Coca-Cola India and its bottling partner Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages are expanding their festive-season presence across Maharashtra through increased distribution, partnerships with community celebrations and a recycling initiative focused on used PET packaging.
The companies are strengthening beverage availability at several festive consumption points, including puja pandals, Resident Welfare Associations, neighbourhood markets, eateries and other high-footfall locations. The initiative is designed to place beverages closer to consumers during a period when celebrations, social gatherings and eating occasions increase across communities.
The festive push also extends beyond public venues into home consumption. Coca-Cola India and HCCB are working with kirana stores, retail partners, trade channels and quick-commerce platforms to increase access to chilled beverages.
The strategy combines affordable pack sizes, cooling infrastructure and last-mile distribution. The companies are seeking to make products easily available whether consumers are visiting festive venues, eating at local outlets, ordering to their homes or gathering with families.
The programme builds on Coca-Cola India’s “Locally Yours” campaign, which places neighbourhood retailers and businesses at the centre of the company’s distribution system.
Desmond Nikhil D’Souza, Vice President, Integrated Operations at HCCB and Commercial, Coca-Cola India and Southwest Asia, said the company’s objective is to make beverages readily accessible while creating income opportunities for local retailers and vendors during the festive period.
Vinay Nair, Chief Commercial Officer at HCCB, said the bottler is using its manufacturing capability and distribution network to maintain product availability across Maharashtra. Its last-mile retail network is expected to play an important role in supplying the large number of neighbourhood consumption points that see increased activity during festivals.
The company has also linked the festive programme with packaging recovery and recycling activities.
Coca-Cola India and HCCB are working with participating pandals to collect discarded PET bottles so that the material can be directed towards recycling. The initiative is intended to address the additional packaging waste generated during major public celebrations.
As part of the sustainability campaign, the companies have also collaborated with street-art collective Doodle Mapuls to create a live “Waste to Wonder” installation. The artwork uses discarded bottle caps and labels as its raw material.
Through the installation, Coca-Cola India is attempting to draw attention to post-consumer packaging and encourage shared responsibility for waste collection and recycling.
The combined distribution and sustainability programme reflects the company’s effort to use the festive season not only to widen product reach but also to engage retailers, local communities and consumers around the recovery of packaging waste.