The market share war between billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Campa Cola, Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo Inc. is creating an unlikely winner in the world’s largest consumer market: refrigerators.
Reliance Industries Ltd.’s consumer goods unit and the American cola giants are on an expansion drive, installing commercial refrigerators in mom-and-pop stores across India. That’s one of the factors driving growth for these so-called visi-coolers, Mohit Sud, group president for Unitary Cooling Products at Blue Star Ltd. told Bloomberg News.
“There is a certain tailwind in the segment,” Sud said, adding that the category is growing faster than Blue Star’s annual growth.
The market for commercial fridges in India, which includes visi-coolers, is expected to expand to $3.9 billion by 2034, up from $2.8 billion in 2025, according to the IMARC Group.
India’s latest round of cola wars is revving up a decades-old marketing strategy to grab buyer interest: control the fridge to bolster sales. Competition in India’s fast-expanding beverage market has intensified after three decades as Reliance Consumer Products Ltd.’s 10-rupee ($0.1) fizzy drink Campa disrupted the market dominated by the American soda giants.
It also fueled a parallel boom for refrigerator makers from Blue Star and Tata Group’s Voltas Ltd. to global names such as Haier Appliances India Pvt. and closely held Western Refrigeration Pvt.. Retail outlets keep beverages prominently displayed in these glass-door display units that act as marketing and distribution tools for adding market share.
“We are adding about close to half a million and maybe more chilling equipment, which is between Campa, Coke and ourselves,” Ravi Jaipuria, chairman at PepsiCo’s India bottler Varun Beverages Ltd., said at an earnings call last week. On top of this, the individual outlets are buying 400,000 to 500,000 coolers on their own, he added.
‘Very Aggressive’
“Whoever does a good go-to-market and whoever can expand his distribution will win the game,” Jaipuria said.
Varun entered a joint venture last year to make visi-coolers and fridges with Everest International Holdings.
Dominance of neighborhood grocery stores in sweltering India — especially across its smaller towns and villages — makes coolers central to distribution strategy for consumer giants.
Unlike large supermarkets in developed markets, these grocery stores or small eateries lack the space and capital for refrigeration, and so installing a cooler becomes essential retail infrastructure rather than just a marketing tool.
“Every brand wants to put this, whether you are a Coke or a Pepsi,” said Arvind Singhal, chairman at consultancy The Knowledge Company. “Of course it helps when there’s a fight” for market share.
Read More: Ambani’s 12-Cent Cola Erodes Coke, Pepsi Dominance in India
Reliance’s Campa achieved over 47 billion rupees ($493 million) sales in the year ended March 31, “making it the country’s fourth-largest carbonated soft drinks brand with double-digit market share in key markets,” according to an investor presentation last month.
Coca Cola India clocked annual revenue of 51.7 billion rupees in the financial year ended March 2025, according to financial data platform Tofler.
While the market share fight in India’s cola segment has buoyed these refrigerator makers in recent months, the uncertainty and supply chain disruptions due to the ongoing Iran war risk hurting this growth.
A hotter and longer summer forecast for India this year, however, is expected to boost demand for these fizzy drinks. This will allowing beverage makers to continue spending on expanding production capacities and increasing visi-cooler count, according to a Crisil Ratings statement last month.
These coolers are a “future-facing segment,” Blue Star’s Sud said, adding that there’s steady growth and low penetration in this category.
This report is auto-generated from Bloomberg news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.