sponsor of the Games, will bring its Powerade brand in October. It is not clear which all flavours of Powerade will be launched in India. In global markets, Powerade is available in a variety of flavours including orange, berry, lemon and mango. The brand also has a low-calorie variant — Powerade Option — in some markets.

All these companies will challenge the virtual monopoly of Pepsico’s Gatorade, which is present in the Indian market since 2004. PepsiCo has also extended the brand to the ready-to-mix powder format to make it more accessible to Indian consumers.

The keen competition has already seen a court battle between Heinz India and Pepsico over the use of a tagline for Glucon-D Isotonik, which the former won. The battle was over the use of similar taglines for their respective energy drinks. Pepsi’s Gatorade sports drink uses the tagline ‘rehydrate, replenish, refuel’, while Heinz advertisements say ‘Glucon-D Isotonik rehydrates fluids, replenishes vital salts and recharges glucose’.

The sports drinks manufacturers are also hoping that the increasing health consciousness among Indian consumers will play a big role – a reason why all of them are promoting the product at points where customers work up a sweat — gyms, sports clubs and sports events.

The sports as well as the energy drink market is worth Rs 150 crore now and, by some reckoning, is growing at 35 per cent year on year. Industry sources also say the margins could be around 30-35 per cent against 5-20 per cent for carbonated drinks.

Companies are using innovative ways to market the product. Amul's Stamina for instance is trying to cash in on the fact that it is milk-based unlike competitors’ products which are water based. Gujarat Cooperative Marketing Federation Acting MD R S Sodhi says: “We are marketing our sports drinks through gyms , sports clubs and through marathons. Our main USP is that our product is based on milk, unlike others”.

However, the going may not be all that smooth, say experts. For decades now, active Indians have turned to glucose-based drinks like Glucon-D and oral rehydration supplements like Electral for refreshment and replenishment during play. Getting them to switch to a branded sports drink may not be easy. Amul has already learnt it the hard way.

Also, questions are being raised whether sports drinks really help in replenishing water and mineral deficiency in the body after excessive sweating during workouts. A sports physician says, “Sports drinks are over-rated. Research done in this field is funded by companies themselves”.

But companies contest this argument. GSK’s Sen says Lucozade is a scientifically formulated drink backed by years of research as well as approved by independent authorities such as World Anti-Doping Agency that further establishes its credibility.