Consumer demand in India resilient, says Coca-Cola Global COO

Mumbai, May 29 (PTI) Beverage major Coca-Cola said the consumer demand in India is “resilient” amidst intermittent rains in some parts in summer and the company plans to create occasions for consumption to reduce dependency on seasonality.

Summer season accounts for the majority of the sales of beverage companies.

"We continue to see resilient demand in India. Summer still accounts for a larger percentage all over the world. But what is more important is the overall year equation, how you get events during the year when you can actually increase consumption, and then level off the seasonality moving forward," Coal-Cola EVP and Chief Operating Officer Henrique Braun said.

There are still many occasions that we need to develop for seasonality to actually be lowered, he said.

"It is never a straight line, but if you compare year-on-year, the bigger the time frame, the better you are going to understand what is going on—and demand continues to be resilient,” Braun said.

According to Braun, India is yet a developing but fast-paced market for Coca-Cola.

"An all-weather mindset is important and the only thing that's going to change is that we are going to pivot fast and make sure we need to be back on track,” he said, adding "seasonality in India is on the peak months. It's different than other parts of the world, so it's a big part of developing a strategy that's whether for the long term, is to reduce that dependency on that seasonality." India is the fifth largest market by volume globally for Coca-Cola.

It has several learning from the market, specially on the digital side, said Braun while mentioning about the scaling of Coke Buddy.

Coke Buddy is an online platform for the kirana stores in India. Coca-Cola is present in over 5 million retail outlets in India and 1 million have adopted Coke Buddy.

Coke Buddy helps retailers order Coca-Cola products in bulk offering personalised order suggestions, one-click ordering, tracking, and instant notifications. It has rapidly scaled up to increase retailer adoption offering convenience to them and to the consumers.

Braun further said Coca-Cola India is centred on evolving consumer preferences and regulatory landscapes by expanding its low- and no-sugar beverage offerings, introducing smaller pack sizes for portion control Affordable Small Sparkling Package (ASSP) and enhancing nutritional transparency.

"The company provides a diverse range of products that cater to varied needs of consumers while maintaining affordability and accessibility. Recently launched Thums Up XForce which is the Zero sugar variant of Thums Up. We also have Diet Coke, Coke Zero and Sprite Zero in our portfolio,” he said When asked about Coca-Cola's refranchising of the bottling operation in India and other markets, Braun said: “We are very happy with the state that we are right now. We went through years of defining partners that would be aligned with us on the vision to grow the business in India together.” They understand India very well, and that helps the company also, he added.

Currently, Coca-Cola has 11 bottling partners, however top four contribute 85 per cent of the volume.

“If you look at the current situation, we are in a good shape for next round of growth in short-to-medium terms,” said Coca-Cola India & South Asia President Sanket Ray.

In December last year, Coca-Cola announced sale of 40 per cent stake in its India bottling business Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt Ltd (HCCBL) to Jubilant Bhartia Group.

Besides, in 2024 it had franchised its bottling operations to its existing bottlers in three key markets - Rajasthan, Bihar, Northeast, and parts of West Bengal to its existing bottlers.

“We don't have a number that you would say that we need to have X number of bottles or the size of what we really look at is who has the highest capabilities, in order to partner with us and with the right size. Don't not losing the granularity on every single space that they have on their territory,” said Braun. PTI KRH MR