Coca-Cola India, a leading beverage company, recently announced the pilot launch of its ready-to-drink, flavoured milk offering – Vio. The new offering further expands the company’s existing portfolio of beverages, providing consumers more choice.
The company’s entry into dairy will lay the foundation for its business’ next growth pillar after sparkling, water and juices. Its portfolio currently includes Maaza and Minute Maid juice drinks, Kinley packaged water, Schweppes tonics and mixers, Georgia tea and coffee, Fuze iced tea, and a range of sparkling beverages. The introduction of Vio follows the launch of Fuze iced tea in 30 cities, last year and the launch of Coke Zero in late 2014.
The flavoured milk has been developed specifically for the Indian palate at Coca-Cola India’s R&D centre in Gurgaon with inputs from the R&D centres in Atlanta and Shanghai. Made from milk sourced from dairy farmers, Vio has been formulated with a blend of delicious saffron, pistachio and almond flavours in the respective ‘Kesar Treat’ and ‘Almond Delight’ variants. The product contains no preservatives and promises to provide the consumers with wholesome goodness of milk in every drop and will be made available in the convenient 200 ml aseptic packaging at an attractive price point of Rs 25.
Venkatesh Kini, president, Coca-Cola India and South West Asia, said: “Vio flavoured milk, which has been jointly developed in collaboration with our largest bottling partner, Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages, adds to our ‘Made in India, Made for India’ range of beverage innovations. This product not only promises long-term business growth, but also leverages our system’s value chain in procuring ingredients and raw materials from the dairy farming community. We look forward to the consumers’ feedback, which will help us decide on scaling this pilot launch further.”
Speaking about the launch, T Krishnakumar, CEO, Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt. Ltd, said, “Dairy is a category, which is firmly rooted in Indian tradition and enjoyed greatly by consumers since time immemorial, as we venture into this important segment, our intent is to make Vio easily accessible to the consumer. As part of the phased pilot launch, Vio flavoured milk will first be made available in the top metros across the country, through modern trade outlets and e-commerce platforms and eventually expanded to traditional trade as well. The product is being manufactured by our co-packer, Schreiber Dynamix Dairies Pvt. Ltd and will be distributed through the system’s strong distribution network – in different parts of the country.”
As part of the pilot launch, the product will first be made available exclusively across 500 Reliance Retail outlets across the country, beginning January 26, 2016, as part of the Republic Day ‘Big Day’ extravaganza.
Damodar Mal, CEO, Reliance Retail, said, “At Reliance Fresh supermarkets, our customers always look for healthy foods that can be fun too! We are excited that a trusted food major like Coca-Cola is bringing a fun milk drink Vio.”
Elaborating on the launch strategy and product attributes, Debabrata Mukherjee, VP, marketing and commercial, Coca-Cola India and South West Asia, said, “Vio aims to establish new consumption occasions for the consumers, over and above the standard in-home consumption. The product is packed with milk power and targeted for consumers’ on–the-go. To ensure that we cater to the target consumers’ preference for products that offer functional benefits and yet are differentiated, we have put in a new dimension to the traditional beverage right from the brand name, Vio – an easy to pronounce monosyllabic word to the refined and attractive visual identity system.”
“We aim to build higher brand recall and awareness. This will be followed by a strong communication plan which includes digital and print campaigns. We expect Vio to set the trend in making out of home, on-the-go milk consumption in vogue for consumers for different age groups across the social strata.”
