Coca-Cola sees India volumes drained in peak summer due to early rain, India-Pakistan conflict
'In India, after a strong start to the year, volumes declined as our business was impacted by early monsoons and geopolitical conflict early in the important summer season," James Quincey, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) said during the company's earnings call on Tuesday.
The company said it has moved to mitigate the issue. "We're engaging consumers with integrated marketing campaigns like Coca-Cola Meals supported by execution in the quick service restaurant channel—Thums Up with biryani, Sprite with spicy meals and Maaza with festivals and tailoring these activations to regional and local needs. Also, our system is adding customer outlets and recently surpassed 1 million customers on its digital ordering platforms,' the CEO said.
The US-headquartered beverage company does not disclose country-specific volume growth.
Overall, unit case volumes for the quarter declined by 1%. Growth in Central Asia, Argentina, and China was offset by declines in Mexico, India, and Thailand, the company said in its earnings announcement on Tuesday.
Overall, net revenues during the period grew 1% to $12.5 billion.
The company is stepping up its marketing campaigns in India to boost volumes in the market. Coca-Cola sells brands such as Coca-Cola, Thums Up, Sprite, Fanta and Minute Maid in India.
It is currently facing competition from homegrown Reliance Industries Ltd, which has relaunched a dated cola brand Campa Cola with significant vigor and lower pricing. It also competes with rival PepsiCo in India.
'In the case of India, it is never going to be a straight line, and indeed, Q2 was not. We're very bullish on India overall. Q2 did decline as I said due to the conflict and the monsoon, but we have a lot of marketing campaigns focused on India," the CEO added.
Late last year, the Jubilant Bhartia Group, which operates India's largest food services business, acquired a 40% stake in Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt. Ltd (HCCB), Coca-Cola's largest bottler in India.
HCCB operates 13 factories, serving 236 districts across 12 states in India's south and west.
The company also partners with 11 large bottlers across India aside from owned operations.
Earlier this month, HCCB announced the appointment of Hemant Rupani as its new chief executive officer, effective 8 September 2025.
Quincey said the move is expected to energize the business.
'We have also just set up the first kind of re-franchising piece with the Jubilant Group for the company-owned bottling (operations) that we have in the bottom half of India. That's up and running with a new CEO. We think that will bring some new energy, focus and proactivity to the execution in the marketplace. We think we've got a strong plan from a marketing and innovation point of view...with some re-energized focus on this transition bottler, we're pretty confident on where we'll go in India,' he added.
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