Scorching summer-proof April, pleasant weather in May and rainy June in India has impacted the sales growth of major soft drinks makers– Coca Cola and PepsiCo. According to reports and official statement from major beverage maker – Coca Cola, rains and cool weather during peak summer season this year resulted in shrinking demand for fizzy drinks, bringing down the sales growth for the quarter ending on June.
While top beverages maker Coca-Cola's volume sales growth dropped to single digits in peak summer season of April-June, rival PepsiCo too is learnt to have posted single digit volumes growth.
According to the data available with Skymet, the country observed 61.1 mm of rain against the monthly average of 30.9 mm in March, which is 98% surplus. While April recorded 66.1 mm of rain against the normal of 36.5 mm. May too remained relatively cooler and third week of May recorded rainfall in excess of 32%. After the delayed onset over Kerala, Southwest Monsoon too picked pace and gave sufficient rainfall over entire country as rainfall for June ended with a surplus of 16%.
Due to relatively cooler weather and low day temperatures, summer in India was less inflicting in comparison to previous years. The pleasant weather during peak summer period of April-June, coupled with less consumption and marginal price hike and hike in excise duty led to decline in sales growth for major beverage makers.
April-June is the peak season for soft drinks industry in the country, contributing about 40% of annual sales estimated at over Rs 14,000 crore.
Unseasonal rains during April, good pre-Monsoon showers during May and heavy Monsoon rain in June over major northern markets, including Punjab, Haryana, Delhi-NCR and Uttar Pradesh hampered the growth of fizzy drinks, which contribute close to half of national soft drink sales.
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