Soaring summer temperatures and focus on single serve packs helped beverage major Coca-Cola witness strong volume growth in India in the second quarter despite inflationary pressures. The company, which released its global earnings for the three months ended July 1, said growth in developing and emerging markets was led by India and Brazil.

‘Gained shares’

In an earnings call, James Quincey, Chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company, said, “In India, we delivered our best-ever quarter volumetrically, delivering 1 billion incremental transactions in the quarter led by affordable single serve packs. We gained shares in sparkling soft drinks and juices and our system is continuing to invest in the marketplace availability and execution to capture growth.”

The beverage major added that its sharpened its focus on availability of affordable entry packs with steps such as the relaunch of returnable glass bottles in the country. “In India, we focused on segmented pricing, increasing prices on multi-serves and premium packs while holding transaction driving price points on singles serves and the affordable portfolio,” added Quincey.

Sparkling drinks

In its global earnings release, Coca-Cola said overall sparkling soft drinks grew 8 per cent, driven by growth across all geographic operating segments, primarily led by India, Mexico and Brazil. “Nutrition, juice, dairy and plant-based beverages grew 6 per cent, led by Maaza in India, Del Valle in Latin America and fairlife in the United States,” it added.

It added that unit case volume grew by 11 per cent in the Asia- Pacific region driven by strong growth in India and the Philippines.

Talking about the performance of its bottling investments group (its company-owned bottling plants), the beverage major added that unit case volume grew 26 per cent, driven by growth in all markets, led by India and the Philippines in the second quarter.

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