Rasna: Juicing It Up

A soft drink concentrate named Jaffe, made by an Ahmedabad-based company set up in the 1940s, is today one of India’s most iconic brands: Rasna.

Initially set up by Phirojshaw Khambatta as a B2B entity, the company that made Jaffe for B2C renamed the brand as Rasna in 1976. Today, it enjoys an 80 percent market share in the soft drink concentrate market.

What has enabled Rasna to survive competition and the changing economic landscape pre- and post liberalisation? “Two things have kept us relevant even now: Innovation and good marketing. We have innovated with a lot of new product offerings, flavours and formats while retaining the same core. We have ensured that Rasna is as alive and kicking in the third generation as it was in the first,” says Piruz Khambatta, 50, chairman, Rasna Private Limited, and Phirojshaw’s grandson.

Rasna entered the market at an affordable price point of 5 per box with concentrate in a bottle and powder that had to be mixed with sugar and water. It made 32 glasses of the drink and was the cheapest concentrate available in the market then. It remains one even today. But some things have changed. “I can’t say that we are using the same formulations that my grandfather was using. We have reformulated the product and made it more fruity and natural. Apart from that, we have also diversified the basket to include a lot of different products,” says Piruz.

When Phirojshaw’s son Areez Khambatta joined the business in 1962, he continued to operate the company both as a B2B and B2C entity. By 1992, his son Piruz, then 18, came on board and decided to focus entirely on marketing. At the time, Rasna was still only available in a one-pack size. “I realised there was a huge possibility of entering the rural market with a smaller sachet. Since there was no packaging available to package both the liquid and powder [concentrate] in the same pack, we imported a machine from Germany to do the same,” explains Piruz.