New Delhi, July 24
Coca-Cola said its India business recorded double-digit volume growth in the second quarter of CY24 on the back of a strong Summer season. The beverage major, which announced its earnings on Tuesday, said volume growth in the Asia-Pacific region was led by India and Phillipines.
Speaking at an earnings call, James Quincey, Chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company, told analysts, “Our business in India recovered nicely from a slower start to the year, driven by Sprite and Fanta as well as strong local brands such as Thums Up and Maaza. Strong end-to-end execution across our growth flywheel led to double-digit volume growth.”
He further added that “clearly the big swing” in Asia-Pacific was driven by the bounce back of India. Stating that the company is “very bullish on India”, he added that the company remains realistic that it “won’t be a straight line in the future.”
New price-pack
The beverage major said that it had made significant progress in optimising price-pack architecture to leverage on revenue growth management. In India, Coca-Cola has introduced an “ultra-lightweight” and affordable bottle with an extended shelf life. The company said that this allows it to transport its beverage to a wider base of consumers and reduce costs. “The package is now available in over half of India’s commercial beverage outlets and has added more than 400 million transactions in the first half of the year,” it added.
According to estimates released by markets and insights firm Kantar, bottled soft drinks has been one of the fastest-growing categories in the FMCG sector in the past year. “Close to 54 per cent of the Indian households purchased bottled soft drink for in-home consumption in the last one year (12-month period ended May 2024),” it stated recently. In the March-May period, the Summer penetration of bottled soft drinks crossed the 40 per cent-mark at the national level, it added. The firm said that given the intense Summers, even rural households bought bottled soft drinks for in-home consumption.