Coca Cola looks to boost Georgia market share, moves business to bottling division

Coca-Cola India Pvt Ltd has moved the Georgia Tea and Coffee business to its bottling division Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt Ltd (HCCB). Under this, the manufacturing and distribution of Georgia will now be handled across the country by HCCB, the company announced on Wednesday.
Georgia is the tea and coffee offering from The Coca-Cola Company. “With this move, HCCB will expand its product portfolio and now offer both hot and cold products to end consumers,” said the company in a statement.
The Georgia business will be led by S Giri Sunder, vice president, commercial beverages, Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages. In this role, Sunder will work towards leveraging HCCB’s sales and distribution reach to increase the market-share of Georgia.
Currently, the Georgia pre-mix is manufactured at Hershey India plant located in Bhopal which is the co-packer facility of HCCB.
“Our objective is to expand Georgia’s reach by leveraging our distribution network. We are excited about the potential of this product offering and are confident that it will accelerate the company’s growth,” said T Krishna Kumar, CEO, Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages and regional director, Bottling Investment Group.
Georgia offers a range of premium hot and cold beverages including fresh brew coffee, hot premix flavoured tea and coffee, iced tea and cold coffee through its owned vending machines. The company has already installed close to 5,000 coffee and tea vending machines across the country. McDonald’s is one of Georgia’s largest customers in India followed by multiplexes as well as corporate offices.
As a brand, Georgia operates in the pre-mix hot/cold tea and coffee vending machine category which is currently pegged at Rs 1,000 crore. Hindustan Unilever’s (HUL) brand Lipton is leading the category, followed by Nestle India with its brands Nescafe and Nestea. Georgia is the third-largest player in the segment. Besides Lipton, HUL installs vending machines under popular coffee brand Bru.
With the transition of Georgia to HCCB, the company claims to have evolved into a ‘one stop beverage solutions provider’ offering the entire range of flavours in tea and coffee categories to end consumers.