There is a war going on, on the streets of most cities and towns unbeknownst to the wider public. Delta Beverages the traditional heavyweights are desperately trying to win back their crown as the nations leading drink maker from Varum that upstarts who have usurped it with their popular Pepsi and Mirinda drinks.

A few weeks ago Varun published some very interesting statistics that all but proved that they now had the lions share of Zimbabwe’s drinks market share firmly in their grasp. According to Varun the average Zimbabwean drinks as much as 65 bottles of Pepsi per year. That’s a lot of bottles. To meet this demand Varun has scaled its operations with a plant that produces 400 bottles per minute.

Delta hasn’t taken this lying down either. They have launched a fierce campaign to try and scale back their losses. They reckon correctly that the reason they lost market share is mostly due to their unfavourable pricing. Over the past few years, Zimbabweans have become overly sensitive to differential pricing. This has been amplified by the series of lockdowns that people have been forced to endure due to COVID. Before the lockdowns, a lot of people preferred Coca Cola but with their incomes decimated Zimbabweans were forced to make do with Pepsi and Mirinda and if the numbers are anything to go by they have developed quite the taste to the drink brands they used to scoff at.

To counter the price advantage Delta have unleashed the dollar for four promotion. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. Delta has also reduced the prices of their Minute Maid drinks which are now selling for US$1 for three instead of the usual US$1 for 2 of the yesteryears. In fact, there was a time when Minute Maid drinks would sell for an astounding US$1 per bottle. Those days are long gone.

It’s not just Pepsi that Delta has to fight off. They also have to fend off competition in their cordial department from Inscor owned Bally House. Again here Delta is at a price disadvantage and that has also been devastating in terms of market share loss. Then there is Revive and its dairy drinks that are also becoming a favourite thirsty quencher.