Mumbai: Made-in-India soft drink brand Thums Up has become a billion-dollar brand in 2021, announced The Coca-Cola Company, which owns the brand.

"Our local Thums Up brand became a $ one billion brand in India, driven by focussed marketing and execution plans," said The Coca-Cola Company chairman and CEO James Quincey on Thursday evening during a post-earnings call.

With this, the original fizzy drink to emerge from the country becomes the first home-grown Indian beverage brand to scale to billion-dollar sales, finding its place amongst the billion-dollar brands in the global beverages market.

During the December quarter, the company’s sales grew by nearly 30 per cent in the country as “initiatives in India to build omnichannel presence and marketing campaigns around key occasions by leveraging festivals and passion points, through occasion-led marketing and integrated execution, drove a sequential increase in market share,” Quincey added.

The locally-made fizzy drinks brand Thums Up was launched more than four decades back in 1977, after Coca-Cola had exited from the Indian market following the Indian government’s directive to reduce the ownership stake of its Indian operation. 

The brand was then re-acquired by The Coca-Cola Company in 1993 when it re-entered the Indian market. Coca-Cola had then bought the entire portfolio of aerated drinks from Ramesh Chauhan of Parle Bisleri. which also included Gold Spot and Limca.