Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Wednesday, Dec 17, 2003
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Wednesday, Dec 17, 2003 |
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Corporate
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New Projects Coca-Cola bottler plans Rs 12-cr expansion Ratna Bhushan
New Delhi , Dec. 16 BRINDAVAN Agro Industries, among Coca-Cola India's biggest bottlers - has put in place a Rs 12-crore capacity expansion exercise in anticipation of better sales next summer. This comes even as the final verdict by the Joint Parliamentary Committee probing the issue of pesticide content in soft drinks is still some months away. The pesticide issue, coupled with the Kerala sludge controversy, had resulted in sales dipping by 11 per cent in the third quarter of the current calendar year. Brindavan Agro's fresh investments for expansion at its existing plant in Hathras, UP, will go towards glass procurement and new production lines. "The decision to expand capacity is led by market demand. The price war kicked off by both Coke and Pepsi had led to production shortage at the beginning of the peak summer season earlier this year," said sources in the bottling industry. They added that this is the second expansion undertaken by Brindavan Agro in the past one decade. The plant was set up in 1993, and undertook its first large-scale investment - of Rs 8 crore - last year for adding new production lines for PET bottling. The sources claim that the soft drink major is tightening testing facilities for ground water at all its existing and fresh production lines. According to industry estimates, all Coca-Cola brands put together have a 55 per cent share of the UP market, estimated at about 30 million cases. However, this market remains small in terms of per capita consumption, compared to States such as Andhra Pradesh. Brindavan Agro is owned by the Rs 500-crore Ladhani group, which has three other bottling plants for Coca-Cola in UP.
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