Carbonated beverages that form the largest chunk of the beverages market in the country are set to report decent growth in the March quarter helped by an early summer, improved mobility and increased in-home consumption of these drinks, according to data collected by Bizom. Bizom is a retail intelligence platform that works with fast moving consumer goods companies and millions of kiranas to track sales of end goods to consumers.
“The overall January-March’21 performance for beverages is looking very positive driven by a solid build-up of carbonated drinks in kiranas which is expected to hit 9-10 per cent growth in this quarter,” said data from Bizom.
Packaged fruit and health juices have shown a contraction of 6 per cent between January and March. But this is expected to turn around quickly as there is an increase in kirana universe direct coverage in first quarter. Packaged water too is showing a turnaround in this quarter and is expected to grow in low single digits or 1.6 per cent, revealed the data. To be sure, carbonated soft drinks are the largest category within beverages in India.
The beverages category that sees strong sales during peak summer season was disrupted as India moved to a prolonged lockdown last year. In the aftermath of the restrictions, consumers took to drinking more fizzy drinks at home, while sales of bottled water and juices that rely on out-of-home consumption were impacted significantly.