Coca-Cola India is ramping up its capacity and market reach post-COVID. The beverage behemoth is gearing up to expand its consumer base with a new product line.
According to Sanket Ray, President, Coca-Cola India and South West Asia, its bottling partners are investing $1 billion (Rs 8,000 crore) over two years to expand their production capacity. While Coca-Cola India owns the formulations and spearheads the company’s marketing campaigns, it has a set of bottling partners who bottle and sell the fizzy drinks across the country. Ray says its bottlers, including Coke’s in-house bottling company, Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages, are adding up to 15 new assembly lines that will increase its overall supply by 34 percent.
The need for rapid expansion in supply of its colas and fruit-based drinks is necessary as the company is now eyeing uncharted territories, especially in rural markets. “Over the last year, we have grown our retail reach by one million outlets. It now stands at 4 million. We are also increasing the supply of refrigerators to the retailers. This year alone, we have placed 200,000 new refrigerators”, he said.
Coca-Cola’s reach in Indian homes has grown significantly since January. Currently, its products reach approximately 32% of homes, which is 7% higher than the end of 2021.Coca-Cola’s aggressive push for in-home consumption is not without rationale.
In spite of it coming up with fridge-sized and larger as well as cheaper packs-suitable for storing its colas at homes-the share of in-home consumption in its portfolio remains at 35 per cent, while the rest comes from OOH consumption. Globally, in other major markets, the share is skewed more towards in-home consumption.
To address the growing trend of consumers shifting towards lower calorie drinks, Ray says, Coca-Cola is now gearing up to launch low and zero sugar variants of all its flagship brands like Thums Up, Sprite, Fanta, Limca, and Maaza within the next 6–12 months. Soon, every brand will have ‘low sugar’ and ‘zero sugar’ variants’.
In a bid to tap new markets, Coke is also launching an energising drink named ‘Charged’ under its top-selling Thums Up brand. and is looking to leverage brands like Maaza and Limca through their positioning as fruit-based and refreshing drinks, respectively.