Soft drinks major Coca-Cola India will try to reach 40,000 villages this year as part of its strategy to penetrate rural market that is characterised by low per capita consumption of carbonated soft drinks, vice president Sunil Gupta said in Kolkata.
The company, which had invested $100 million in India in 2003, has decided to invest another $70 million this year on brand development and market penetration in India and is confident of maintaining last year's growth of 22 per cent in sales, he said.
Asked about future investment plans, he said the company had so far invested $1 billion in India and future investment plans would be disclosed in due course.
He said Coca-Cola had exported green coffee worth $200 million from India last year apart from exporting their newly launched 'Sunfil' brand to eight countries of Africa.
"Nationwide the company plans to hike its market share by reaching out to 40,000 villages this year from the current 170,000 and this would basically be driven by three 'A's - affordability, availability and acceptability and three 'P's - product innovation, price points and packaging," Gupta told reporters.
He said 5,000 "outlets" would be opened in West Bengal alone, which contributed about five per cent in company's total turnover of $900 million (Rs 4000 crore) in 2003.
Gupta said the per capita consumption of carbonated soft drinks in rural areas of the country was 2.3 (2.3 servings of 237 ml in a year) in 2002, which improved to 3.0 in 2003 and was further expected to grow to 3.5 this year.
"In urban areas, we had started with per capita consumption of 7.5, which increased to 10.0 in 2003 and this year we want to drive per capita to 15," Gupta said.
To a query, he said per capita consumption of carbonated soft drinks in West Bengal was only 3.0 right now and is expected to grow to 5.0 this year. "The state accounts for 35 per cent of our total sale of PET bottles in the country."
"There is immense prospect of growth in per capita consumption of CSD in India as it is one of the lowest in the world at 10.0, even lower than Bangladesh and Pakistan, which had much lower GDP. Mexico's per capita CSD consumption is the highest at 480 while world average is 112 and Asia average is 32," he said.
To another query, Gupta said Andhra Pradesh was contributing 22 per cent in company's total sales followed by north and south India.
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