Campa Cola: the ₹22 crore trademark that became a ₹4,700 crore brand in four years

In August 2022, Reliance Retail bought a trademark from a Delhi company called Pure Drinks for a sum reported at around ₹22 crore. The trademark was Campa, a soft drink that most Indians under 35 had never tasted. Its Delhi bottling plant had closed around 2000, a comeback attempt in 2019 had failed for lack of money, and the brand's chief asset was the memory of a 1980s slogan, "The Great Indian Taste".

In the financial year ending March 2026, Reliance reported gross sales of more than ₹4,700 crore for Campa and described it as India's fourth-largest carbonated soft drink brand. That is roughly 200 times the purchase price, in annual sales, within four years of the deal. For a single season of IPL sponsorship in 2025, Reliance paid ₹200 crore, nine times what it had paid for the brand itself.

We use the Campa story with clients because it shows what a registered trademark is, how it holds value while nobody is using it, and why the rules on renewal, assignment and non-use matter to a business far smaller than Reliance.

What is the Campa Cola story?

Campa Cola was an Indian cola launched in 1977 by Pure Drinks after Coca-Cola left India, which was one of the leading soft drinks of the 1980s, faded after Coca-Cola and Pepsi returned in the 1990s, and was revived by Reliance in 2023 after the trademark was bought from its original owner.

Pure Drinks, owned by the Mohan Singh family of Delhi, had been Coca-Cola's manufacturer and distributor in India since 1949. In 1977 the Janata government, acting under the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, demanded that Coca-Cola dilute its Indian subsidiary to 60 percent Indian ownership and disclose its formula. TIME magazine reported that year that the formula sat "in a Georgia bank vault, known to fewer than ten people", and that India accounted for a fifth of one percent of Coca-Cola's revenue. Coca-Cola accepted the dilution, refused to hand over the formula, and left. George Fernandes, the industry minister, said the manufacture of beverages "should be Indianized".

Pure Drinks, which suddenly had bottling plants and no concentrate, launched Campa Cola and Campa Orange the same year; Parle launched Thums Up, and the government's own Modern Food Industries put out a drink called Double Seven. Campa took the slogan "The Great Indian Taste" and a large share of the 1980s market.

Then the market reopened. Coca-Cola re-entered India on 24 October 1993 and bought Parle's Thums Up, Limca and Gold Spot for $60 million. Thums Up had around 85 percent of the cola market at the time. Coca-Cola initially planned to let Thums Up fade in favour of its own brand, then discovered that killing it would drop its market share from 60.5 percent to 28.7 percent as drinkers defected to Pepsi, and revived it instead. Campa, without that kind of owner, lost ground through the 1990s. The Delhi plant closed in 2000-01. By 2019, according to Business Standard, Pure Drinks attempted a relaunch but "lacked the financial muscle".

A separate matter is often confused with the brand's story. The Campa Cola Compound in Worli, Mumbai, was the site of the company's factory, leased to Pure Drinks in 1955 and redeveloped into residential buildings in the 1980s, several of which exceeded their sanctioned height. The Supreme Court ordered the illegal floors demolished in 2013 and 2014. It is a building-law case about the land and has no bearing on the brand.

What did Reliance buy?

Reliance bought the trademark, its goodwill and its chain of title, and nothing else of consequence. There were no usable plants and no distribution network. The Bombay High Court's November 2024 order in a later infringement case records that the Campa mark came to Reliance Retail by a deed of assignment in August 2022 from Campa Beverages Pvt Ltd, which had held it since 1972, five years before the drink was launched; the press reports of the sale describe the seller as the Pure Drinks group.

For about ₹22 crore, Reliance acquired a name that forty-year-olds recognised, a registration that had been maintained through two decades of disuse, and the right to stop anyone else from using it; everything else Reliance built.

How did the relaunch work?

Reliance announced the relaunch on 9 March 2023 with Campa Cola, Campa Lemon and Campa Orange in five pack sizes, starting in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and keeping the old slogan. The strategy was price and margin rather than nostalgia.

In October 2024 Business Standard set out the arithmetic. Campa sold a 200 ml bottle for ₹10 and a 500 ml bottle for ₹20, against ₹20 for 250 ml of Coke or Pepsi, ₹30 for 500 ml of Coke and ₹40 for 500 ml of Pepsi. Distributors received margins of six to eight percent against 3.5 to five percent from the incumbents. Ravi Jaipuria of Varun Beverages, PepsiCo's largest bottler, called Campa "formidable competition". By March 2025 both Coca-Cola and PepsiCo had launched ₹10 packs of their sugar-free variants in response, and Coca-Cola was pushing ₹10 returnable glass bottles in smaller towns.

The marketing spend followed the distribution. Campa became an official partner of the BCCI with pouring rights at all home international matches from 2024, and in February 2025 it took the IPL co-presenting sponsorship for ₹200 crore, replacing Thums Up. The brand launched in the UAE with Agthia Group in February 2025, in Oman two months later, and in Nepal with the Chaudhary Group in July 2025. By April 2026 Reliance said its consumer products reached more than 40 countries.

Reliance Consumer Products reported revenue of over ₹11,000 crore in FY25, and said Campa had crossed ₹1,000 crore in sales that year. In FY26 the consumer business doubled to ₹22,000 crore in gross revenue, Campa reached ₹4,700 crore, and the group's Independence staples brand reached about ₹2,600 crore. Reliance now has more than 5,000 beverage distributors and claims reach to three million outlets. In June 2026 the company set a target of ₹1 lakh crore in consumer revenue by FY30.

Within two years of the relaunch, Reliance was in court. In November 2024 the Bombay High Court granted an interim injunction against a company selling look-alike drinks under the name "JHAMPA", on grounds of trademark infringement, copyright infringement and passing off. A revived brand attracts imitators as quickly as a new one, so the budget for enforcement has to exist from the day of launch.

Why did the Campa trademark survive twenty years of disuse?

It survived because somebody kept paying the renewal fee, kept the chain of ownership clean, and nobody applied to have the mark removed.

Section 25 of the Trade Marks Act 1999 gives a registration a life of ten years from the filing date, renewable indefinitely for further ten-year terms. There is a six-month grace period after expiry with a surcharge, and a restoration window between six months and a year. A mark that is renewed stays on the register whether or not it is used.

Section 47 is the counterweight. If a registered mark has not been used in good faith for a continuous period of five years, ending three months before an application is made, any aggrieved person can apply to have it removed from the register. Section 47(3) excuses non-use caused by special circumstances in the trade. Non-use does not remove a mark automatically; a competitor who wants the name has to challenge it, prove five years of non-use, and win. Nobody did that to Campa, so an unused mark renewed on time kept its full legal force until the day Reliance wanted it.

Sections 37 to 45 govern the transfer. A registered proprietor can assign a mark with or without the goodwill of the business, and the assignee must apply to the Registrar on Form TM-P to have the assignment recorded. Section 45 says that an unrecorded assignment is not admitted as evidence of title unless the Registrar or the court directs otherwise. The 2024 Bombay High Court order shows what a clean record looks like: a deed of assignment in August 2022 from a named prior owner with title going back to 1972. Without that record Reliance could not have obtained an injunction two years later.

How does the Campa deal compare with other Indian brand transactions?

Brands have been bought and sold in India for decades, and the prices show how differently the market values a name depending on who is buying.

Ramesh Chauhan, who had sold Thums Up to Coca-Cola in 1993, was reported in 2022 to be in talks to sell Bisleri to Tata Consumer for around ₹7,000 crore, roughly three hundred times the Campa price. In March 2023 the talks ended with an exchange filing and the words "we do not want to sell"; his daughter Jayanti Chauhan took charge.

The brand Coca-Cola nearly discontinued in 1993, Thums Up, became a billion-dollar brand in 2021 and, by Coca-Cola India's account in May 2025, was "very close to $2 billion", with Limca at ₹2,800 crore. Coca-Cola paid $60 million for Thums Up, Limca and Gold Spot together.

What a small business should take from Campa

A company name is not a trademark. Approval of a name by the Registrar of Companies under Section 4 of the Companies Act 2013 only means that no identical or too similar company exists on the register. It gives no right to the name as a brand. Worse, Section 16 of the Companies Act lets the owner of a registered trademark apply within three years of a company's incorporation to force that company to change its name. We see this every year: a founder incorporates "X Foods Pvt Ltd", builds a following, and receives a notice from the owner of the registered mark X in class 30.

Register the mark in the right classes early. India follows the Nice Classification of 45 classes, 34 for goods and 11 for services; soft drinks are in class 32, snacks in classes 29 and 30, restaurants in class 43, software in classes 9 and 42. The official fee is ₹4,500 per class for individuals, startups recognised by DPIIT, and small enterprises registered under Udyam filing online, and ₹9,000 per class for everyone else. The registry's examination report must be answered within one month, and after the application is published in the journal there is a four-month window for anyone to oppose it. Expedited examination is available for an additional fee and is meant to be completed within about three months.

Renew on time and keep the record straight. Renewal falls due every ten years; the late surcharge and restoration fees are small compared with losing the mark. If the business is sold, restructured or moved into a holding company, record the assignment on Form TM-P (the official fee is ₹9,000 per mark online). If the company that owns a mark is struck off the register of companies, the mark stays on the trademark register in the dead company's name until it lapses or is attacked under Section 47, and title has to be regularised, usually by restoring the company, before it can be assigned.

Use the symbols correctly. "TM" can be used on any mark the business claims. The ® symbol may be used only on a registered mark. Falsely representing a mark as registered was a criminal offence until the Jan Vishwas Act 2023 converted it into a civil penalty of 0.5 percent of turnover or ₹5 lakh, whichever is less. Counterfeiting someone else's mark remains a criminal offence with imprisonment of six months to three years.

Budget for enforcement from day one. Reliance was in the Bombay High Court within twenty months of its relaunch, against a brand called JHAMPA. Haldiram's spent five years and a court commissioner removing a company called Haldiram Restro. The watch on new trademark applications and new company names, and the first cease-and-desist letter, are part of the cost of owning a brand.

And do not let a good name die for want of a renewal fee. Pure Drinks' only contribution to the 2022 price was keeping the registration alive through those years and keeping the paperwork that proved its title.

Frequently asked questions

Who owns Campa Cola now?

Reliance. The Campa trademark was bought from the Pure Drinks group in August 2022 for a reported sum of around ₹22 crore and relaunched in March 2023 by Reliance Consumer Products. Since December 2025 the consumer products business sits in New Reliance Consumer Products Ltd, a direct subsidiary of Reliance Industries.

How much did Reliance pay for Campa Cola?

About ₹22 crore, according to Business Standard's report of the August 2022 acquisition and a later Bloomberg report that put it at 220 million rupees. Reliance later paid ₹200 crore for a single season's IPL co-presenting sponsorship in 2025.

How much does Campa Cola sell?

Reliance reported that Campa crossed ₹1,000 crore in sales in FY25 and reached gross sales of more than ₹4,700 crore in FY26, making it, by the company's description, India's fourth-largest carbonated soft drink brand.

Why did Coca-Cola leave India in 1977?

The government required Coca-Cola to reduce its Indian subsidiary to 60 percent Indian ownership under the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act and to disclose its formula. Coca-Cola accepted the first condition and refused the second, and withdrew from India. It returned in October 1993.

Can a trademark be cancelled for non-use in India?

Yes, but only on application. Under Section 47 of the Trade Marks Act 1999, an aggrieved person can apply to remove a registered mark that has not been used in good faith for a continuous period of five years ending three months before the application. A mark that is renewed every ten years and not challenged stays on the register however long it goes unused.

What is the trademark registration fee in India in 2026?

The official fee for an online application is ₹4,500 per class for individuals, startups and Udyam-registered small enterprises, and ₹9,000 per class for other applicants. Renewal is ₹9,000 per class and recording an assignment is ₹9,000 per mark.

Sources

Business Standard reports of 31 August 2022 (acquisition), 24 October 2024 (pricing and margins), 13 February 2025 (IPL sponsorship), 18 February 2025 (UAE launch), 21 March 2025 (rivals' ₹10 packs) and 2 December 2025 (restructuring); Bloomberg, 6 May 2025; Reliance Industries FY2025-26 analyst presentation, April 2026, and Business Standard on the 49th AGM, 19 June 2026; TIME, 22 August 1977, "Business: India May Swallow Coke"; Forbes India on the 1977 exits; Gulf News on the March 2023 relaunch and the Oman launch; Kathmandu Post on the Nepal launch; Bombay High Court order of 14 November 2024 in the JHAMPA matter; Business Today on the Bisleri talks (March 2023) and Reliance's 2026 brand purchases; Coca-Cola India statements on Thums Up and Limca (May 2025); Trade Marks Act 1999, Sections 25, 29, 37 to 45, 47 and 134; Trade Marks Rules 2017 and the First Schedule of fees; Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act 2023; Companies Act 2013, Sections 4, 16, 248 and 252.