the madeintamil nadu goli soda in the unmistakable coddnecked bottles is giving multinational cola companies a run for their money the revival was sparked by the jallikattu protests of 2017 when all things local was the flavour now goli sodas at prices ranging from 5 to 125 a bottle are on the shelves of supermarkets and at fine dining restaurantsthe owners of 113yearold mappillai vinayagar goli soda based in madurai used to import the bottles from germany in the early 20th century they started as distributors of coddneck bottles before making their own soda k kathirvel fifthgeneration proprietor of sri mappillai vinayagar says soda companies faced hardships with the entry of mncs in the early 1990s with aggressive marketing campaigns he says the coddnecked bottles were also destroyed in the cola wars they used to constitute 96 of the product cost three decades ago as a result hardly 10 of the 120 soda and aerated beverages firms in madurai survivedbut the demand for goli soda revived thanks to the support from the public which turned to local brands in the wake of the jallikattu protests says kathirvel his company now makes 6000 goli sodas every day up from 1000 a day in 2015 with a wide distribution network in the southern districts with three manufacturing units in madurai dindigul and trichy the firm is looking to expand in chennai the revival has spawned new players for instance kozzmo beverages labs pvt ltd launched its goli soda in 2017 after conducting market research it recorded a 100 spike in sales over the past five years balaji rajan one of the four cofounders of the chennaibased company says goli soda sells on nostalgia we were one of the pioneers in launching fssaicertified goli soda he saysthe coddneck glass bottles are no longer imported but sourced from northern india they even have goli soda in plastic bottles nowaccording to tra research the size of the indian market for aerated beverages is around 15000 crore and expected to more than double by 2027 of this tamil nadus market share is likely to be about 15 n chandramouli ceo tra research says goli sodas once available nationally have gone out of fashion in most states but in tamil nadu demand continues to grow the reason for this could be that tamil nadu is extremely traditional in its preferences especially in the fb segmentgoli soda manufacturers offer eight flavours including paneer orange lemon gingerand blueberry small units focus on districts in and around their production units the larger one serve the pantamil nadu market and seek to expand to neighbouring states s prakash ceo of erodebased rg village goli soda beverages manufacturers which commenced operations early this year with a distribution network in tamil nadu karnataka and kerala says paneer and ginger are the favourites of the older generation while blueberry is what youngsters prefer we have hired people who traditionally made goli sodas to ensure consumers get the taste of the past he says