Coca-Cola, which operates in the Indian beverages market with fizz brands like ThumsUp, Coke, Sprite and juices and water segment with brands like Minute Maid
New Delhi: Beverage major Coca-Cola is bringing global sports drinks brand BodyArmorLyte to India this summer and expects ThumsUp and Sprite to become USD 2 billion brands, its Vice President, Operations, Coca-Cola India & Southwest Asia Sundeep Bajoria said.
Coca-Cola is encouraged by “early arrivals” of summers this year and is introducing beverage brands like Honest Tea, BodyArmorLyte and Vitaminwater in the Indian market, besides expanding Coke Zero Sugar and Sprite Zero Sugar, providing a larger choice, Bajoria said.
BodyArmorLyte operates in the hydration segment and is packed with electrolytes and coconut water. Honest Tea is an organic tea brand sourced from Assam. It will also expand Vitaminwater which is currently available at selected points as airports on a pilot basis.
“We have a billion-dollar brand in the US called BodyArmorLyte, which is a coconut water dehydration salt. We are bringing that to India. We are going to expand that in both a carton line as well as in the PET bottles,” Bajoria told PTI.
Coca-Cola is also committed and continues to expand its popular billion-dollar brands – ThumsUp, Sprite and Maaza, which “are already doing very well, but still have a massive headroom and opportunity. We continue to expand on minute mate also.”
“Both ThumsUp and Sprite are going to become a 2 billion US dollar brand” for Coca-Cola in the Indian market, Bajoria said without specifying any timeline.
Coca-Cola, which operates in the Indian beverages market with fizz brands like ThumsUp, Coke, Sprite and juices and water segment with brands like Minute Maid, Maaza, Kinley etc, sees this to be another big blockbuster summer, like one it had in 2022.
“We are fortunate this year that the summer season has started early,” he said adding “We were prepared as we have invested into right amount of lines. We have the capacities we have the programs to make sure that we are getting ready for summer, and we are accelerating our programs to get them started early.”
When asked if Coca-Cola would be able to grow over the high base of 2024, a year which witnessed soaring temperatures and intense heat waves, Bajoria said: “This would be bigger, and we are better prepared with capacities, with programs to take make the most of it”.
Over reports of disruptions created by Reliance Industries-owned brand Campa Cola in the Indian beverage market, Bajoria referred to the statement by Coca-Cola’s global president and chief financial officer John Murphy and said: “We welcome competition.”
“Aggressive competition doesn’t only help expand the market, but keeps us on our toes, brings the best in us, brings out the best on what we do, in terms of agility, but also in terms of innovation,” he said adding “the industry and beverages would also get the much-needed investments which is good for the industry and our consumers.”
Coca-Cola is also investing in cooling infrastructure to push the growth in smaller markets and rural areas, which is reporting faster than the urban market from last four quarters.
Coca-Cola is also not worried about the current inflationary trends and aims to continue with consumption-led growth, he added.
“While there is inflation in our markets, we continue to make sure that we are capturing a significant part of that inflation through the price package mix and architecture, instead of taking vertical price increase, consumption would primarily drive our growth, both for volumes as well as for revenues,” he said.
Moreover, Coca-Cola also expects the recent tax relief by the government to the middle class to drive consumption
“We are positively inclined with investments and with the work that we are doing, with our retail partners and our working partners to making sure that we are here to address that increased consumption opportunities that we will generate,” said Bajoria.
