Coca-Cola’s India unit has “underperformed expectations in volume terms” in the July-September quarter because of inclement weather, but overall has “huge potential”, the company’s chairman and global chief executive James Quincey said on its earnings call late Tuesday. “India because of the monsoon, China because of some of the economic pressures - some markets underperformed our expectations in volume terms,” he said.
Severe and consistent rains this year had severely impacted sales of summer-focused categories such as soft drinks and ACs in the crucial April-June and July-September quarters.
“In Asia-Pacific, volume declined across each of the operating units, driven by softer consumer spending, weaker industry performance, and inclement weather in a few markets like India and the Philippines,” Quincey said.
India is the Atlanta-based beverage maker’s fifth largest market by volume sales.
“We pulled out a little bit of softness in the opening part of Q3 … Mexico and a number of parts of Asia, India, China, and some of the ASEAN countries. Clearly, we got a bit better in September, some sequential improvement,” he said.
Earlier this month, rival PepsiCo's global chairman and chief executive Ramon Laguarta too had in its post-earnings call: “Growth in India has been slowed due to weather and the competitive situation in the country’s beverage sector, which will impact growth for a couple quarters, but it is coming back.”
Coca-Cola also said in its management commentary that it reached “another milestone in its refranchising process in India”, having sold 40% stake in its bottling company Hindustan Coca-Cola Holding (HCCB), to Jubilant Bhartia Group.
Quincey said the Jubilant Bhartia deal in India was among “the last two large pieces setting us on the path to completing the refranchising strategy that we started in 2015.”
The beverage maker said in its regulatory announcement that in the nine months ended September 26, 2025, it “recognized a net gain of $102 million and incurred $7 million of transaction costs”, which it said was on account of refranchising of its bottling operations in certain territories in India.
Noting diverse markets within Asia-Pacific, Quincey said "India at one end has huge, huge potential for growth in volume over many, many years, but much lower prices all the way through China, and then the other end of the spectrum, you get to Australia and Japan, which have been growing but have much higher real-life prices given the developed economy.”
The maker of Coke and Sprite soft drinks and Minute Maid juice reported global quarterly earnings and revenue higher than street expectations, but noted that demand for drinks “is still soft but improving.”
The company’s unit case volume rose 1%, while global net sales increased 5% to $12.46 billion.
Severe and consistent rains this year had severely impacted sales of summer-focused categories such as soft drinks and ACs in the crucial April-June and July-September quarters.
“In Asia-Pacific, volume declined across each of the operating units, driven by softer consumer spending, weaker industry performance, and inclement weather in a few markets like India and the Philippines,” Quincey said.
India is the Atlanta-based beverage maker’s fifth largest market by volume sales.
“We pulled out a little bit of softness in the opening part of Q3 … Mexico and a number of parts of Asia, India, China, and some of the ASEAN countries. Clearly, we got a bit better in September, some sequential improvement,” he said.
Earlier this month, rival PepsiCo's global chairman and chief executive Ramon Laguarta too had in its post-earnings call: “Growth in India has been slowed due to weather and the competitive situation in the country’s beverage sector, which will impact growth for a couple quarters, but it is coming back.”
Coca-Cola also said in its management commentary that it reached “another milestone in its refranchising process in India”, having sold 40% stake in its bottling company Hindustan Coca-Cola Holding (HCCB), to Jubilant Bhartia Group.
Quincey said the Jubilant Bhartia deal in India was among “the last two large pieces setting us on the path to completing the refranchising strategy that we started in 2015.”
The beverage maker said in its regulatory announcement that in the nine months ended September 26, 2025, it “recognized a net gain of $102 million and incurred $7 million of transaction costs”, which it said was on account of refranchising of its bottling operations in certain territories in India.
Noting diverse markets within Asia-Pacific, Quincey said "India at one end has huge, huge potential for growth in volume over many, many years, but much lower prices all the way through China, and then the other end of the spectrum, you get to Australia and Japan, which have been growing but have much higher real-life prices given the developed economy.”
The maker of Coke and Sprite soft drinks and Minute Maid juice reported global quarterly earnings and revenue higher than street expectations, but noted that demand for drinks “is still soft but improving.”
The company’s unit case volume rose 1%, while global net sales increased 5% to $12.46 billion.
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