Double Seven (soft drink)

Double Seven
Type Cola
Manufacturer Modern Food Industries
Country of origin India
Introduced 1977
Discontinued Yes
Flavour Cola
Variants Double Seven Tingle (Lemon-lime flavoured)
Related products Thums Up, Campa Cola.

Double Seven was an Indian soft drink brand. It was manufactured and marketed by the Indian government after Coca-Cola quit the Indian market in 1977 due to changes in government policies.[1][2][3][4] Double Seven was launched at the annual trade fair at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi as a gift by the then ruling Janata Party.[5]

In 1977, the Morarji Desai government asked Coca-Cola to hand over the controlling stake of its Indian operation to Indian investors as per the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act. This would have meant that Coca-Cola might have had to share the secret Coca-Cola formula with its Indian partners. Coca-Cola refused and was asked by the government to cease its operations in India.[6][7]

Developed to fill the void left by Coca-Cola, Double Seven was manufactured and marketed by Modern Food Industries, a government owned company.[8][9] The formula for the concentrate of Double Seven was developed at Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysore. Despite government backing, Double Seven could not dominate the Indian soft drinks market.[10] The main competitors to Double Seven were Campa Cola, Thums Up, Duke's, McDowell's Crush and Double Cola.[11] Double Seven also had a Lemon-lime flavoured soft drink known as Double Seven Tingle.[12]

In 1980, Prime Minister Desai lost the support of parliament and resigned, leading to elections that returned Indira Gandhi to power.[13] Double Seven, which was named after the year in which she lost power,[1][14] lost further share of market as her government was not interested in supporting a product which reminded them of 1977.[5] Modern Food Industries gradually slipped into the red and was taken over by Hindustan Lever Limited in January 2000.[15]

However, Thums Up, which was also launched in 1977 after the departure of Coca-Cola, continued to thrive until its eventual takeover by Coca-Cola.[3]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Waning days of an Indian soda pop". The New York Times. 23 February 2009. Retrieved 16 September 2013.
  2. India 50: The Making of a Nation (1997), EIndia 50: The Making of a Nation, Ayaz Memon and Book Quest Publishers, p. 145, ISBN 81-8602-506-5, ISBN 8186025065
  3. 1 2 "How Thums Up became the ruling cola of India". Mercury Brief. 18 October 2009. Retrieved 16 September 2013.
  4. "History". Coca-Cola India. Retrieved 17 September 2013.
  5. 1 2 Sunil Lala (1998), American Khichdi, Macmillan Publishers India Limited, p. 25, ISBN 0230-63745-0, ISBN 0230637450
  6. "Business: India May Swallow Coke". Time Magazine. 22 August 1977. Retrieved 17 September 2013.
  7. Mehul Srivastava (9 September 2010). "Coca-Cola Can't Speak Its Name in India as Pepsi Enters Hindi". Bloomberg. Retrieved 17 September 2013.
  8. Devendra Thakur (1998), Economic Reforms and Industrialisation: Textiles, dairy, cement and mica industries, Deep & Deep Publications, p. 242, ISBN 81-7100-855-0
  9. "MODERN FOOD INDUSTRIES (INDIA) LIMITED". Ministry of Food Processing Industries. Retrieved 16 September 2013.
  10. Rajat K. Baisya (2008), Changing Face of Processed Food Industry in India, Ane Books Pvt Ltd, p. 142, ISBN 81-8052-166-4, ISBN 8180521664
  11. "The brand that refused to die". Business Today. 31 May 2009. Retrieved 16 September 2013.
  12. Manendra Mohan (1989), Advertising Management: Concepts and Cases, Tata McGraw-Hill Education, p. 130, ISBN 9780074517802, ISBN 0074517805
  13. "1980: Gandhi returned by landslide vote". BBC. 7 January 1980. Retrieved 18 September 2013.
  14. Atiya Bansal (1998), The City From Here, Har-Anand Publications Private Limited, p. 78, ISBN 978-81-241-1424-7, ISBN 9788124114247
  15. "Brief Notes on Privatised Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs)". Department of Disinvestment, Ministry of Finance. Retrieved 5 Jan 2012.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 9/21/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.