Coca-Cola’s India value market share slips in June quarter

The Coca-Cola Co. said it lost value market share in India’s non-alcoholic ready-to-drink (NARTD) beverages segment during the April-June quarter, as investments and affordability initiatives weighed on its performance.

“The company lost value share in total NARTD beverages (in Asia Pacific), as gains in Japan and China were more than offset by a loss in India,” the company said in its June-quarter earnings statement released on 28 July.

The management said that three factors contributed to this- investment timing, affordability initiatives and geographical mix.

“One was investment timing, one-third of it. Another third was of the affordability initiatives that are important for us to bring the consumers to the base in the right way,” said Henrique Braun, chief executive officer of The Coca-Cola Company, in the post-earnings analyst meet.

Coca-Cola had introduced low-priced variants of its products as the Indian market faced stiff competition from Reliance’s Campa Cola.

Coca-Cola said it is investing ahead of the curve in cold-drink equipment and the right capabilities to gain more consumer engagement in India.

“The other third is just the geo mix, because when you have India and China outgrowing, for instance, other developed markets like Australia and Japan and Korea, then you have that geo mix impact on that,” he added.

The company’s unit case volume grew 5%, led by India, China, the US and Brazil in the quarter.

In the quarter, the company reported net revenues up 7% to $13.4 billion in the June quarter. The company reported volume growth in many markets in Europe due to extreme summer. The company also benefitted from the American markets as it sponsored the FIFA World Cup and the demand from America’s 250th anniversary celebrations.

India competition
Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd reintroduced Campa Cola in March 2023 to compete with Coca-Cola and PepsiCo in the soft drinks market in India. Campa achieved over ₹4,700 crore in gross sales during FY26.

The Indian soft drinks market is estimated to be about ₹60,000 crore.

Varun Beverages, the Pepsico India bottler reported consolidated revenue from operations of ₹8,650.6 crore for the April-June quarter, up 20.8% from a year earlier but below the Bloomberg consensus estimate of ₹8,675.9 crore.

Consolidated net profit rose 15.1% to ₹1,525.4 crore, also missing the Bloomberg consensus estimate of ₹1,533.6 crore.

“The 10 rupee is a non-profitable category for us,” Ravi Jaipuria chairman of Varun Beverages said during the company’s post-earnings conference call. “As long as we are delivering 20% plus growth in most of our markets, we are pretty happy with that growth.”