India long-term contributor to Coca-Cola's growth: CEO James Quincey

Coca-Cola has told investors that India will continue to drive long-term volume growth, as it ramps up investments in digital platforms, AI-led tools and market expansion

Coca-Cola told investors in a conference call following its October–December earnings that India is a long-term contributor to its volume growth.

 

“India is a long-term contributor to volume growth. So, that needs to build back and we would expect that to ramp up during the year,” James Quincey, chairman and chief executive officer of The Coca-Cola Company, told investors in the post-earnings call.

 

Henrique Braun, executive vice president and chief operating officer (incoming chief executive officer) at the Atlanta-based beverage major, also told investors on the conference call that the company has been investing with its partners ahead of the curve. “We will continue to invest because this is a market for the future. We are still building the industry there and that is why we need to continue to invest ahead of the curve because, really, in these markets you can actually continue to push forward,” he said.

 

He also said digital continues to be an opportunity in India because the country’s infrastructure is very strong and has been accelerating across the country over the last few years.

 

“We have also invested behind it (digital), with a lot of focus not only on engaging with the consumer through data, tech and AI, but also from a customer point of view, developing a platform that we call Coke Buddy, which connects the bottler to customers through a digital platform that has been growing from day one. We still have one-fourth of the entire outlet base that we can reach in India. But we think that we are already deploying digital ordering on AI, using AI to determine the next best SKU (stock-keeping unit),” he said.

 

He said the next phase of growth would be an end-to-end digital platform that would connect not only consumers and customers, but also experiences, translating that engagement into transactions.

 

“So, India, for those reasons, is a market that in that space is going to continue to be ahead of the pack as well,” he added.