Pepsi lines up to boost beverage sales

New Delhi: Pepsi Co has put together a research and development operation to drive several of its initiatives, including new packaging, flavours, and drinks.

"We have a robust set of plans for our beverage brands and the investment is significant," PepsiCo India's Executive Director for Marketing, Ms Punita Lal said.

Besides the carbonated soft drink (CSD) category, PepsiCo is focusing on its evolving portfolio of juices, water, and sports drinks such as Gatorade, Ms Lal said. The Rs 7,000-crore CSD market in India is largely split between PepsiCo and Coca-Cola.

Analysts said that both the cola giants will soon launch more fruit-based and health drinks to cater to customers who are increasingly moving away from carbonated drinks.

Analysts said that while the non-carbonated drinks in India are growing at 30-35 per cent, the carbonated drinks are growing at four per cent.

For PepsiCo, the biggest challenge is to grow its in-home consumption, which is lagging the out-of-home consumption.

"The total in-home versus out-of-home sales ratio is 20:80. To grow the category, we clearly will need to build the category around occasions in home that are best associated with consuming soft drinks," Ms Lal said.

New flavours

She added that the company plans to roll out new flavours and now has an R&D set-up in place for this purpose. PepsiCo's brands such as 7up, Leher Slice, and Mountain Dew, have been relaunched and television commercials have been put in place for these launches.

According to Lal, Pepsi Company's research indicates that watching television is a popular leisure and entertainment option in home.

Therefore, it recently launched a promotion called Pepsi TV, which has been built around 'involvement' and 'enjoyment' and reiterates PepsiCo's "core values of irreverence and fun."

PepsiCo is also rolling out campaigns around the cricket theme. "As cricket is one of the three important pillars for PepsiCo, the upcoming months will see significant activations of Pepsi with cricket."

Pepsi co has 39 bottling plants in India, of which 17 are company-owned and the rest franchisee-owned.