PepsiCo clocking rapid sales

Having increased its sales at double the pace of the soft drinks market leader in the first half of the year, PepsiCo is soon stealing away the show from its arch rival Coca Cola. In the Rs 11,000-crore soft drinks market, where volume growth is significantly lower than two years back in any case, PepsiCo reported 17% volume growth during April-June while Coca-Cola grew 8%. This is the biggest gap in growth between the two cola rivals in the past three-four years when they were growing neck-to-neck.

"Our growths have been driven by our focus on fewer, bigger and better priorities this year," PepsiCo India CEO (Beverages) Praveen Someshwar says. PepsiCo expanded its sales force by 25% and distributed more coolers to increase its reach by 20%, raised capacities to strengthen the back-end, and backed it with aggressive marketing that included the successful 'Change the game' campaign during the Cricket World Cup in February.

 And Coca-Cola says it is taking steps to revive volume growth. "We are strengthening our occasion, brand, price, pack, channel architecture and shopper marketing programme, investing on brand activation in the festive season and expanding our presence," the company spokesman said.