The Coca-Cola Company reflected that its approach of increasing its consumer base by expanding inexpensive offerings at key price points in the country resulted in adding more than 50 crore incremental transactions in the first quarter despite an inflationary environment.
In India, the cola major is expanding affordable offerings through the use of single-serve packages at lower prices, according to a global earnings statement by The Coca-Cola Company released for the January-March quarter.
In the first quarter, this strategy yielded strong results, with more than 500 million incremental transactions added in India, up nearly 20 per cent versus the prior year.
The Coca-Cola Company added that nearly 70 per cent of these incremental transactions were driven by small packages such as returnable glass bottles and affordable single-serve PET packages.
Coca-Cola said that the accelerated cost pressures and ongoing supply challenges continue across markets, and the company is leveraging RGM to provide compelling customer and consumer solutions by segmenting markets based on occasion, brand, price, package, and channel.
“For the first quarter, The Coca-Cola Company’s net revenues grew 16 percent to USD 10.5 billion. Its unit case volume grew by 8 per cent, with broad-based growth across all operating segments, including India.
“Growth in developed markets was led by the United States, the United Kingdom, and Mexico, while growth in developing and emerging markets was led by Brazil and India,” it said.
According to The Coca-Cola Company, its nutrition, juice, dairy, and plant-based beverages grew 12 percent, led by Fairlife in the United States, Minute Maid Pulpy in China, and Maaza in India.
While in the Asia-Pacific market, in which India falls, Coca-Cola’s unit case volume grew by 4 percent, “driven by India and the Philippines,” it said. Unit case volume means the number of unit cases of beverages directly or indirectly sold by the company and its bottling partners.