Coca-Cola indicates that Maaza to become a USD1 billion brand by 2020

Costa Coffee, the coffee brand under Coca-Cola has announced its annual Diwali campaign, #CostaWaliDiwali, in partnership with the baker and content creator, Shivesh Bhatia.

Their combined effort introduces a Diwali-themed menu for coffee that blends with the Diwali traditions with Costa Coffee's contemporary and inventive approach. 

Costa Coffee has introduced the Blisstachio Rose beverage series like the Blisstachio Rose Hot Latte, the invigorating Blisstachio Rose Iced Cappuccino and the tempting Blisstachio Rose Boba Frappe that draws inspiration from classic Indian sweets.

“At Costa Coffee, we are dedicated to embracing and celebrating cultural richness through our coffee. This Diwali, our collaboration with Shivesh Bhatia for the launch of Blisstachio Rose collection showcases our commitment to crafting unique experiences for our consumers. The skilful fusion of tradition with contemporary creativity builds a symphony of flavour that celebrates the richness of Diwali in every cup.” said Vinay Nair, General Manager, India & Emerging International, Costa Coffee at the Coca-Cola Company.

Costa Coffee has partnered with the highly skilled graphic design student, Shamon Sachdeva, hailing from Anant National University, to design stunning Diwali-themed coffee cups.

Shamon's talent weaves compelling visual stories, turning traditional diya flames into coffee beans, paying homage to Costa Coffee.

I am thrilled to be joining hands with Costa Coffee for an exciting festive range of beverages. Creating this range using flavours that hold a special place in my heart that I have enjoyed growing up has truly been a fulfilling experience. From brainstorming ideas to conducting trials and finally witnessing the Blisstachio Range launch, it has been an absolute joyride to spread festive cheer among people with the best of drinks.” said Shivesh Bhatia.

Costa Coffee has unveiled its 150th store in New Delhi. As part of its continuous growth strategy, Costa Coffee aims to establish additional establishments in the top 8-10 major Indian cities, to expand and enhance its footprint throughout the nation.

Coca-Cola India has hired Asha Sekhar as Vice President and Chief Digital Officer, India and South West Asia.

In her new role, she will focus on the company's journey towards digital transformation. Asha will build foundations necessary for business growth, drive opportunities and strengthen Coca-Cola India's digital ecosystem.

T Krishnakumar, President of Coca-Cola India & South West Asia, said, "Digitalization is disrupting all industries and redefining the ways companies connect, engage, communicate and do business. Asha's expertise in delivering consumer-focused digital experience will help in our journey towards becoming more relevant and future ready."

"This new addition to the leadership team of Coca-Cola in India is designed to address developing business needs and reinforces our commitment towards investing in diversity and talent development," he added.

Asha Sekhar is a Coca-Cola veteran and has spent more than 13 years with the company.

Prior to this new role, she worked for over a decade with WPP, Universal McCann, Madison and Mudra, managing media businesses for leading brands.

Coca-Cola India has rejigged its leadership team to enable India and South West Asia business to be a growth engine for the Coca-Cola Company. The company has roped in Chandrasekar Radhakrishnan as vice-president, strategy and insights, for the company’s India operations, and Sundeep Bajoria as vice president for its south-west Asia operations. 

Chandrasekar will take charge of the company’s strategic initiatives to accelerate the pace of innovation and assess opportunities to offer a broader portfolio of beverages to consumers. Sundeep, prior to this new role, was the vice-president, strategy and insights, of the company.

T Krishnakumar, President of Coca-Cola India & South West Asia, said, “We believe there are significant opportunities that lie ahead of us to grow our portfolio and meaningfully penetrate the market. These changes will address developing business needs and pave the way to develop a stronger portfolio for the future. It also reinforces our commitment towards investing in talent development”.

Coca-Cola president T Krishnakumar said on Wednesday that the company is ‘interested’ in the dairy space, but added he would not comment further on whether Coca-Cola has placed a bid to acquire GSK Consumer’s Horlicks milk food drink brand, which is on the block. “I can comment on what the company is doing in terms of organic growth. Beyond that I cannot comment,” he said at a media roundtable.

The beverage major ended the April-June 2018 quarter with double digit volume growth, for fourth consecutive quarter of double-digit revenue growth and second back-to-back quarters of double-digit volume growth, with the core sparkling portfolio also growing in double digits.

Apart from Horlicks, Kraft Heniz’s Complan health drink is also up for sale. Krishnakumar declined comment on whether Coca-Cola was bidding for either of the two brands, saying that it was speculation. Coca-Cola in June had mandated Citi to help it in the bidding process, which other firms such as ITC and Hindustan Unilever are also learnt to be considering.

Coca-Cola has been on expansion spree of its brand to include juice and juice drinks, flavoured waters and dairy-based beverages and tea in line with rapidly changing consumer preferences.

Top beverage makers including Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Bisleri have begun printing a buyback value on all PET (plastic) bottles sold in Maharashtra to comply with new regulations and help check plastic littering.

Consumers can return empty plastic bottles and will get paid as per the value of the buyback printed on bottles.

While the government has allowed the companies to keep the buyback value flexible, most companies have settled on Rs 15 per kg for PET bottles, and Rs 5 per kg for shrink wraps.

However, some industry officials said the buyback system is not fool proof, and could further complicate the issue.

“There is already a system in place to recycle plastic. What we need to do is make it more efficient and profitable for the stakeholders (such as rag pickers), instead of introducing more processes in the ecosystem of recycling further,” said Ramesh Chauhan chairman at Bisleri, market leader in the packaged water category.

A PepsiCo spokesperson said the company has started mentioning a recycle value of Rs 15 per kg of PET waste on its products sold in Maharashtra. “We are working with Gem Enviro to set up reverse vending machines, collection points and collection centres for PET waste bottles at several locations across the state to enable the buyback programme,” the person said.

Maharashtra enforced a ban on PET bottles smaller than 200 ml and other single use disposable plastic items in late June and gave users three months to come up with alternatives following mounting concerns over plastic waste.

Dr Vijay Habbu, faculty and expert in sustainability and technical advisor to plastic associations said: “The issue of plastic pollution cannot be resolved in singular steps and requires holistic solutions. Unless the the role of plastics in medical, food, pharmaceutical and related industries is understood, the messaging about pollution will always lead to unreasonable action. In taking easy steps of imposing wholesale bans, India loses opportunities to set global examples of managing plastic waste.”

The buyback value printing drive, which Maharashtra introduced as part of its efforts to check plastic pollution, is expected to spill over to other states, with many such as Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Uttarakhand also hinting at implementing similar plastic use restrictions.

Industry insiders said there is a lack of clarity on where the bottles can be returned — at retailers or at collection centres. If they are redeemed for a charge at retailers, the latter can return the empty bottles to recyclers.

“While the cost of printing is nominal, it is restrictive because we can’t supply bottles made in Maharashtra to any other state, and neither can we bring and sell bottles from outside the state,” a beverage industry official said, requesting not to be named.

Over the past four months, there have been three changes in the plastic ban covering PET bottles in Maharashtra, among the country's five largest consumer states. The state has amended norms for the ban on plastic packaging three times since March.

Industry players, however, insist the solution to deal with plastic waste lies in adopting technology in collaboration with all stakeholders, be it more efficient recycling techniques and solutions or coming up with viable and affordable biodegradable alternatives to plastic.

Beverages major Coca-Cola has intended to take its Indian soft drink brand Thums Up to neighbouring ASEAN countries including Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, a top company official confirmed.

As part of its larger expansion plans, Coca-Cola has already introduced its cola variant Thums Up in Bangladesh last month.

Besides, Coca-Cola India also expects Thums Up, which was acquired by it from Parle Bisleri in 1993, to become a USD 1 billion brand by the end of this year or probably by next year.

"We have launched Thums Up Charged already in Bangladesh. It is being scaled up across Bangladesh now. We have also launched Rim Zim already last month there,” Coca-Cola India and South West Asia President T Krishnakumar.

He further added, "Next we are planning to move to Nepal in the next couple of months with Thums up Charge. We are going to launch as big as in Bangladesh. Once we see success, we would take it to other markets."

On being asked about any specific markets Coca-Cola is looking is eyeing for the brand Thums Up, he said: "We believe that we can do the entire south Asian markets."

"We can go places like Sri Lanka also. Then we can talk to our global HQ and go to some of ASEAN countries. Even at a later date, we can look at possibly Pakistan also. We could have more and more markets in Asia," he added.

Coca-Cola would export the brand in those markets and would get it locally manufactured.

"We would give brand name and all the ingredients and most of the time it would be manufactured locally and but would carry the Thums Up brand," Krishnakumar said.

Last year, Coca-Cola said that it expects Thums Up to be a USD 1 billion (about Rs 6,500 crore) brand in the next two years.

"I think we are well on the way. By the end of this year, we would be close to it and in the worst case scenario, it would be 2019 we should get to $1 billion(brand)," he added.

He further said that another Indian brand Maza would be the next candidate from the stable of Coca-Cola India to join the USD 1 billion club but would take some more time.

Besides, Thums Up, Coca-Cola India is looking over the possibility to take three other Indian brands to global markets - Limca, Maza, and Rim Zim.

"These are four brands in our stable which have potential to (go to) other markets and we are obviously creating more and more products as Aquarius Gluco Charge, which has creations in India... It can also go out to other similar markets," he added.

Beverage maker Coca-Cola has claimed unit case volume growth of 5% for the January-March ’18 quarter for the Asia-Pacific region, which it said was driven by ‘strong performance’ in China and India, partially offset by a low single-digit decline in South East Asia.

“Operating income growth outpaced revenue growth for the quarter, largely driven by favourable product mix as sparkling soft drinks grew volume double digits in China and India,” the Atlanta-based firm said in an earnings statement. It said its price/mix declined 2% for the quarter, largely driven by negative geographic mix as growth in China and India outpaced more developed markets, the maker of Coca-Cola and Thums Up aerated drinks, Minute Maid juice and Kinley water said.

The company has been working to counter headwinds through pricing and product innovations. “We've been learning over the last couple years. We came out with some good marketing, some reinvigorated packaging, shapes, sizes, and looks, and obviously ... innovation on the flavours," chief executive James Quincey said.

In response to growing consumer preferences for healthier beverages and perpetual competition in the market, Coca-Cola has announced the launch of a no-sugar variant of its biggest cola brand, Thums Up.

Coca-Cola VP marketing Vijay Parasuraman said Thums Up was the beverage maker's first home grown brand in a no-sugar variant.

"Our objectives is to make Thums Up a US$ 1 billion Indian brand. The new launch will help us widen the brand’s footprint and accelerate its growth,” he said.

The home grown Thums Up is the country's biggest cola, ahead of global cola brands Coke and Pepsi.

Last year, the company had introduced the first variant of Thums Up in the form of Thums Up Charged. It already sells Coke Zero and Sprite Zero in India. Thums Up no sugar has been sweetened with sucralose.

Beverages major Coca cola is planning to try low sugar content drinks and diet variants of existing brands across its portfolio in its local outlet here by the end of this year.

Coca-Cola India and Southwest Asia president T Krishnakumar said this move is in line with the company’s global commitments.

Last year, the US-based beverages giant said it would reduce sugar content in more than 500 products around the world and introduce more low-sugar variants.

Krishnakumar said the Indian unit grew by high double digits in revenue and high single digit in volumes in the October-December quarter.

He said, “An expanded portfolio, higher investments in marketing on both carbonated drinks and juices, and better bottling execution have worked for us. We have seen two sequential quarters of good growth. The company was equally focused on driving revenue as well as volume.”

The company, which follows a January-December financial year, however, did not specify its India numbers. Most consumer-facing companies in India have posted higher-than-average volume growth in the October-December quarter, on account of the base effect as demonetisation had hit the year-ago performance.

Krishnakumar said, “While lemon drink Sprite, remains the biggest brand for Coca-Cola India, followed closely by Thums Up, both Thums Up and Minute Maid juices posted “healthy” growth in the quarter, he said. The sparkling category has retained its relevance, and has grown almost at the same levels as overall growth.” More variants of Thums Up could be launched this year he added.

The key categories where the company will invest this year are sparkling, juices and hydration, he said. The company is also looking for opportunities in tea and dairy.

Coca-Cola also has the plans to add frozen fruit-based deserts in the coming season, and aims to introduce variants of its aerated brands with juice content.

Krishnakumar said, “Coca-Cola will maintain prices as India is a “value-driven market. On the consumption outlook for the next two quarters, we expect growth to remain positive, in both urban and rural markets. We have a better understanding of what the consumer is looking for, and have a strong portfolio of products and packaging for rural consumers.”

Soft drink maker Coca-Cola is set to introduce its core aerated soft drink brands Sprite, Limca and Fanta with fruit juice this summer.

In last three years since PM Modi first urged cola companies to blend aerated drinks with 5% juice from fruits produced by farmers Coca Cola is experimenting on fruit based drinks.

A Coca-Cola spokesperson said, “Under our virtuous fruit circular economy initiative, we propose to use Indian fruit products in as many beverages as possible; adding juice to our carbonated flavour products is one of those options. As we go forward, we will continue to explore with other carbonated flavour brands.”

An official directly aware of the developments said, “Coca-Cola’s global leadership team including Asia Pacific group president John Murphy, who was in Kolkata last weekend, reviewed the upcoming launches for India — the beverage giant’s sixth biggest market globally.”

He added, “The products have already been developed. Fruit juices are being added across Coca-Cola’s non-cola aerated drinks portfolio; these will be irrespective of tax incentives by the government for fruit-based aerated drinks. He added that besides broadbasing its beverage portfolio, the company is hopeful that addition of fruit juice could bring back consumers who have turned away from sugary aerated drinks.”

A Coca-Cola spokesperson also said that the company’s existing products will be available alongside the fruit based drinks.

Coca-Cola, a beverage major today announced its plans to take the home-grown carbonated cola brand Thums Up to Southeast Asia before launching it globally.

Coca-Cola India and South West Asia president T Krishnakumar said, "We are all set to take Thums Up to other parts of South Asia possibly by March 2018,"

The company officials said, “Thums Up is also the first Indian brand that will become a USD 1 billion (approx. Rs 64,000 crore) brand much before the targeted timeline of 2020.”

Purchased in 1993 from from Parle Bisleri, Thums Up is a 40 year-old brand which has been with the US beverage major for the past 26 years. In 1993, Coca-Cola bought Ltd.

Coca-Cola has a total of 40 brands in India including Thums Up and Thums Up Charged.

Ethnic drink brand Paper Boat seems to be slowing down after sailing high for almost seven years, as health-conscious consumers are looking for sugar free products.

Hector Beverages, maker of Paper Boat, posted a tepid 12.5% growth in the year ended March 2017 after doubling its sales in the previous year.

Hector Beverages reported sales of Rs 69 crore and net loss of Rs 78 crore for 2016-17, as per its latest filing with the Registrar of Companies (RoC). It had posted sales of Rs 62 crore and net loss of Rs 84 crore in the previous year.

Rival beverages makers PepsiCo and Coca-Cola, too, have been struggling to grow their sales while top confectioners Mondelez and Ferrero India posted one of their slowest sales growth last year.

While Paper Boat sells non-carbonated drinks, the products are still high in sugar and aren’t considered healthier than other beverages such as fruit juice.

Coca-Cola India announced the launch of a new variant of its popular mango based drink Maaza-‘Maaza Gold’, as it looks to accelerate Maaza’s journey towards becoming a billion dollar mango juice brand by 2023.

The company had also recently launched the first ever variant of Thums Up, Thums Up Charged, which the company claims is much more stronger than the previous version and will help make Thums Up, the first home-grown billion-dollar beverage brand in the next 2 years.

Srideep Kesavan, director marketing – Juices, Coca-Cola India & South West Asia said “We are always listening to our consumers and with the launch of Maaza Gold the company is expanding its product portfolio in-line with consumer tastes. The company at the same time is also accelerating Maaza’s journey towards becoming a homegrown billion-dollar brand by 2023”.

Coca-Cola Company along with its bottling partners in India procures approximately 1 lakh metric tonnes of mango pulp annually. In 2023, if Maaza becomes the first $1 billion juice drink brand from India, the Coca-Cola system in India will be able to procure 2 lakh metric tonnes of mango pulp annually, worth nearly Rs1100 crores, thereby helping 100,000 farmers.

Beverage maker Coca-Cola India’s bottling arm Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverage (HCCB) said it was reorganising the capital intensive business of its operations, which would lead to making ‘few’ jobs redundant.

On its growth forecast, HCCB, which employs close to 8,000 people, said it aims to be a $2.5-billion firm by 2020 and that it is expected to create “several hundred new jobs” through much-strengthened sales and supply chain organisation and most of them would be filled up from within the organisation.

The country’s biggest beverage maker said it is setting up a division for niche and premium drinks including smartwater, frozen fruit desserts and mixers, while amalgamating its existing Alternate Beverages Division into the mainstream distribution system.

HCCB CEO Christina Ruggiero said, “It was clear from our research, conversations and market data that today, we are not structured in a way that allows us to fully leverage our scale and market capabilities. Its plan to become a $2.5-billion FMCG company by 2020 would include manufacturing and selling a wide range of beverages from premium to value and modifications to its operating structure. It said it would also employ more financial and human resources.

The maker of Coca-Cola and Sprite aerated drinks and Minute Maid juices said “In order to better flex and respond to changing consumer demands, HCCB will now operate under seven zones instead of the current five and will also reorganise its corporate centre resources to serve in the zones and factories.”

Company further said it would have a “leaner corporate office and a much strengthened sales and supply chain organisation, thereby creating several hundred new jobs,” most of which would be filled from within the organisation.

PepsiCo's India lost its fizz even as its largest rival Coca-Cola posted double-digit growth amid health conscious consumers cutting down on sugary aerated drinks. PepsiCo India Holdings saw revenue grow 0.2% during year to March 2017 to Rs 6,540 crore while Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages, which account for two-thirds of Coca-Cola's revenue, posted 11% growth in revenues at Rs 9,472 crore.

Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages Spokesperson said “it changed accounting standards that propped up revenue growth. On a comparable basis, both current and previous year as per IND AS reporting, our revenues have remained steady. We certainly have the scale and the reach to make a difference to the food-processing sector in India and the agri ecosystem of the country. There are more people entering the ready-to-drink beverage category and our focus is to build HCCB into a ‘total beverage company’ that has a play in all beverage categories of relevance”.

PepsiCo India spokesperson said “This was reflected in FY 2016-17 performance that saw us progressing ahead with strong double digit growth on our core brands like Tropicana and Lay’s. While the end of H2 FY 2016-17 growths was impacted on account of some macro head winds, business momentum has been recovering over the last 3 quarters. Sales were also impacted during last two quarters of 2017 financial year due to demonetisation, where people were forced to use things other than cash".

Growth has slowed in the Rs 22,000-crore carbonated soft drinks market as consumers switch to healthier beverages such as juices, energy drinks, flavoured tea, fortified water and dairy-based beverages. Both PepsiCo and rival Coca-Cola have been hedging risks by reducing dependence on core soft drinks and introducing either sugar-free drinks or non-aerated beverages.

Pepsi lowered its investments on commoditised, low margin segments including low juice content segment. PepsiCo's recent launches include 7Up with natural sweetener stevia, Pepsi Black with zero sugar, hydration drink Revive and several local and international flavours in juices.

Coca-Cola India said that it intends to make its cola brand, Thums Up, the first home-grown billion dollar beverage brand in the next 2 years. Company also launched the first ever variant of Thums Up, Thums Up Charged, which the company claims is much more stronger than the previous version.

Company and its bottlers will invest suitably in launching new packs, expanding distribution and augmenting manufacturing capacity to increase the sales of Thums Up by 2020.

Coca-Cola India had earlier last year said that it aims to more than double retail sales of its mango beverages brand Maaza to one billion dollar by 2023, as part of its strategy to widen fruit based business.

Vijay Parasuraman, vice president marketing, Coca-Cola India & South West Asia said “We thought that Maaza will be the first home-grown brand from from Coca- Cola India's stable to attain one billion dollar sales mark but when we assesed the growth of Thums Up, we realised that it can reach one billion dollar in revenue even before Maaza”.

According to data by research firm Nielsen, Thums Up, which Coca-Cola had acquired from Ramesh Chauhan’s Parle in 1993, is the country’s leading cola brand, ahead of Coca-Cola and rival Pepsi.

Coca-Cola, the world’s largest beverage company, has not been able to crack a section of the Indian market even with brands such as Sprite, Maaza and Thums Up.

John Murphy, President of the Asia Pacific Group of Coca-Cola, said “India is “a different story,” referring to a market of almost 300 million people in the bottom half of the pyramid in India that is yet to take to the global soft drink brands. We have tried so many times in my time in the Coca-Cola system to crack the code there and we haven’t done it. We have got a team of pretty smart people who want to have the legacy to be the first to do so. India is the US giant’s sixth largest market and Coca-Cola is the country’s leading beverage maker. In India we have leader brands, but we have an industry that is very underdeveloped. Sprite, Maaza and Thums Up have tremendous equity in India and the company’s job is to leverage those brands to help grow the industry. We’re excited with the work we have under way to do that. In addition, we have a couple of other categories that we believe have tremendous room for growth as we go forward and the good news is there are not too many there yet who have cracked the code on leadership in those categories. Beverage landscape in Asia-Pacific is very different today than you have seen in other parts of the world. Seven out of every 10 beverages consumed in Asia-Pacific are non-commercial.

Sales growth for soft drinks in India has tapered as urban consumers opt for low-sugar beverages and rural buyers cut discretionary spending. Smaller regional brands that are cheaper are getting popular, hurting the prospects of global beverage companies including Coca-Cola and PepsiCo.

While addressing at conference Murphy also said “Home rituals are important, hence the prevalence of self-home beauty, homemade juices. They love a lot of stuff, sweet, unsweet, hot, cold, gooey, un-gooey — you name it. They are very trend conscious increasingly in today’s environment and those trends are influencing the repertoire of beverages that they are trying and they love to try”.

Mentioning the launch of Mosambi juice under its Minute Maid franchise, Murphy said “marrying a local desired fruit to a global brand creates value. The move to localise to the last mile with ethnic flavours and leveraging local fruit-based beverages is aimed at fighting back the onslaught of regional brands”.

Coca Cola India and the Ministry of Food Processing Industries, Government of India, has today signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) where the cola giant along with its bottling partners and its fruit suppliers and processors in India, will contribute more than $1.7 billion in the agri ecosystem of the country over the next 5 years, spanning the entire supply chain from grove to glass through a concept called the Fruit Circular Economy.
Close to $800 million of $1.7 billion contribution would be towards the procurement of processed fruit pulp and fruit concentrate and the remaining would be invested in creating the required infrastructure. Through these initiatives an estimated 2 lakh farmers will benefit from this 5 year roadmap, the company said in a statement.

T. Krishnakumar, president, Coca-Cola India and south west Asia said “Coca-Cola is on a transformational journey towards becoming a total beverages company by enhancing its offerings to the world. Coca-Cola India’s relentless efforts around the Virtuous Fruit Circular Economy, an initiative of using a variety of Indian fruits, are on its way to give better business results. Our linkages with the Indian agri-economy continue to grow strong and we continue to expand our product portfolio by utilizing locally grown fruits to create new flavours under the ‘Fruits of India’ initiative. our entry into the beverage plus category is a part of our portfolio expansion strategy with Minute Maid Perfect Fruit being the first milestone in this transformational journey. We believe that our efforts will help catalyze the country’s fruit processing industry by creating demand through new products and investments, ultimately generating new opportunities for farmers, local suppliers and retailers”.

Company proposes to use fruit products in four ways. First, entails enhancing the portfolio of juices with fruits that are grown in various regions of India and marketing the fruits in a processed juice format under brand Minute Maid. Second, adding juice to the sparkling products. Third, creating innovative new products with Indian fruits and lastly, increasing the share of Indian agri exports to the global Coca-Cola systems that currently stands at $240 million.

Soft drink major, Coca-Cola is set to launch a new category of aerated drinks in a bid to compete with the growing demand and popularity of local brands. The upcoming range of aerated drinks will be 35-40% cheaper than Coke, Sprite, and Fanta. Named as Kinley Flavors, the range of drinks will be launched in popular localized flavors such as lemon, jeera, and orange.

According to media reports, there are more than 200 beverage companies spread in local areas which offer half the prices as that charged by MNCs. Combined together, they own a consolidated share of over 12% of the Rs 22000-crore packaged aerated drinks category.

With Kinley Flavors, the company plans to target at the bottom segment of the market to compete with these local players.The beverages will be among the cheapest for Coca-Cola across markets. The new launch will be available in 250ml PET packs at attractive price points. The company is doing pilots in selected market areas and will be going to expand over time.

"Coca-Cola has developed a new value-based proposition for price-conscious consumers in aerated beverages", a Coca-Cola spokesperson told ET.

Besides, Coca-Cola is also expected to launch the Monster Energy drink over the next few weeks. Monster Beverage Corp. is an independent firm which has had a long-term strategic partnership with Coca-Cola to boost growth in the global energy drinks category since 2014.

With the implementation of the goods and services tax (GST) starting July 1, Coca-Cola prices of its aerated beverages will increase while those of packaged drinking water brand Kinley will drop. Aerated beverages have been taxed at an effective rate of 40%, due to which there will be a marginal increase in prices of its existing soft drinks range.

Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, world’s two biggest cola brands are facing challenges over water security in Southern India.

After Tamil Nadu boycotted Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo Inc. beverages, shopkeepers in drought-hit Kerala state, decided to promote local brands over the multinational drinks.

Retail groups have claimed that the soft drinks firms take too much water from rivers and selling products adulterated with pesticides. However, academics and analysts say these firms have become scapegoats for a water crisis that’s become mired in politics and patriotism.

Drinks from Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, having a 96 percent hold on India’s $4.9 billion soda market will be kept off the shelves of more than 1 million shops after the ban.

India is one of the most water-challenged nations, and fights over water have erupted between users periodically for decades. Failed monsoon rains over as many as the past three years in some states have parched rivers and dams, forcing farmers, manufacturers and municipal water suppliers to rely more on wells to meet their needs. Problem is, those too are drying up, and that’s hurting farmers, India’s economic mainstay.

P.L. Beena, an associate professor with the Centre for Development Studies in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala said, "The root cause for the boycott isn't the multinational companies, but the enduring fight between industrial users and farmers, especially in several drought-hit states."

Beena further added, "On top of that, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call to companies to 'make in India' has given rise to a pro-India push and, in some cases, an anti-foreigner backlash -- that's supporting local brands. With Modi at the center, many activist groups and political parties are taking their agenda to the street more strongly than they have in the past instances."

Coca-Cola has created a new function called Franchise Capability and Business Transformation, in order to sell its products online. This is aimed at beefing up supply chain, technology and processes at its franchise bottlers to make them future ready for digital selling.

Sameer Wadhawan, currently VP, human resources at Coca-Cola India, will spearhead the function. Manu Narang Wadhwa, who joins the Coca-Cola from American Express, will take over Wadhawan's role. This will make her the first female HR head at Coca-Cola India in around 15 years.

At present, Coca-Cola operates 65 company-owned bottling plants and 35 plants that are franchisee-owned. Wadhawan, who has led the Human Resources and Shared Service function at Coca-Cola India for over six years, has had a hand in the company's retailer capability development initiatives, including Parivartan programme by Coca-Cola University.

In his new role, effective January 2017, Wadhawan will work closely with Coca-Cola's franchise bottling partners in India and South West Asia (SWA) region to build their people capability.

Coca-Cola India runs a website — Coke2Home, which delivers its products to around 15 locations across the country. As reflected by operations of online marketplaces, doorstep delivery of FMCG products has proven to be a logistical nightmare.

Increasingly, FMCG players, including Coke and PepsiCo, have been trying to gain foothold in the online space in the country. Although India and SWA business of Coca-Cola aspires to be the fifth largest market for the company globally, Coca-Cola's growth plans in India have hit a bottleneck as sales of its beverages in the third quarter (July-September) have been dragged down by rising health concerns over sugary drinks and wary consumer spending. The maker of drinks such as Thums Up, Sprite, Maaza and Minute Maid, said its sales volume in India declined by 4 percent in Q3. In the same period last year, its sales in India grew by 4 percent.

Coca-Cola University has now taken the pledge of imparting technical skill and knowledge to 3.5 lakh people by December 2017. The varsity, known for running various skill development programmes for traditional trade (kirana store) retailers, is aiming to educate the people in grocery and convenience store retailing and food services.

As per the curriculum drafted by CCU, the training programme will going to be a blend of classroom training and CCU bus called 'Coca-Cola University on Wheels'. Though the university has been involved in training kirana retailers under its programme called 'Parivartan' from past eight years, it has recently added a module on quality and food services.

The training module has been designed by CCU based on two key insights lack of hygiene and the importance of good customer service. CCU certified trainers will conduct three hourlong trainings through presentations, live-examples as well as through videos, in regional languages.

The module will highlight the challenges faced by the owners and employers running small dhabas and other small food service outlets and will also train them on how to cope-up with these hurdles. According to the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) projections, the unorganized segment within the food services industry is expected to be a US $45 billion market by 2021. This segment is expected to provide direct employment to 50 per cent of the projected workforce of 8.7 million people by 2021.

Sameer Wadhawan, VP, HR and services, Coca-Cola India and South West Asia said that other than through Parivartan, varsity is also partners in programmes that are training people with disabilities, in programmes that are training farmers in sustainable and efficient agriculture practices etc. CCU shares India's urgency on skill training and want to do more than its fair share towards this goal. 

Bengal Beverages, the bottling franchisee of Coca Cola India in West Bengal has registered a 20 percent growth in 2014.

Speaking on the growth, S R Goenka, CMD, Bengal Beverages, said, "We have registered a growth of 20 percent in 2014. And we had healthy growth of double digit last year.”

The company invested about Rs 300 crore in the last 4-5 years to modernise and expand capacity.