Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages to become a total beverage company

Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt. Ltd (HCCB) – one of India’s top 10 FMCG companies – will manufacture products in every beverage category that has consumer relevance. While HCCB has traditionally been focusing on the sparkling (carbonated beverages) and juices, it is now investing on infrastructure that can produce flavoured milk products, mineral fortified hydration products, fruit based products and traditional Indian drinks like Jalzeera flavoured Rimzhim.
Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages is already the largest manufacturer of juice drinks which it distributes in more than 1 million retail outlets through a network of 4,000 company appointed distributors. Minute Maid range of juice drinks available in several variants and mango juice drink Maaza, are the company’s key products. The company has recently started manufacturing Minute Maid Mosambi juice drink, which is being sold in Maharashtra.
Christina Ruggiero, the newly appointed CEO of Hindustan Coca-Cola and T. Krishnakumar, the erstwhile CEO of the company outlined the company’s strategy in Bengaluru. HCCB has recently relocated its corporate headquarters to Bengaluru to better focus on its south India business. An estimated 40 per cent of the company’s volume comes from the four southern Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. The company already employs over 8,000 people directly and operates 19 factories. Three of these factories are in Karnataka.
Speaking at the meeting, Krishnakumar outlined, “HCCB is one of largest institutional buyers of agricultural produce and fruit pulp – worth more than Rs 2,000 crore – benefitting 250,000 farmers. In the next 5 years, Hindustan Coca-Cola along with the 13 other franchise bottlers of The Coca-Cola Company in India plan to spend Rs 5,200 crore towards the procurement of processed fruit pulp and fruit concentrate. This will have a direct positive impact on more than 500,000 farmers”.
Christina Ruggiero said, “My focus going forward is to build HCCB into a ‘total beverage company’ that has a play in all beverage categories of relevance. This also involves building the HCCB brand which involves more public outreach and communication with stakeholders.”