No ad buzz, this cola sells on faith

As opposed to the alleged exorbitant profiteering of American companies Coke and Pepsi, the original Mecca Cola stormed the market in 2002, promising 20 per cent of its profits for charity, half of it to Palestinian. ‘‘Don’t drink stupid, drink with commitment,’’ it urged. It became an instant hit in the Middle-East and Muslim pockets of UK and France. Mecca Cola now operates in 64 countries.

Reaching the man behind the Indian copy Mekkeh is a journey in secularism or Gujarati entrepreneurship. The caller to its South Extension office is welcomed with a ‘‘Hey Ram’’ chant.

Office of proprietor Harsh Vasant has idols of Lakshmi and pictures of Krisha. Politics is not his cup of cola, but business is. ‘‘I used to import chocolates for 12 years, and in early 2004, a client in Kashmir asked me to import Mecca Cola. That is when I first heard about it. I imported two or three containers from Dubai which flew off the shelf. Then I went there to negotiate a bottling plant here. The licence fees they asked was Rs 16 crore,’’ Vasanth recalls the genesis of Mekkeh.

By this time, he had sensed the huge commercial potential of the brewing dissent in India, home to 18 crore Muslims. Vasanth tried to register the Mecca trade mark in India, but was surprised to find that someone in Jalgaon in Maharashtra already owned it.

Vasanth then registered Mekkeh. ‘‘In fact, the holy city can be spelt this way too,’’ he assures. With a green crescent and Arabic inscriptions, Mekkeh hit the market in March, the noticeable difference from the original is, only 10 per cent is committed to charity. ‘‘The Soul Drink,’’ it claimed. ‘‘Feel Freedom,’’ it exhorted.

Vasanth did his homework well—he collected 80 bottles of soft drinks and wines from across the globe before designing Mekkeh’s bottle. And commissioned teams to develop the tastes, which are now four. The labeling, bottles and colours offer a fight to international giants.

Then friend Nimesh Shah joined in with the Mekkeh Cola bottled water unit. Vasanth says he faced a setback when his UP distributor set up a company of his own, Macea Cola!

Now Vasanth’s company has a bottling plant at Okhla and distribution in parts of UP, J&K, Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan. ‘‘People are chasing me with orders. But I do not have the facilities to operate on a larger scale. We have not advertised, but the demand today is for three lakh bottles,’’ he says.

He says he has not broken even yet. Charity will begin only when profits come in.