Introduction
Soft drink market size for FY00 was around 270 m.n cases (6480mn
bottles). The market witnessed 5- 6% growth in the early‘90s.
Presently the market growth has growth rate of 7- 8% per annum compared
to 22% growth rate in the previous year. The market size for FY01 is
expected to be 7000 mn bottles.
Soft Drink Production area
The market preference is highly regional based. While cola drinks have
main markets in metro cities and northern states of UP, Punjab, Haryana
etc. Orange flavored drinks are popular in southern states. Sodas too
are sold largely in southern states besides sale through bars. Western
markets have preference towards mango flavored drinks. Diet coke
presently constitutes just 0.7% of the total carbonated beverage market.
Growth promotional activities
The government has adopted liberalized policies for the soft drink
trade to give the industry a boast and promote the Indian brands
internationally. Although the import and manufacture of international
brands like Pepsi and Coke is enhanced in India the local brands are
being stabilized by advertisements, good quality and low cost.
The soft drinks market till early 1990s was in hands of domestic
players like campa, thumps up, Limca etc but with opening up of economy
and coming of MNC players Pepsi and Coke the market has come totally
under their control.
The distribution network of Coca cola had6.5 lakh outlets across the
country in FY00, which the company is planning to increase to 8 lakhs by
FY01. On the other hand Pepsi Co's distribution network had 6 lakh
outlets across the country during FY00 which it is planning to increase
to 7.5 Lakh by FY01.
Types
Soft drinks are available in glass bottles, aluminum cans and PET
bottles for home consumption. Fountains also dispense them in disposable
containers Non-alcoholic soft drink beverage market can be divided into
fruit drinks and soft drinks. Soft drinks can be further divided into
carbonated and non-carbonated drinks. Cola, lemon and oranges are
carbonated drinks while mango drinks come under non carbonated category.
The market can also be segmented on the basis of types of products into
cola products and non-cola products. Cola products account for nearly
61-62% of the total soft drinks market. The brands that fall in this
category are Pepsi, Coca- Cola, Thumps Up, diet coke, Diet Pepsi etc.
Non-cola segment which constitutes 36% can be divided into 4 categories
based on the types of flavors available, namely: Orange, Cloudy Lime,
Clear Lime and Mango.
