UK's Twiss Drinks eyes Indian fruit juice market with quirky combos

Twiss Drinks, a UK-based company, has tied up with diversified business house Amarjothi Group to enter the country’s aerated natural fruit juice market. The first to be launched from the company’s portfolio is a sparkling fruit juice, which was unveiled at the India Food Forum 2016.

Amarjothi Group is one of the largest manufacturers of Melange yarn, along with other varied interests in real estate, medical institutions, IT, animation and consultancy, among others.

Commenting on the India launch, Nitin Menon, Managing Director, Twiss India, told Adgully, “After launching in the UK in 2011, we saw immense potential in India. We are completely different from Real and Tropicana as we offer a different set of products which has quirky combination like mango and lime, apple and black currant, lemon with a twist of mint, and passion fruit with twist of orange. So, these are more innovative combinations targeted at younger generation of the country.”

On the market potential, Premchander Rajan, Chairman, Twiss Drinks, said, “The Indian beverage market is growing at a range of about 15 per cent year-on-year. This presents a very good opportunity for many new brands to enter the market if they have a differentiating product and the market has a need for the same. India has one of the youngest populations in the world that is engaged with all that is innovative in food and technology. With our product concept and taste, we feel that Twiss will make every effort to be relevant to them and seamlessly integrate with their lifestyle choices.”

Menon further informed that a study of the Indian market identified high potential for Twiss’ beverages. “We see it as category development for sparkling juice drinks. The response we received was very positive,” he added.

Speaking on the challenges, Menon elucidated that for any new brand setting up distribution and logistics channels was a challenge. Moreover, India is far behind even from neighbouring countries like Pakistan and Sri Lanka in terms of juice consumption. At the same time, the company saw immense potential and believed its drinks would be a refreshing change in lifestyle of youngsters.

“Since we are targeting the youth of the country, we will be doing promotions in colleges and universities. Also, a lot of buzz will be created on digital platforms. As of now, we are not looking at TV commercials,” he added.

The brand is being launched initially in cities like Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad. The product is priced at Rs 40 for 250 ml cans.