Beverage major Coca-Cola on Wednesday said that volume growth in the Asia-Pacific region was driven by markets such as India and China in the third quarter. The company which released its global earnings added that fruit drink brand Maaza witnessed a “solid performance” in India during the third quarter ended October 1.

In India, out-of-home channels have been witnessing strong recovery post the second pandemic wave as mobility restrictions have been significantly eased.

On the third quarter earnings call, James Quincey, Chairman and CEO of the Coca-Cola Company said, “ In India, we participated strongly in the recovery by focusing on affordability and omni-channel growth.” He added that brands Coca-Cola and Thums Up witnessed growth due to effective market activations.

The company said its overall consolidated unit case volume grew 6 per cent in the quarter primarily led by developing and emerging markets.“Growth in developing and emerging markets was led by India, Russia and Brazil,” it added.

In terms of categories, the company said that growth of sparkling soft drinks was driven by strong performance across all geographies. Nutrition, juice, dairy and plant-based beverage category witnessed 12 per cent growth due to solid performance by Maaza in India, Minute Maid Pulpy in China besides Del Valle in Mexico, the beverage major said in its earnings release.

Talking about the performance of Asia-Pacific region, the beverage major said that unit case volume grew by 3 per cent in the third quarter and this growth was driven by India and China.

It added that during the quarter, the company-owned bottling operations witnessed a 3 per cent growth in terms of unit case volume. “Strong growth in India and South Africa was partially offset by pressure in Southeast Asia due to the impact of the pandemic,” the company’s statement added.

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

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