Double Seven (soft drink)

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. Double Seven was launched at the annual trade fair at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi as a replacement for Coca-Cola.

History

In 1977, the Morarji Desai government asked Coca-Cola to hand over the controlling stake of its operations to Indian nationals to continue its operations in India, which Coca-Cola refused to do. As a result, Coca-Cola was asked to leave the country and the government decided to create a new brand to fill the void. The brand was named Double Seven by the then ruling Janata Party after the year 1977 when it came to power defeating Indira Gandhi. The formulation for the drink was developed at the Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI), Mysore.

Production and Marketing

The production of Double Seven was undertaken by Modern Food Industries, a government-owned company. Despite the government's efforts, Double Seven could not compete with Parle's Thums Up, Limca, and Gold Spot and eventually lost its market share. The brand was later marketed by Modern Food Industries which was later taken over by Hindustan Unilever (HUL) in January 2000.

Legacy

Despite its failure, Double Seven is remembered as India's attempt to create a home-grown cola brand. The brand's failure is often attributed to poor marketing, lack of a strong distribution network, and the strong competition it faced from other Indian soft drink brands.

See also

• History of Coca-Cola
• Economy of India
• List of defunct consumer brands