Apple rush lands Pepsi in global brand tussle

NEW DELHI: Pepsico India���s Tropicana juice brand has landed in a controversy, with a US-based maker of organic juices, Apple Rush Company, planning to drag the soft drink major to court. The controversy centres on Tropicana Twister���s recently launched apple-flavoured variant���Apple Rush. The Illinois-based Apple Rush Company, which makes pure organic juice beverages, has objected to the brand name and has threatened legal action.

Apple Rush Company president Robert Corr told ET: ���We are retaining a lawyer in India to assist us against Pepsi. We feel their actions are unfair business practices. The brand ���Apple Rush��� should be for our stockholders not Pepsi���s���.

Charging PepsiCo India with copying its brand name, Apple Rush Company claimed the soft drink giant has ���usurped its American brand by using it in India to promote its new drink���. A statement issued by Mr Corr reads: ���We were shocked to discover that Pepsi would take our brand and use it for one of their drinks in the Indian market.���

���Pepsi is using a legal loophole to essentially diminish our brand���s integrity oversees,��� Mr Carr���s statement said. When contacted, a PepsiCo India spokesperson said, ���We have not received any letter or communication yet on the alleged objection and as such are unable to comment at this stage���.

While Tropicana Twister is available in the US in a range of flavour combinations such as Tropical Fruit Fury and Strawberry Lemonade, the Apple Rush variant has been introduced in India for the first time. Tropicana is PepsiCo���s 100% juice brand and its sub-brand Twister is a juice-based drink.

Apple Rush is the newest variant under the Tropicana Twister range, and it is for the first time that a Tropicana sub-brand is being rolled out in returnable glass bottles. The variant has been rolled out selectively in the initial phase���in southern and western pockets of the country.

Apple Rush Company���s mainstay product, called Organic Apple Rush, sells sparkling beverages in a range of flavours in the US and some other markets. This is the second controversy that has dogged PepsiCo���s Tropicana brand in the past month.

Recently, PepsiCo���s endorsement deal with the Indian Medical Association for Tropicana juices and Quaker oats had come under fire from the health ministry and social organisations, and it is learnt that PepsiCo and IMA are revisiting the modalities of the deal. The back-to-back controversies have come at a time when the soft drink major is going all out to push its health and wellness portfolio.

PepsiCo expects 50% of its growth to come from juices and juice-based drinks���a category that is estimated to be among the fastest-growing within liquid refreshment beverages.