Beverage major Coca-Cola on Tuesday said that decline in consolidated soft drink sales volumes in the second quarter ended June 26, was led by regions such as India.

The country went into a nationwide lockdown impacting demand and trade channels in late March and has been gradually moving towards unlocking markets and sales channels since June. India is the fifth largest market for the beverage major globally.

“Soft drinks declined 12 per cent, led by a decline in India, Western Europe and the fountain business in North America due to pressure in away-from-home channels,” it said.

In an earnings call, James Quincey, chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company, said it was one of the toughest quarters for the company and pointed out that markets such as India experienced significant impact due to the strict lockdown in the second quarter.

Commenting on the performance of the Asia-Pacific region in Q2, the US-based beverage major said, “Unit case volume declined 18 per cent, primarily due to strict lockdowns in India to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The unit case volume decline was partially offset by positive performance in China.”

Unit case volume means the number of unit cases of beverages directly or indirectly sold by the company and its bottling partners

In terms of performance of its Bottling Investments Group, which represents the company-owned bottling plants, it added, “Unit case volume declined 36 per cent driven by India and South Africa due to the impact of the coronavirus.”

Impulse categories such as beverages have been severely impacted due to their heavy reliance on out-of-home consumption occasions for revenues. Last month, in an interview with BusinessLine last month, T Krishnakumar, President, Coca-Cola India and Southwest Asia, had said that “with consumers being very positive about the time spent with family, ‘at home consumption’ continues to be the key occasion for beverages. Away-from-home is already showing signs of revival and trending back over the weeks. We are also evolving our business models to the changing scenario while staying close to our bottling partners, customers and suppliers.”

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