NEW DELHI, 12 FEB

Maaza, a desi mango fruit-based drink owned by Coca-Cola, has touched the milestone of becoming a billion-dollar brand in 2024, its Chairman and CEO James Quincey has said.

It has now become the "30th billion-dollar brand" from the stable of the global beverage major, Quincey said during the company's post-earning calls on Tuesday.

In the Indian market, Coca-Cola's business "rebounded nicely during the quarter, and we grew volume", he said.

Before Maaza, ThumsUp had in 2021 achieved the feat of becoming the first billion-dollar desi brand for Coca-Cola.

The Coca-Cola Company in 1993 acquired both Maaza and Thums Up from Ramesh Chauhan of Parle Bisleri when the Atlanta-headquartered company re-entered the Indian market.

Coca-Cola had then bought the entire portfolio of aerated drinks from the Chauhan brothers, which also included Gold Spot and Limca. Maaza was launched in 1976 in India and is sold locally.

A year after that in 2022, Coca-Cola's lemon and lime-flavoured soft drink Sprite became a billion-dollar brand in the Indian market. This was a brand introduced by Coca-Cola to the Indian markets.

With the latest addition of Maaza, now Coca-Cola has three brands in the Indian market having over a billion dollars in sales.

The cola major in the Indian market "recruited consumers with innovative marketing campaigns that linked Coca-Cola with music, Sprite with travel and Thums Up with movies," said Quincey.

India is the fifth largest market for the Coca-Cola Company globally.

Moreover, "in 2024 our system added approximately 440,000 outlets by digital customer platforms in India, which provides more opportunities to better tailor our product, price, and packaging offerings," he said.

In 2024, Coca-Cola’s global "unit case volume grew 1 per cent, led by Brazil, India and Mexico” and 2 per cent for the December Quarter.

For the quarter, Coca-Cola's net revenues increased 6 per cent to USD 11.5 billion and for the full year, its net revenues grew 3 per cent to USD 47.1 billion.

Moreover, Coca-Cola which franchised its bottling operations in some of the markets in India to its existing partners in early 2024 informed about gains in the earnings statement.

"During the three months and year ended 31 December, 2024, the company recorded net gains of USD 13 million and USD 303 million, respectively, related to the refranchising of our bottling operations in certain territories in India, including the impact of post-closing adjustments," said Coca-Cola.

In the year ended December 2024, the company incurred USD 7 million in transaction costs related to the refranchising of bottling operations in certain territories in India.