Indian Coke "Pepsi"

Coca-Cola Can't Speak Its Name in India as Pepsi Enters Hindi

By Mehul Srivastava - Sep 9, 2010 4:31 AM GMT+0530

Coca-Cola needs growth in overseas markets to offset at least four years of declining sales volumes for its soft drinks in the U.S. Photographer: Prashanth Vishwanathan/Bloomberg

Coca-Cola Co. offered to buy Rajesh Yadav a refrigerator for his New Delhi store if he would sell only the company’s drinks.

He kept his part of the bargain and lines of Coke and Diet Coke cans glisten behind the glass screens of the fridge. A red- and-white banner, with Bollywood film star Aishwarya Rai chugging a bottle of the cola, adorns his store front. Yet Yadav doesn’t mention his partner when he describes his shop.

“I sell Pepsi and cigarettes,” said Yadav in Hindi, elongating the first syllable to pronounce the word “Pay- psee.”

Read full article at

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-08/coke-is-the-soda-that-can-t-speak-its-name-in-india-as-pepsi-enters-hindi.html

To contact the reporters on this story: Mehul Srivastava in New Delhi atmsrivastava6@bloomberg.net;